How COVID-19 changed small-business IT for good — hybrid working, cloud, video and security in the 2026 UK numbers

Five things the pandemic permanently changed about UK small-business IT, with 2019 and 2026 figures from the ONS, the Cyber Security Breaches Survey, Microsoft and Openreach, and a checklist for firms still running 2019-style IT.

For business By suj · · 8 min read · 1,738 words

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Six years on from the first lockdown, it is tempting to file the pandemic under history. The IT it left behind is very much current. Most of what we install, secure and fix for small businesses today was shaped by decisions made in a hurry in March 2020 — and the official numbers show those decisions stuck.

This article sets out five permanent changes, each with a 2019 figure and the latest available one, and ends with a checklist for any firm whose IT still looks the way it did before 2020. Every statistic is from a primary source listed at the end.

1. Working from home stopped being unusual

Before the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that only around one in eight working adults in Great Britain — roughly 12% — had worked from home at some point in the week before they were interviewed (ONS, 2023). In 2020 that peaked at almost half (49%). It then settled, but it did not go back.

By late 2022 the ONS was reporting 16% working from home only and a further 28% mixing home and workplace (ONS, 2023). Since then hybrid working — some days at home, some days travelling in — has become the stable pattern. Between January and March 2025, 28% of working adults hybrid worked, and the ONS notes that the share of hybrid workers "has gradually risen since March 2022, but those who only travel to work has declined" (ONS, 2025).

For IT the implication is blunt: the "office network" is no longer where most of the work happens. Laptops, home broadband and coffee-shop Wi-Fi are part of your estate whether you planned for them or not.

2. The productivity suite moved to the cloud

In 2019 a typical small office ran desktop Office bought once, email on a hosted Exchange mailbox or a server in a cupboard, and files on a shared drive. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 found that six in ten UK businesses used cloud computing at all (DCMS, 2019). Microsoft's commercial cloud business — Office 365 Commercial, Azure and the rest — turned over $38.1 billion in its entire 2019 financial year (Microsoft, 2019).

Compare that with the quarter ended 30 June 2026: Microsoft Cloud revenue was $59.3 billion in three months, up 27% year on year, with Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud revenue up 16% (Microsoft, 2026). On the ground, the 2025/26 breaches survey finds that 74% of UK businesses now back up data securely via a cloud service (DSIT, 2026) — a routine that was a minority activity six years ago.

The shift was not driven by anyone's IT strategy. It was driven by the need, in spring 2020, for staff to open the same document from different kitchens. Once files, email and chat lived in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, there was rarely a reason to bring them back. Most of our cloud services work today is tidying up what was set up fast in 2020.

3. Video calling became infrastructure, not a novelty

Microsoft's 2019 annual report celebrated Teams having "a breakout year with more than 13 million daily active users" (Microsoft, 2019). Four years later, on the October 2023 earnings call, the company reported "more than 320 million monthly active users" for Teams (Microsoft, 2023). The two figures are measured differently — daily versus monthly — but the scale of the change is not in doubt.

The practical consequence is that a broken headset or a webcam pointing at the ceiling is now a productivity problem. Meeting rooms need a proper camera, microphone and display rather than a speakerphone on the table. And broadband chosen in 2018 for browsing and email is being asked to carry a dozen simultaneous HD video streams, which is where many "Teams keeps freezing" support calls actually originate.

4. Security had to catch up with a scattered workforce

The pandemic dissolved the network perimeter that most small-business security had quietly relied on. In 2019, 44% of businesses already said staff regularly used a personal device such as a non-work laptop for business purposes, and 32% had identified a cyber security breach or attack in the previous year (DCMS, 2019).

The 2025/26 survey, published on 30 April 2026, puts the proportion identifying a breach or attack at 43% of businesses, with phishing by far the most common type, experienced by 38% (DSIT, 2026). The same survey shows the response taking shape. Two-factor authentication is now required by 47% of businesses; among micro businesses it rose from 35% in 2024/25 to 43%. Only 36% of businesses provide a virtual private network for staff connecting remotely (DSIT, 2026).

