As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, certain segments of the tech world have suddenly become hot properties.

One of these is the video conferencing space where usage of online collaboration platforms, such as Zoom Inc., Skype Inc. and Google Hangouts, are zooming. Zoom recently reported that the number of daily active users for its service grew from 10 million in December to over 200 million in three months.

The impact this will have in the business world is still being assessed, but it is a subject very much on the minds of a number of tech industry executives.

“I’m a big believer this will fundamentally change the way we work,” said Jeremy Burton (pictured, right), chief executive officer of Observe Inc. “I don’t think we’re going to go 100% back to the way we were. In this world, there’s going to be some companies that come along that are big winners and, by definition, there’s going to be some big losers as well.”

Burton spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how the current situation will force a re-evaluation of digital business models, the use of gaming technology to support company culture, and Observe’s future role in leveraging the data infrastructure.

Less need for ‘hands-on’

One of the key shifts likely to occur will be a significant shift toward digital businesses, according to Burton. Dependence on “brick-and-mortar” facilities or hands-on operation for basic functions will become much less of a factor.

“My belief is that this terrible situation will force people to think seriously about what their digital business looks like,” Burton said. “The smart businesses are going to be able to function in an environment such as this, and that’s going to be playing on everybody’s minds. Now, more than ever, a digital business is a necessity.”

During the pandemic, many firms are turning to virtual games, which are experiencing a boom in popularity as well, to replace those that were a part of the company’s in-person social culture. Because his startup has remained small, Burton was able to replicate an online game for employees, but he still saw room for future improvement and new business opportunity.

“That gaming and social interaction is part of work, and so you have to have a virtual environment that can reproduce that,” Burton noted. “We’ve talked about virtual and augmented reality, but it’s still pretty clunky and relegated to niche use cases and bad games. That technology has to reach the point where it can be useful.”

Transforming big data

Despite the difficulties presented by the current crisis, Observe is still moving toward a time when it will launch out of stealth mode. Burton is also a member of Snowflake Inc.’s board of directors and sees an opportunity to transform the big-data ecosystem.

Observe is targeting the fractured world of disparate sources of operational information, where log, relational, and time series data often require separate products to derive true value.

“It really is a collapsing of log analytics, metrics monitoring, and tracing into this new category of observability,” Burton explained. “What if we could collect all data within an organization together, structure it, and relate it? Imagine what you could find out about your infrastructure, applications and business.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations.

Photo: SiliconANGLE