Meet The Unsung Heroes Of COVID-19: The IT Service Providers

By Gil Pekelman, Atera

Here’s a beginning and ending to a story which you’ve probably experienced over the past few weeks, without being aware of what happened in the middle.

You worked in an office when COVID-19 hit. Then, within a few days, you ended up working at home. In the middle, your company very suddenly had an urgent need to be set up remotely.

And who did you call to enable you to work from home?

You called someone who’s always operating behind the scenes. Someone who’s always responding to urgent calls, messages, tickets, and tasks without hesitation. Someone who the entire workforce depends on while remaining in the shadows.

You called your IT professional.

Hold on though, let’s evaluate why is that even important. Isn’t everyone always working, when called upon? After all, isn’t that the purpose of having an IT team in the first place? When your company or organization needs something set up, the IT pros will just set it up. And in the event of a computer problem, they’ll just fix it. Right? Isn’t it that simple?

To most people, when looking at a computer, all you might see is a power button, a plug and the familiar apps you love and use. It’s a functioning machine, and when trouble hits, you just ping the IT pros. What, after all, does an IT professional even do all day? For most companies and organizations, they help you reset passwords and are called upon when and if you need them.

The truth, however, is intensely different. When COVID-19 struck, the world closed in a flash. Stores, schools, malls, theatres, stadiums, parks, restaurants, events, and offices all closed.

And where did everyone go? Online. On their computers. Students, Professors, Athletes, Entertainers, Lawyers, Accountants, Developers, Musicians - everyone - went 100 percent digital.

During that first week of COVID-19 striking, we at Atera saw the urgent need for employees, now working at home, to connect to their office computer, remotely. Within days we created a product (Work From Home Access) that lets any employee remotely connect to their workstation from home.

Hundreds of employees started using it on the day it was released, with the help of hundreds of IT professionals who enabled it. When the world became digital, the world instantly became dependent on IT services, whether most are aware of it or not. Our lives have become digital, where much of our day involves communicating through our phones and computers. And it’s the IT pros who are the unsung heroes working behind the scenes, to ensure whoever was working or studying or entertaining or teaching, could continue to do so, without a hitch.

As an IT professional, we hear countless stories of IT pros, working day and night, in the shadows. Which is how virtually all IT services work. They’re here to enable the organization to run smoothly at all times.

Now, while we’re all quarantined and heavily dependent on our computers and internet connections to run quickly and smoothly, let’s take a moment to thank the dedicated, service-minded experts working in the shadows, for enabling us all to create and connect in any and every environment.

To our unsung IT heroes, we thank you.

About The Author

Gil is the CEO and Founder of Atera. Under Gil’s leadership, Atera has grown into the most innovative, industry-leading platform for MSPs both large and small.