While in 2020 businesses from around the world struggled to stay afloat, one of the biggest challenges for 2021 is adopting the right technologies to help you secure business continuity and market positions. Although the pandemic is not completely over yet, it has left lasting effects on the global economy and transformed the business landscape radically, adding digital technologies to the equation of success.
From my experience working in a bespoke software development company that helps businesses grow in a sustainable way, I can see what great impact technology has on our society in 2021. With the increasing digitalization wave gradually disrupting each business sector, it is only logical that companies are now looking for ways to future-proof their products and services in order to remain competitive.
Now, let’s see the top six tech trends for 2021 and beyond. Wi-Fi enabled smart offices
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence is, without a doubt, one of the biggest technological trends of the moment, and in 2021 it stepped up to become an even more valuable tool to help us interpret and understand the world around us. For example, AI tools were used throughout the Covid-19 vaccine development at the pharma company Moderna. Dave Johnson, chief data scientist, and AI officer there, is responsible for coordinating custom software development teams to make better sense of data sets and build intelligent AI models that can optimize company processes.
In 2021, the sheer amount of data healthcare companies operate with on a daily basis exceeds anything we can imagine. That’s why the need for skillful data scientists and AI experts is expected to increase. However, other sectors such as banking and insurance also leverage the capabilities of AI. While developing their custom software applications, banks use AI algorithms to track preferences, dislikes, and user behaviors so that they can optimize app performance and customer satisfaction.
2. The As-A-Service Revolution
The cornerstone that has made the other technological advances that are today’s reality is the “as-a-service” trend: the supply of services businesses need to automate and manage their daily workloads on demand through cloud platforms. These services are ranging from SaaS (Software as a Service), DBaaS (Database as a Service), or IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
Thanks to cloud offerings from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and a growing horde of start-ups and spin-offs, innovators in all fields can implement state-of-the-art technology with little initial investment in specialized tools, equipment, or people. Besides cost-efficiency, the other reason why “as-a-service” models are so attractive to businesses is that they allow easy and risk-free scaling opportunities.
3. Cyber Security: a Constant Trend
Last year we could observe a whole new pandemic taking place, hiding behind all the media attention about Covid-19: cyber criminality. Experts from BusinessWire report that pandemic-related cyber crimes surged in 2020. As the world was concentrated on the biological virus, 74% of banks and other financial institutions experienced an attempted breach, fraud, or a cyberattack of some kind. The progress of cybercrime is said to extend in areas such as phishing, which will be much more difficult to recognize. As a result, remote employees will be more exposed to such attacks, so their training and implementation of cyber security practices will be more vital than ever.
In the traditional approach, cyber security is based on a perimeter model, which involves protecting the entire network from a single “fortification”, formed with the hope that it will be impenetrable from multiple firewalls, VPN, or WLAN networks. However, as technologies advance, cybercriminals do the same, and they’ll also keep up with AI solutions to spot and exploit vulnerabilities. As a result, it will be necessary to develop new methods of verifying content, devices, and applications, so that the level of trust is maintained through authenticity.
4. From Customer Experience to Brand Enthusiasm
The explosive growth of mobile and smart devices has profoundly transformed our lives. Today, mobile applications are available for all activities, from shopping to banking, education, and mHealth apps (this category is performing very well due to the Covid-19 pandemic). Mobile applications have allowed public and private sector organizations to connect with end-users in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Now that most business processes also run through applications, companies struggle to increase their brand enthusiasm and engagement.
In fact, 71% of CIOs and IT decision-makers agreed that customer experience means more than a high level of satisfaction and is related to customer delight. However, the first step towards building trust in your company is investing in data protection and privacy security through various encryption algorithms. While data privacy is vital in 2021, the combination of immersive personalization, based on in-depth analysis and experience, is what will transform the customer relationships into a deeper, more engaged, and loyal brand enthusiasm.
5. 5G technology: New Internet Standards
Because the number of internet users has increased considerably in the last year, data consumption has also increased. In this context, 5G technology is an emerging technology trend that has been designed to provide higher Internet browsing speeds and high connection stability in crowded places. 5G technology promises many changes, with the potential to be up to 100 times faster than 4G and provide drastically reduced latency, which would allow extremely quick data sharing, eliminate processing delays and ensure a real-time response of interconnected devices and systems.
However promising it may seem, public opinions on the effectiveness of this new technology are still divided. For example, IHS Markit research proposes that the 5G mobile network will reach a global economic output of US$13.2 trillion and generate 22.3 million jobs by 2035. By unlocking a new field of technological possibilities, the global wireless standard is expected to significantly accelerate the transition to Industry 4.0, the industrial IoT (Internet of Things).
6. Upcoming Data Trends
In our digital world, successful companies need to make sure they can make sense of all available data. Nowadays, getting enough information is no longer such a challenge but rather understanding it and applying its insights so that your business can thrive. Data expert Mat Keep from MongoDB, a leading database provider, even argues that data has now become a more valuable asset than programming algorithms.
He illustrates this by mentioning how an automotive company can invest in a custom software solution for autonomous cars, but without enough learning data from various regions, the vehicle won’t be safe on the road. Moreover, he also mentions that Europe is gaining positions as companies revise three scenarios regarding cloud services: moving away from legacy workloads, moving towards modern ones such as DBaaS, and developing cloud-native software applications.
Author Bio: Aleksandrina Vasileva
Aleksandrina is a Content Creator at Dreamix, a custom software development company, and is keen оn innovative technological solutions with a positive impact on our world. Her teaching background, mixed with her interest in psychology, drives her to share knowledge. She is an avid reader and an enthusiastic blogger, always looking for the next inspiration.
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