Until the 1990s, organizations typically had only one kind of computing device to offer end users: the desktop computer. In more recent years, as laptops shrank in size and smartphones emerged, there were some who believed that devices might one day converge again into a single, unified form factor.

That hasn’t happened. Instead, more device types are available today than ever, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for organizations looking to equip their employees for optimal productivity. Instead, IT and business leaders must make decisions based on their specific business goals.

Here are some of the most common objectives that come up in our conversations with IT leaders at organizations across a variety of industries — and which devices are most likely to help organizations meet them.

It’s hard to talk about Microsoft 365 and not mention the elephant in the room: Microsoft Teams. As remote work and the “new normal” continue to drive business decisions and the way we work, Microsoft Teams continues to be at the center of these collaboration conversations.

With all the attention on Teams, it’s easy to forget about the rest of Microsoft’s massive suite of tools that also contribute to making work life — and in some cases personal life — a little bit easier. To help you start, I’ve put together a list of four of the most effective Microsoft 365 tools I use on a daily or weekly basis that help me keep a handle on my day. There are many tools in the product suite that can help here, and even some new ones (Microsoft Lists).

At its heart, DevOps is a methodology that enables fast, frequent delivery of value to end users. This often happens through cloud-native technologies and a realignment of tools, teams and culture.

To appreciate the benefits of DevOps, remember that traditional IT organizations work with big, bulky applications that can be fragmented among teams. This can lead to handoffs, long lead time and a lack of ownership over the final product. Testing integration may be less of a priority, which creates challenges, because by the time code gets into production it’s hard to pinpoint the source of any problem.

Here’s why I see DevOps as a much better foundation for digital transformation.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, some organizations had a difficult time responding to the new IT needs of their end users. Shifting resources to accommodate a largely remote work environment proved to be a complicated endeavor. And, as IT staffers’ time and energies were focused on supporting these new workflows, routine maintenance and support tasks began to pile up.

But some companies tended to have an easier time with the shift. One common denominator for these organizations: They largely relied on software-defined solutions in their data centers. Find out why.

While software-defined networking (SDN) is no longer a brand-new technology, many organizations have been slow to change the way they approach networking inside their data centers. Although we in the IT world like to pride ourselves on innovation, the truth is that we’re often just like everybody else: resistant to change, especially when what we’re already doing seems to be working just fine.

However, SDN tools such as Cisco ACI have a number of tangible benefits — both for IT departments and for the business units they support. Here are three of the top benefits for organizations that adopt Cisco ACI in their data centers.

2020 has been an incredible year for Microsoft and especially for Microsoft Teams. With many organizations quickly adopting new ways for employees to work from anywhere, Microsoft Teams has seen a meteoric rise in usage for meetings and collaboration. In fact, Microsoft recently announced that by the end of April 2020, usage of Microsoft Teams had surpassed 75 million active users, a massive increase from the 44 million users reported the previous month.

One of the greatest assets of Microsoft Teams is that the platform is growing and adding new capabilities on a seemingly weekly basis. As organizations look for new ways to use the platform and further integrate Teams into their business processes, they will soon discover solutions for customized workflows, business process automation, direct integrations with Microsoft and third-party applications that provide a single pane of glass experience, and even industry vertical-specific functionality for supported tenants.

To help organizations discover some of these capabilities, I compiled a list of four unique use cases that organizations might consider for the next stage in their Microsoft Teams journey.