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The Intersection of
COVID-19 and
Information Technology
Copyright 2021, Faulkner Information Services. All
Rights Reserved.
Docid: 00018007
Publication Date: 2108
Report Type: TUTORIAL
Preview
While primarily a health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic produced a
financial crisis: shuttering businesses, producing mass unemployment, and
threatening the well-being of millions – perhaps billions – of people
worldwide. While world economies are slowly recovering, thanks primarily
to the development of safe and effective vaccines, the effects of the
pandemic may linger for years. If there is a proverbial “silver lining,”
it lies in the fact that the impact of COVID-19 could have been worse if
not for the Information Revolution. Leveraging information technologies
developed over the past thirty years, IT specialists are working to arrest
the spread of the virus and permit employees to work from the safety of
their homes and other remote locations.
Report Contents:
- Executive Summary
- COVID-19
Technologies and Applications - Potential
COVID-19-Inspired IT Projects - References
- Web Links
- Related Reports
Executive Summary
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report]
SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that helped spawn today’s COVID-19
pandemic – the worst public health crisis since the so-called “Spanish
flu” of 1918 – continues its relentless worldwide spread. While a number
of pharmaceutical firms, including Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson &
Johnson, have produced safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, a combination
of factors, principally, vaccine hesitancy and production limitations,
have enabled large populations – even in developed countries like the
United States – to remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to infection.
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While primarily a health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic produced a
financial crisis: shuttering businesses, producing mass unemployment,
and threatening the well-being of millions – perhaps billions – of
people worldwide. While world economies are slowly recovering, thanks
primarily to the development of safe and effective vaccines, the effects
of the pandemic may linger for years. If there is a proverbial “silver
lining,” it lies in the fact that the impact of COVID-19 could be worse
if not for the Information Revolution.
Over the past thirty years, information technologists have offered
unprecedented scientific and engineering advances like the Internet,
e-commerce, and smartphones, which, among other advantages, have
facilitated the formation of virtual workplaces and permitted “social
distancing,” one of the two public health policies (along with
mask-wearing) most responsible for limiting COVID-19 disease
transmission.
While virologists were busy engineering COVID-19 vaccines, information
technologists developed new digital methods for:
- Conducting large-scale virtual meetings, even conferences
- Replacing critical in-person appointments, like physician consultations,
with remote sessions, like telemedicine briefings - Securing enterprise information that transits makeshift home offices and
consumer-grade devices - Reducing congestion in public spaces via proximity warning devices
- Allowing students to engage with each other and their teachers while
studying at home - Performing COVID-19 contact tracing and supporting quarantine operations
COVID-19 has influenced the growth of certain technologies, such as:
- Entertainment content streaming (through vehicles like Netflix and
Amazon) - Machine learning and robotics, to compensate for the loss or
unavailability of human labor - 5G networking, to expedite high-volume data downloads
Overall, the pace and direction of COVID-19-related IT development and
deployment initiatives will be determined by progress on the medical
front. Currently, the more transmissible and more deadly Delta variant
is ravaging Florida, Texas, and other states where large segments of the
population are resistant to vaccination and local political leaders
claim that mandatory mask-wearing is an infringement on their
constituents’ constitutional rights.
Notwithstanding the known and unknown obstacles ahead, according to the
Business Roundtable, a 2020 CEO trade group survey revealed that most
CEOs expected business conditions to recover by the end of 2021. About
one in four (27 percent), however, expected the recovery to stretch
beyond 2021.1
Importantly, business leaders – and the tech leaders upon whom they
rely – understand that COVID-19 is not a disaster of short duration nor
confined consequences. In fact, other COVID-19-like viruses may infect
us in the future. As analyst Ed Yong opines ominously, “Despite its
epochal effects, COVID-19 is merely a harbinger of worse plagues to
come.”2
The Intersection of COVID-19 and IT
As much as medical interventions, the effective and potentially
protracted management of COVID-19 and subsequent biological emergencies
will depend on the innovative use of information technologies –
technologies arrayed to combat the spread of COVID-19 or promote
COVID-19-compatible business models, such as work-at-home or workplace
automation. In some cases, like workplace automation, COVID-19 offers a
perverse rationale for accelerating existing programs aimed at workforce
reduction, particularly as the price of protecting human workers
escalates.
