IT Trends That Will Take Your Business To The Next Level 

As the digital revolution continues to steam ahead at full throttle, forward-thinking business owners would be wise to take a sneaky peak at the future. 

So I thought we’d provide a window for you.

The IT trends listed below provide insight into the technologies changing the business landscape. And therefore, should give you some foundational background of the direction you could take your business over the next decade. 

According to Mckinsey & Company, there will be an explosion of technology in the coming years – more than we have seen than in the last 100 years. So keeping up to date with the latest IT trends should probably be a habitual practice to pop into your schedule each quarter. 

There’s no doubt that the fast pace of technology changes the business landscape periodically. But businesses that wait to hop on the gravy train once an existing trend is shown to yield results could risk being left behind. 

To get a feel for where the business world is heading, get to grips with emerging technologies. Because if you’re not onboard before the train leaves the station, 

Ramp Up Computing Power

The development of Web3 and the blockchain will lay the foundations for a new digital economy. How long will it be before all payments are digital? 

It’s difficult to say when we will become a cashless society, but economists predict digital payments will increase by 13.7 per cent year on year between 2022 and 2026. 

Easy payments are not far away – but converting to web3 could pose a problem for businesses that have insufficient computing power. Your IT infrastructure will need to be supported by 6G to handle fast processing speeds and remain competitive. 

On top of blockchain processing, you’ll need the computing power to run a whole of interconnected technologies as the Internet of Things (IoT) rolls out in full force. 

Oh yes, then there’s data processing. And big data is about to get bigger.

Datafication

Most businesses are already processing a significant library of data. And the more employees and technologies you have accessing your IT network, the more data you will need to process. 

That’s where datafication comes into play. This is a technological strategy that enables businesses to combine tools, technology and processes that store and process your data. Datafication has been labelled “a critical enabler” that underlies all IT trends. 

The key benefit of datafication will be to enhance informed decision-making by gathering data from various silos and bringing them into a single data-geared landscape that provides you with the bigger picture. 

The strategies and key objectives available to decision-makers, therefore, give you greater scope for innovation and meeting your customers where they are. Datasciencecentral has some useful examples if you want to take a deep dive. 

Edge Computing 

Edge computing is an advanced technology that serves as a new-age data centre. It’s arguably the leading IT trend for industrial and enterprise-level organisations to optimise efficiency, performance and security. 

It won’t be long before edge computing takes over from cloud computing at all levels of the business world. Economists predict the edge computing market will bloat to a size of around $116 billion by 2030.

The pull towards Edge computing is the capacity to store, analyse and process huge volumes of data in a localised environment whilst significantly reducing the cost of on-premise servers. 

Even though cloud computing does a good job of keeping sensitive data secure, I imagine Edge computing will alleviate some of the concerns business owners have with regard to cloud security. 

Not only that, but Edge IT can also reduce bandwidth costs by processing data at the point of collection. This avoids the latency associated with transferring data to the cloud or a central server as we do in the current paradigm.

In short, Edge computing takes cloud storage to the next level – and ramps up productivity levels so that your business has the potential to grow quickly as well. 

Because this IT technology operates on the ‘edge’ by processing data in a localised environment, there is no need for employees to be connected to wi-fi.

Edge computing will also accelerate the adoption of IoT. As mentioned above, organisations need to ensure they have sufficient computing power to handle the proliferation of devices and the various software technologies that power their business. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning 

We’ve already seen how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools can be used to eliminate tedious, repetitive jobs and eliminate human error that is associated with data inputting. 

However, developers have yet to figure out how to unleash the full potential of AI – although we discussed various potentials for AI in the IT sphere in our previous article. 

It’s fair to say that AI and machine learning are not perfect. Not in my experience anyway. But the more data these technologies process, the more proficient they become. At least that’s the theory. When I use my voice recognition dictation tool on Apple Mac, however, I do have my doubts. 

That said, Siri performs a lot better than she did five years ago, so we do have first-hand experience of how AI and machine learning can improve. Its most powerful function is to analyse data and predict potential outcomes with a higher degree of certainty than most C-suites. 

