Billions will be spent on video conferencing in 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has led to increased adoption of video conferencing software and services and the latest forecast from Gartner predicts that global end-user spending on cloud-based web conferencing solutions will grow by 24.3 percent in 2020.

The video conferencing user base will continue to expand throughout this year though the research and advisory firm believes growth will taper off in 2021 as the lasting effects of a remote workforce make video conferencing services commonplace.

End-user spending on video conferencing is projected to reach $4.1bn in 2020 which is up from $3.3bn last year. Video conferencing is the second-fastest growing category in the unified communications market behind spending on cloud-based phone systems which are forecast to reach $16.8bn this year.

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By 2024, Gartner predicts that in-person meetings will account for just 25 percent of enterprise meetings, representing a drop from 60 percent prior to the pandemic.

Corporate account misuse

While more organizations are using video conferencing services, a new survey of 5,000 remote workers from OneLogin found that 33 percent of workers have used a corporate Zoom account for online socializing with friends or family since they began working from home. To make matters worse, 30 percent of those surveyed admitted to having an online account compromised during that time and 10 percent of these employees failed to change their password afterward.

Even though corporations own and are responsible for the devices that employees are using to potentially expose them to security breaches, half of organizations worldwide have not established cybersecurity guidelines for remote work.

In a press release, CEO and president of OneLogin, Brad Brooks provided further details on the company's 2020 COVID-19 State of Remote work Survey Report , saying:

“Working from home has invited unprecedented challenges to cybersecurity. As the lines between personal and corporate worlds continue to blur, it’s critical that organizations adopt technology and policies that make it as simple as possible for employees to keep systems secure.”