Table 1 offers an overview of common COVID-19 management objectives and
the various technologies supporting these objectives. Frequently, as
with the virtual office, multiple technologies are used to fashion a
single COVID-19 “solution.”
|
COVID-19 Objective |
Supporting Information Technologies and |
|---|---|
|
COVID-19 Preparedness & |
Smartphones & Smartphone Apps |
|
Wearable Devices (like smart watches) |
|
|
Digital Thermometers |
|
|
Thermal Cameras |
|
|
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) |
|
|
IP Digital Surveillance (cameras and |
|
|
Facial Recognition |
|
|
Quick Response (QR) Codes to serve as |
|
|
Telemedicine Platforms |
|
|
Machine Learning/Artificial |
|
|
Virtual Office Management |
Smartphone, Smartphone Apps & |
|
High-Speed Internet Connection (5G |
|
|
Virtual Private Network (VPN) or |
|
|
Anti-Malware Software Suite with auto |
|
|
Cloud Data Backup with auto backup |
|
|
Video/Audio Conferencing Software |
|
|
Collaboration Platforms |
|
|
Two-Factor Authentication Software |
|
|
Document Destruction Service |
|
|
Centrally-Monitored Home/Facility |
|
|
Social Distancing & |
Smartphone & Smartphone Apps |
|
Contactless Authentication Software |
|
|
Exposure Notifications System (Google |
|
|
COVID-19 Wristbands (e.g., Kinexon |
|
|
Food Delivery Services (e.g., Google |
|
|
Content Streaming Services (e.g., |
|
|
Package Delivery Services (e.g., |
|
|
Video/Audio Conferencing Software |
|
|
Remote Working Software |
|
|
Distance Learning Software |
|
|
Exercise Equipment/Software (e.g., |
|
|
Gaming/Virtual Reality Software |
|
|
“Smart Home” Software |
|
|
Robotic Household Appliances (e.g, |
|
|
Workplace Automation |
Articulated Robots |
|
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) |
|
|
Delivery Drones |
|
|
Security Robots |
The Impact of COVID-19 On the IT Industry
IT Industry revenue, projected at around $190 billion for 2020-2021,
should grow to $300-350 billion by 2025. The Cloud Software and
Digital Platform markets will witness the fastest expansion due to the
rapid embrace of telework by enterprise officials.3
IT Industry Positives and the Negatives
According to two academics, Esam Elgohary and Reham Oncy Abdelazyz,
the COVID-19 pandemic has produced both IT Industry positives and
negatives.
On the plus side of the ledger:
- The demand for information technology increased suddenly and
dramatically due to the need to provision and support remote working
and remote learning initiatives. - The IT demand was particularly pronounced for the
Telecommunications, Education, Public Service, Healthcare, and
Digital Entertainment sectors. - E-commerce and E-retailing experienced a boom, with a threefold
increase in customer numbers and revenue in 2020.
On the minus side:
- The demand for IT devices witnessed a decline due to supply chain
disruptions and the tendency of many enterprises to close or work
remotely. - Many technology conferences were cancelled, meaning many
enterprises lost valuable info tech partnership and sales
opportunities. - The slowdown in employment will likely affect the future flow of
skilled workers, causing enterprises to potentially “struggle” with
growing customer needs.4
COVID-19 Technologies
and Applications
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COVID-19 is spurring the development of major information technologies and
applications, with advances in disease detection and patient treatment already
realized.
COVID-19 Technologies
COVID-19 is stimulating interest in a variety of emerging or evolving
information technologies, with each as an element in erecting an
enduring pandemic defense and survival strategy. These “COIVID-19
technologies” will aid in:
- Disease Detection
- Patient Treatment
- Process Automation
- Remote Worker Support
Expect major COVID-19 contributions from research related to:
- The Internet of Behaviors (IoB)
- 5G
- Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR and VR)
- Total Experience (TX)
- Blockchain
- Distributed Cloud
- Hyperautomation
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI & ML) 5
COVID-19 Detection
Research published by The Lancet reveals that information
technology plays an essential role in COVID-19 planning and response.