Read together, the numbers describe a workforce that went remote quickly and a security posture still only halfway to matching it. Fewer than half of firms require a second factor on logins, in a world where the login is the perimeter.

5. The office phone system is going, and so is the line it ran on

In 2019 the desk phone plugged into a wall socket, or into a PBX fed by ISDN lines, was simply how businesses took calls. Lockdown made the office phone the one thing nobody could reach, and hosted VoIP — the number lives in the cloud, calls arrive on a laptop or mobile app — went from "nice for sales teams" to essential.

Engineering, rather than preference, is now making the change permanent. Openreach is switching off the analogue phone network on 31 January 2027, and confirmed on 31 July 2026 that around 1.5 million lines still remained on it, covering roughly 350,000 business premises, with "no extension to the deadline" (Openreach, 2026). We have written a separate, step-by-step guide: the landline switch-off checklist for businesses.

2019 versus 2026 at a glance

Table 1. Five changes in UK small-business IT, 2019 compared with the latest available figures. Sources: ONS (2023, 2025); DCMS (2019); DSIT (2026); Microsoft (2019, 2023, 2026); Openreach (2026).
What changed2019LatestSource
Working from homeAround 12% of working adults worked from home in a given week28% of working adults hybrid working (Jan–Mar 2025); hybrid share rising since March 2022ONS (2023); ONS (2025)
Cloud productivity60% of UK businesses used any cloud computing; Microsoft commercial cloud $38.1bn for the full year74% of UK businesses back up to the cloud; Microsoft Cloud $59.3bn in a single quarter (Apr–Jun 2026)DCMS (2019); DSIT (2026); Microsoft (2019, 2026)
Video callingTeams: over 13 million daily active usersTeams: over 320 million monthly active users (Oct 2023)Microsoft (2019, 2023)
Security32% of businesses identified a breach or attack; 44% had staff on personal devices43% identified a breach or attack; 47% require two-factor authentication; 36% offer a VPN for remote staffDCMS (2019); DSIT (2026)
Office phonesAnalogue lines and ISDN in normal serviceSwitch-off fixed for 31 January 2027; 1.5 million lines and 350,000 business premises still to migrate (Jul 2026)Openreach (2026)

We could not verify the change in office floor space from a primary source, so it is left out. The honest proxy is the ONS finding that hybrid working keeps rising while travelling-to-work-only falls.

What this means if your IT still looks like 2019

Plenty of businesses got through 2020 on improvisation and never went back to tidy up. This is the order we would tackle it.

  1. Put identity first. Turn on two-factor authentication for every email and cloud account, starting with owners and anyone who handles money. It is free with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace and it is the single control that most reduces the phishing risk the survey keeps flagging.
  2. Decide where the files live, and mean it. Files split between a server, OneDrive and a laptop are three backup problems. Move to one cloud location with versioning, then back that up too — cloud storage is not a backup.
  3. Retire the server in the cupboard. If all it still does is share files or run a printer queue, it is costing electricity and carrying unpatched risk. We see this in most business IT support audits.
  4. Standardise the laptops. Company-owned, encrypted, centrally managed, with a way to wipe one that goes missing. A 2019 rule that "staff can use their own machine" is no longer defensible when 43% of firms are reporting attacks.
  5. Give remote staff a proper way in. A VPN or, better, application-level access with two-factor authentication — not an open remote desktop port. Only a third of businesses provide even a VPN; do not be in the two-thirds.
  6. Fix the meeting room and the broadband. One decent camera-and-microphone bar, a screen, and a connection sized for video rather than email. Most "Teams is rubbish" complaints are bandwidth or hardware, not software.
  7. Move the phones before the deadline. Inventory every line and every device that dials out — alarms, lifts, card terminals — and book the migration to hosted VoIP well ahead of 31 January 2027.
  8. Write down the new normal. A one-page policy on devices, passwords, two-factor authentication, home working and what to do about suspected phishing. Short enough that people read it.

None of this needs a big project; most of it is a sequence of afternoons. If you would like an engineer to look at what you have and say plainly which of the eight apply, that is what our IT support team does — get in touch via the contact page.

Sources

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