The potential to make connections and insights can help decision makers take advantage of customer behaviours as and when they change – which they inevitably do as the proliferation of new IT trends emerge on the market. 

With the capacity to plan for the future and allocate resources appropriately, businesses should be able to take advantage of market trends without suffering significant financial losses. 

Business leaders are already putting their faith in the power of AI. The market is predicted to bulge to a massive $190 billion in the next few years. At the time of writing, the AI industry is valued at $86.9 bn. Let that sink in for a moment. 

If the AI industry is expected to grow by more than double, it’s riskier to ignore this IT trend than it is to invest in it. 

Cybersecurity Mesh

IT infrastructures are continuously vulnerable. With the adoption of remote working becoming widespread since the pandemic, together with SME-busting government regulations, enterprise owners need to be investigating the best way to sure up their business work. 

The solution is to build a flexible but reliable defensive wall that you can scale. A cybersecurity mesh enables IT professionals, to create centralised perimeters that protect access points across a distributed workforce. 

The beauty of a cybersecurity mesh is that you can assemble the architecture using best-of-breed security solutions rather than relying on standard protocols that are built-in to business tools – like Microsoft 365 for example. 

Whilst the company has added a raft of security features to their cloud products, Microsoft suffers a high percentage of data breaches. All the more reason to install a cybersecurity mesh and work with Microsoft 365 experts that know how to integrate disparate security services and configure software accordingly. 

A cybersecurity mesh can be built into your edge computing infrastructure which enables network managers to move control points closer to your assets – and further away from cyber criminals.

Privacy-Enhancing Computation

With customer data regarded as the most valuable asset in today’s economy, protecting the privacy of sensitive data is critical. The obligation for businesses to secure and protect personal data was ratcheted up a note with the introduction of GDPR in 2018. 

Data protection laws have called for greater urgency to implement cybersecurity defences that safeguard customer data. But the media attention around the data privacy violations of Google and Facebook has made customers increasingly concerned and more aware of how their data can be violated. 

Privacy-enhancing computation is still in its early phases of development but there are high hopes. It was named in this year’s strategic IT trends listed by Gartner which is a testament to its potential importance. 

The problem is that nobody really knows what is it yet. Its described as a “utilising a variety of privacy-protection techniques” but no mention of which ones other than “solutions [that] can be hardware and software.” Go figure. 

So yeah, one to watch. 

The Metaverse

The Metaverse is not only an IT trend in and of itself but will provide innovators with a platform to launch the proliferation of technologies McKinsey has predicted. And the Metaverse matters. 

Social media adoption is already massive. Almost 3 billion people use Facebook. Not only that, but consumers have already expressed they would be willing to pay more for immersive experiences online. 

Forward-thinking businesses have already been busy crafting a virtual space that facilitates face-to-face communication in a setting that feels more like real-life. As virtual reality becomes widespread and more affordable, the metaverse could become the go-to place to shop for both B2B and B2C interactions. 

Although life in the metaverse has to be left to our imagination, for the time being, it’s not a far stretch to predict opportunities that present themselves to businesses that leverage the technology in the first few years of inception. Not only will you capture early adopters, but you get more time to master how marketing works in the metaverse. 

The sales potential of an exciting new platform could enable rapid growth for the most innovative companies. And with a growing mistrust of corporate entities, there is a space for SMEs to capture a real audience in the virtual world. 

IT Specialists in London

Emerging IT trends call for greater reliance on IT professionals that have the skills, knowledge and insights to install and leverage capabilities. Specialists with advanced skills are already in high demand – and thus command a pretty hefty salary. 

The alternative option is to take advantage of IT specialists on the payroll of managed IT services. The experts at Micro Pro diligently look to continuously improve our skills and knowledge of the latest IT trends – so that we can help you stay ahead of your competitors.

If you’re a forward-thinking business we would love to hear from you. Why not contact our senior IT professionals in London to discuss your ideas, vision and goals? Our seasoned IT specialists have a knack for implementing creative solutions and can’t wait to share our knowledge of emerging IT trends.