Primary functions include subject (or, potentially, patient) screening
to determine whether a particular individual has been exposed to
COVID-19, and contact tracing to identify and track those who may have
infected or been infected by a particular individual.
|
Function |
Description |
Information Technologies |
Countries |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Subject Screening |
Screens individuals and populations |
Artificial intelligence; |
China; Iceland; Singapore; Taiwan |
Provides information on disease |
Could breach privacy; fails to |
|
Contact Tracing |
Identifies and tracks individuals |
Global positioning |
Germany; Singapore; South Korea |
Identifies exposed individuals for |
Could breach privacy; might detect |
Source: “Applications of digital technology in
COVID-19 pandemic planning and response” 6
In May 2020, Google and Apple cooperated to create the Exposure
Notifications System (ENS), a contact tracing utility. As described by
Google, “The ENS allows public health authorities to develop apps that
augment manual contact tracing efforts while preserving the privacy of
their citizens. As of [July 31, 2020], public health authorities have
used ENS to launch in 16 countries and regions across Africa, Asia,
Europe, North America and South America, with more apps currently
under development. In the US, 20 states and territories – representing
approximately 45 percent of the US population – are exploring apps
based on ENS.”7
Note : While generally praising ENS,
analyst Franklin Foer reports that “More than 300 European scientists
and privacy scholars signed an open letter stating, ‘We are concerned
that some [solutions] to the [COVID-19] crisis may, via mission creep
… allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large.'”8
Robot Revolution
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 is fueling already-existing efforts to
replace human workers with their robotic counterparts. In the
pre-pandemic period, the transition was justified on economic terms
since machines generally function faster, safer, more reliably, and
less expensively than human operators. While these incentives still
apply, COVID-19 has supplied a more potent rationale: keeping
physicians, nurses, and other medical practitioners safe by enlisting
robots to perform routine procedures on infected (or potentially
infected) patients. Going forward, expect the medical and robotics
communities to cooperate in the design and development of new robotic
tools.
To illustrate, consider the current COVID-19 testing process that
involves collecting biological samples with cotton swabs. Lifeline
Robotics, in collaboration with the University of Southern Denmark,
has produced the world’s first automated swab robot, pictured in
Figure 1. As detailed by the manufacturer, “The process of the
automatic swab sample begins when the patient scans her ID-card. The
robot then prepares a sample kit, consisting of a container with a
printed ID-label. When the patient opens her mouth, the robot picks up
the swab and identifies the right points in the patient’s throat. This
happens through artificial intelligence based computer vision. The
robot gently and securely conducts the swab, places it back into the
container, and puts on the lid. The process takes around 7 minutes in
total, and the swab itself 25 seconds. The sample is then ready for
analysis.”
Figure 1. Lifeline Robotics Automated Swab Robot
Source: Lifeline Robotics
As reported by analyst James Vincent, “Robots are helping ease
strains caused by staff shortages and rigorous cleaning regimes” and
may be deployed in a variety of high-risk facilities, including
hospitals, out-patient centers, and nursing homes.9
As anticipated, the robotics market should surge in the wake of
COVID-19. According to MarketsandMarkets, “Dearth of skilled labor and
solicitation of proposals by governments and public-private companies
to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 are key driving factors for
the market.”
The demand for articulated robots, which are instrumental in heavy
equipment assembly, especially automobiles, will grow, as will the
need for more specialized robot types such as SCARA and parallel
robots.10
Figure 2. Articulated Robots Labor on Vehicle Assembly Line
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In addition to physical robots, COVID-19 should stimulate interest in
“robotic process automation” (RPA), in which software robots, or
“bots”, help automate the performance of common computer-oriented
business processes. The bots “essentially look at the screens that
workers today look at and fill in and update the same boxes and fields
within the user interface by pulling the relevant data from the
relevant location.”11
If added to their home office arsenal, RPA tools can help remote
workers reduce errors, improve productivity, and lower stress (in an
already anxiety-filled COVID-19 setting).
Pandemic Pods
Owing to COVID-19, a number of prominent sports leagues and
organizations, from the NBA and NFL to the International Olympic
Committee, have established “pandemic pods,” where players, coaches,
officials, and support personnel can be sequestered in a protective
“sports bubble.”
