ARM laptop and machines are here. Windows on a RaspberryPI is going to make the ARM processor more appealing to the dev market and once more people buy super cheap ARM processors ARM will show up in servers. People will dev for ARM and want ARM servers. Netflix uses pfsense wich is BSD and it runs like a champ on ARM and netgate even makes an ARM based unit that is for small offices and is amazing. ARM laptops also last for like 25 hours so I think people will be switching.

Full commerical network hardware. Netgate makes the pfsense firewall and they make hardware for remote workers. You can traffic shape and have a VPN to your company and ensure that voice and your workstation have the bandwidth they need and your home gets the rest. A good firewall at your home can make all the difference and once that doesnt have yearly subscriptions is a good route to go.

I used to be a big pfsense fan, but Ubiquiti's UniFi is my jam now. If you get their gateway, PoE switches, and a couple of APs, it's by far the best SoHo system I've ever used. Enterprise features that are easy enough for non-network admin technical users to figure out, auto firmware updates, rock-solid reliability, all for around the cost of a high-end "gaming router" that will crash weekly.

Unifi WiFi + edgerouter lite isn’t bad either, software isn’t as cohesive but the ERL is solid and hasn’t been an issue for me at all over 4 years on gigabit internet. WiFi is rock solid after initial setup in a VM (does not need to be running controller continuously).

Learning Azure Dev Ops is always good as it makes it possible to publish your own Ideas in a scalable environment that is affordable. Microsoft Learn is pretty neat as they will take you through the basics for free, just take your time. You also get nifty badges from Microsoft for completing different learning modules. They are very much making it look like a nice page you can attach to a resume.