Summary: As technology evolves at an ever-increasing pace, it brings major changes to the IT department. In this era, the IT department moves from a back-office function to a true business partner. What trends are driving this change, and how must your IT department adapt? In this article, we examine 5 more trends to watch in the near future.
To be effective in this role, the IT department must drive technology innovation. It must help the business capitalize on their data. It must stay ahead of ever-changing technology.
How is technology changing? How do these changes impact the IT department? In the first part of this article, we explored these 5 important trends, and how they impact the IT department:
– Regulation and governance around data
– Conversational Interfaces
– Automation
– Balance between self-service and governance
– IoT-related Edge computing
But, those trends are just the tip of the iceberg. Today, let’s go a step further. What other trends can we expect in the near future? Here are 5 more important IT trends to watch for in 2019 and beyond:
The evolution of technology adoption
Then, smartphones and SaaS options cropped up. Technology became simpler and more accessible. End users started bringing their own devices and software into the business.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a huge trend emerge: The technology buying cycle is inverting. More and more business departments drive technology adoption. Software is creeping in through the business units and working its way across the organization.
“One of the large IT trends we’ve noticed through our own go-to-market strategy is the rise of free Saas products that land and expand within an org very quickly,” says Krish Ramineni, CEO at Fireflies.ai. “Part of the reason for this is the BYOD (bring your own device) movement in the enterprise. Also, the blending of consumer and enterprise tech makes individual users have strong preferences for certain tools. Now IT is compelled to listen to their employees. The buying cycle is inverted. The individual users inside an org have a stronger voice and are decision makers. Unlike in the past where big sales teams wooed IT managers through long sales cycles, now the power is in the hands of users.”
The need for good security habits
I don’t need to explain the importance of cybersecurity. You’ve seen the news. You’ve heard about the rise in data breaches. You understand that security cannot be ignored.
However, while many companies are adopting the tools and skills to improve their cybersecurity, it doesn’t end there. A recent study found that the biggest cybersecurity risk to US businesses isn’t malware, viruses, hackers, or anything like that. It’s employee negligence.
Sure, secure technology is important. But, if you want to truly protect your organization, it starts with your employees. Over the next few years, this is a trend that can’t be ignored. We’ll see a bigger push to educate end users on proper security habits.
“The market now and in the future will reward corporate innovation, even as innovation surpasses regulations,” says Audrey Taylor, CEO and partner at netlogx. “That means it’s still more important than ever to manage employee education about security risks like shadow IT and social engineering hacks. More often than not, employees put data at risk because they believe they are making the right decision in the moment to get work done. Empowering employees to make careful judgments as they work will inevitably protect the company as a whole.”
The growth of Augmented Reality
In the consumer realm, we’ve seen augmented and virtual reality start to take off. Phone manufacturers are now releasing VR headsets, and it’s clearly the next big thing in the world of gaming.
However, augmented and virtual reality isn’t just about consumer technology. It holds many business uses as well. Here’s a great article that explores some business possibilities in more detail.
In the coming years, we can expect this technology to take off in the business world. As explained below, it holds the potential to alter businesses in a variety of industries.
“Augmented Reality is no more limited to games,” says Dhaval Sarvaiya, co-founder of Intelivita. “Instead, it has found tons of use cases from marketing campaigns and classroom education to tourism and remote work, meaning it’s not just cool, it’s useful. And that’s what technology is all about. Having said that AR is set to make a significant impact on major industries far beyond gaming.
According to the statista survey, the total AR market size worldwide is expected to grow from $3.5 billion in 2017 to more than $198 billion by 2025.
As the increasing number suggests, I believe augmented reality has the potential to transform the business world in 2019 and over the next decade, but adaptability will be key to success going forward.”
Digital Business becomes table stakes
How important is digital transformation to the modern business? Or, perhaps a better question: What are the risks of ignoring it? Let’s look at a couple of quotes from tech industry leaders.
According to Accenture’s CEO, “Digital is the main reason just over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000.”
It doesn’t stop there. The former CEO of Cisco Systems predicts that “Nearly 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.”
In other words, digitalization is moving out of “trend” territory. It’s not something your business can decide to ignore. It’s quickly becoming table stakes for any business that hopes to compete in the coming years.
Quantum machines become more accessible to users
We’ve heard about quantum computing for years now, but how close is it to real-world usage? Closer than you might think.
What is quantum computing? I won’t get into it in this article, but here’s a great article that goes into more detail if you’d like to learn more.
Why should you care about it? Technology advancements have brought quantum computing closer to reality. In fact, Gartner has listed it as one of their top 10 strategic technology trends for 2019. Granted, they understand that quantum computers won’t see widespread adoption for a few years. Rather, it’s listed because it’s a technology that holds massive potential. Business leaders must start learning about it, and its use cases.
“IT companies are developing ever more powerful quantum processors,” says Yaroslav Lunev, CEO of the Cellframe protocol. “Last year, Intel introduced the 49-qubit chip, and Google – the 72-qubit chip.”
Some qubit-based devices can already be accessed through cloud services, such as Alibaba Cloud and IBM Q. The quantum machines of these IT giants help research organizations and universities to create difficult models that are difficult for “classic” computers, for example, to model immune behavior.
At the same time, 2019 may be the year of “personal” quantum machines. In early January, IBM at CES 2019 showed Q System One, the prototype of a commercial quantum computer for business. This is a 20-qubit machine that, unlike other quantum computers, can operate outside the lab. The necessary conditions for the functioning of the computer are created in a special sealed container-case.”
Summary
These are just 5 IT trends to watch in the near future, but the list could be much longer. Would you like to add to this list? Feel free to comment below!
Though not at its full bloom, augmented reality has a lot to offer. Due to its features, AR is considered to be more appealing to the market than virtual reality. The reason why AR is much more successful is because of its ubiquity, while VR is more focused.