The idea is to affect an aggressive social distancing and contact
tracing program that will allow athletes to safely engage in sporting
events while avoiding exposure to COVID-19. It’s a high stakes
operation in which millions of dollars in revenue can be jeopardized
by a few positive virus tests. That’s why the NBA and NFL provided
players and other vulnerable parties with Kinexon SafeZone tags which
can be used to monitor an individual’s movements and person-to-person
interactions.
Figure 3. Kinexon SafeZone tag
Source: Kinexon
Kinexon, a German-based company, has a long history of working with
sports teams on performance tracking but, as Jessica Golden of CNBC
reports, “decided to pivot once coronavirus struck. The half-ounce
[SafeZone] tag contains a proximity sensor and can be worn as a
wristband, as an ID badge, or embedded into equipment for games and
practice. It’s about the size of an Apple AirPods case. When a player
or staff member comes within six feet of another person, a red light
will appear as a warning signal. After five seconds, an audible alarm
will be emitted from the device, alerting the wearers that they need
to distance themselves.”12
Potential
COVID-19-Inspired IT Projects
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Virus-Safe Communities
Owing to the relative success of the NBA and NFL pod models, some
public and private groups may attempt to imitate the pod isolation
strategies by fashioning virus-safe communities, a variation on the
concept of the “gated” community in which security and safety
conscious individuals would elect to live in a controlled neighborhood
space in order to achieve protection against biological
hazards.- protection largely made possible by information
technologies.
Curated Information Sources
Prominent social media outlets, particularly Facebook, have channeled
misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19, convincing citizens,
in contravention of sound medical and epidemiological advice, to:
- Refuse free, safe, and effective COVID-19 vaccinations; and
- Ignore the advice of public health officials relative to masking.
In the wake of the damage done through media “democratization”, there
is an urgent need for respected news outlets to create new online
platforms dedicated to the factual presentation of curated
information.
Remote Worker “Toolkit”
Considered a necessary evil by some enterprise executives, remote
working will remain a viable work and lifestyle choice for many, if
not most, employees. No longer a temporary arrangement to accommodate
pandemic restrictions, remote work (and remote workers) will feature
in every enterprise’s staffing structure. From a security perspective,
enterprise planners will likely commit to a standard complement of
tools and services intended to provide a robust and reliable remote
work atmosphere. To that end, analyst Tim Ferrill suggests “10
security tools all remote employees should have:”
- Cybersecurity training
- Digital wallets
- Credit/digital identity monitoring
- Password managers
- Two-factor tokens
- Anti-malware software
- VPN services
- Backup solutions
- Privacy screens
- Laptops, phones, network hardware13
Computer-Generated People
As the Fall television season approaches, movie and TV producers are
trying to figure out how to film new comedies and dramas while
observing social distancing protocols. One highly-controversial
possibility is to replace human actors with CGI facsimiles, using
computer generated imagery to supply both realistic scenery and
characters. There is, after all, precedent. In 2015, filmmakers
utilized CGI technology to revive Paul Walker’s character for Furious
7. Walker had perished in a car crash in 2013.14
Although Hollywood executives will be reluctant to create a CGI Tom
Hanks or Julia Roberts (fearing the legal and public relations
complications), they may explore the technology, however tentatively,
if COVID-19 is still raging in 2021.
Digital Voting and Other Services
COVID-19 has rendered most in-door activities dangerous, including
voting. That’s why many public health and election officials recommend
voting by mail, especially for high-risk individuals, seniors and
people suffering from cardiac and pulmonary conditions. Unfortunately,
mail-in ballots, particularly in volume, take days and sometimes weeks
to process, with the result that election results could be delayed and
vote tallies considered suspect.
