The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is causing significant ripples throughout organizations that have had to rapidly upend economic market where anything that is not essential is being tossed aside. However, for those in the midst of a digital transformation journey, such tossing can’t be done as haphazardly.

During a panel discussion at this week’s Software Circus digital event, Kelsey Hightower, staff developer advocate at Google Cloud, used the term “forcing function” to describe how the current health crisis is forcing organizations to make technology decisions. He explained that organizations have typically only made hard decisions when an outside force required immediate actions.

“I think for COVID-19, it was a big forcing function,” Hightower said. “You don't get to ask for six months, you don't get to ask for an 18-month delay, it's not up to you, actually. It is what it is and you have no choice. So once you take the choices off the table I think that's what forces people to innovate.”

Hightower added that while some people might do their best work while procrastinating, the COVID-19 situation means “nope, you got to pick one. No one’s going into the office so you have to choose. … This is not a decision you can make in the next 18 months. Buy one now and then learn how to use it. So you need that forcing function.”

Jamie Dobson, CEO of Container Solutions, concurred, adding that organizations will find this sort of timing pressure a necessary evil.

“Without that forcing function, there is no rabbit hole to go through. You will not find the chaos. Nobody does this. Nobody moves to cloud native unless there's a good [reason],” Dobson said.

Hightower did note that while organizations are feeling this pressure to decide, it should be less a decision on how or why to innovate toward cloud native and more on just what tools they should be using to make that pivot.

“Most companies are not really struggling with the ability to innovate,” Hightower said. “A lot of the stuff that they're going to use are tools and there was innovation that went into producing those tools. The innovative thing that we're asking companies to do is just pick a tool, literally pick one of the 10 and as soon as you pick one then that will be the most innovative thing that some companies do in a long time. Literally picking something. Not building the thing. Not actually knowing how to actually leverage it 100%. Sometimes the biggest hurdle for most companies is just the picking part.”

While this decision making is going on, organizations are struggling to adapt to their new environment.

A recent finance executive survey conducted by Gartner found that the number of companies that have planned or are planning to furlough staff, cut salaries, and cut workforce tied to the COVID-19 outbreak has doubled since a similar survey was conducted at the end of March. Specifically, the numbers showed that 11% of respondents cut staff in March compared with 25% that have or are planning to cut staff in May and June. Those that have furloughed staff increased from 14% at the end of March to 34% that plan on furloughing staff in May and June.

However, the cloud space appears to be benefiting from the uncertainty and helping organizations move toward a different operational path.

Amazon CTO Werner Vogels recently noted that the global pandemic’s impacts on technology have reinforced and accelerated the cloud giant’s vision for the future.

“If nothing else, these past few months have truly ushered in an era in technology where we are seeing fundamental shifts in how everyone is feeling, not only in technology itself but how to access that technology, as well as how we build that technology,” he said during a keynote at the recent AWS Summit Online event. Companies are using cloud computing to “find new ways to use technology to make a difference,” he said. These efforts are “increasingly digital and rapidly changing our faith in the powers of builders to create a more vibrant, equitable, and just world.”