In theory, digital, or online, voting would:
- Provide faster results
- Eliminate the need for poll workers
- Remove the requirement for physical voting machines (and voting
machine maintenance) - Enable people to vote at their convenience
- Encourage greater voter participation
- Produce an audit trail (in the event of recount requests)
- Enforce uniform voting standards
Despite the advantages, digital voting has never gained traction in
the US due to concerns over possible computer hacking. COVID-19,
however, may have changed this calculus, propelling, in the words of
analyst Sam Lessin, “a real demand for digital … voting and remote
government service delivery.” Lessin adds that “A pandemic might
similarly create a sense of urgency about regulation to open up drone
airspace and bot delivery as we look for ways to deliver services
remotely in both urban and rural environments.”15
Immersive Entertainment
While most business sectors, especially the restaurant industry, have
suffered due to COVID-19, the disease has been particularly disruptive
to live entertainment businesses such as sports, concerts, plays, and
musicals. So long as the pandemic persists and fans are denied entry
to their favorite venues to experience their favorite acts, fresh
entertainment will be confined to television and computer screens,
delivered by TV and cable networks or streaming services like Netflix
or Amazon.
Some sports producers are responding to “the new normal” by making
their live broadcasts as realistic as possible, using digital effects
to populate stadia with virtual fans and audio effects to emulate
characteristic fan cheers and boos.
The next logical progression might be to incorporate virtual reality
into the presentation, enabling homebound consumers to experience a
football game as if they were in their favorite team’s huddle, or a
music concert as if they were standing onstage with Taylor Swift. Such
immersive entertainment would be challenging to create, but COVID-19
may provide an adequate financial incentive.
References
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1 Lauren Hirsch. “Top CEOs See Business Impact from
Coronavirus Lingering Until at Least the End of 2021.” CNBC. June 29,
2020.
2 Ed Yong. “How the Pandemic Defeated America.” The
Atlantic. September 2020.
3 “Impacts of Covid-19 on Information Technology (IT)
Industry.” GeeksforGeeks. June 4, 2021.
4 Esam Elgohary and Reham Oncy Abdelazyz. “The Impact of
COVID-19 on Information Technology Industry: A Comparison Study
Between the Top Digital Countries in Middle East and Egypt.” International
Journal of Computing and Digital Systems. July 2021.
5 “Impacts of Covid-19 on Information Technology (IT)
Industry.” GeeksforGeeks. June 4, 2021.
6 Sera Whitelaw, Mamas A. Mamas, Eric Topol, and Harriette
G. C. Van Spall. “Applications of Digital Technology in COVID-19
Pandemic Planning and Response.” Published by
Elsevier Ltd. 2020.
7 Dave Burke. “An Update on Exposure Notifications.”
Google. July 31, 2020.
8 Franklin Foer. “What Big Tech Wants Out of the
Pandemic.” The Atlantic. July/August 2020.
9 James Vincent. “After the Pandemic, Doctors Want Their
New Robot Helpers to Stay.” The Verge. July 9, 2020.
10 “COVID-19 Impact on Industrial Robotics Market by Type
(Articulated, SCARA, Parallel, Cartesian Robots), Industry
(Automotive; Electrical and Electronics; Food & Beverages;
Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics), and Region – Global Forecast to 2025.”
MarketsandMarkets. April 2020.
11 “What Is Robotic Process Automation?”
AIIM: The Association for Intelligent Information
Management. 2019.
12 Jessica Golden. “Here’s the Device the NFL and NBA
Are Using for Coronavirus Contact Tracing and Social Distancing.”
CNBC. July 22, 2020.
13 Tim Ferrill. “10 Security Tools All Remote Employees
Should Have.” CSO. IDG Communications, Inc. July 29, 2021.
14 Laura M. Holson. “A C.G.I. James Dean? Some in
Hollywood See ‘an Awful Precedent.'” The New York Times.
November 7, 2019.
15 Sam Lessin. “How Coronavirus Epidemics Could Alter
the Future of Tech.” The Information. March 9, 2020.
Web Links
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- Continuity Central: http://www.continuitycentral.com/
- International Organization for Standardization: http://www.iso.org/
- US National Institute of Standards and Technology: http://www.nist.gov/
About the Author
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James G. Barr is a leading business continuity
analyst and business writer with more than 30 years’ IT experience. A
member of “Who’s Who in Finance and Industry,” Mr. Barr has designed,
developed, and deployed business continuity plans for a number of
Fortune 500 firms. He is the author of several books, including How
to Succeed in Business BY Really Trying, a member of Faulkner’s
Advisory Panel, and a senior editor for Faulkner’s Security
Management Practices. Mr. Barr can be reached via e-mail at
jgbarr@faulkner.com.
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