“No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.”
HAL 9000, “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)
The phrase above is a speech made by HAL, the artificial intelligence and character from “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), directed by Stanley Kubrick.
I believe that like HAL, many companies recognized the market as a provider of infinite and error-free opportunities. But the surprise element transformed 2020 into something unique. We have seen changes taking place quickly, especially in the global technology industry.
The uncertainty produced by the pandemic caused companies to seek the cloud to obtain elasticity of infrastructure and mobility in operations. After all, predicting the future of the economy and people’s behavior has become a complicated task.
With that, cloud services came on the scene as lead role actors and no longer like supporting ones. The cloud has become the only way to pursue growth goals and, in many cases, the only way to survive in the unconstant market.
Only Cloud Saves
With the home office and homeschooling practices increase, the demand for collaborative solutions has grown. For example, Google reached 3 million new users (daily) of its Google Workspace package, the former G Suite.
There was also a great demand for DevOps and Managed Cloud Services. In these cases, we can highlight two main objectives of the companies:
- Decrease the workload of internal IT teams, allowing technology departments to direct their efforts towards productivity;
- Apply automation in production chains, changing manual processes to 100% automated systems.
It became clear that these outsourced services save millions of dollars/year in operating and infrastructure costs.
To summarise the story, nothing or nobody is invincible, unless in a science fiction story, and the “true” digital transformation that we hoped to happen gradually came without excuses.
Now that many companies are already sheltered and protected by the cloud, it’s time to look to the future and learn about trends contributing to industry growth, improved services, and profit increase.
After a turbulent year, Gartner released an article about trends for 2021. Among them is the efficient use of data collected on different platforms, automation, and agile ways of operating in the cloud.
According to Brian Burke, VP of Research at Gartner, the main technology trends for the coming year start with three premises:
People centricity: with all the changes in our workplace, personal life, and consumption habits, we need to keep ourselves more and more connected in everything we do;
Location independence: The office walls are on the floor. How much physical freedom to work and consume, it better. Assets and servers need to be available to be accessed from anywhere;
Resilience in Delivery: After the Covid-19 hurricane, we realized that the world could change suddenly. It is necessary to keep the right course even when the winds change direction.
Based on these central themes, Gartner points out the nine main trends for the next year.
Check righ bellow!
Internet of Behaviors (IoB)
All the data we leave using applications, social media channels, facial recognition systems, etc., are collected and analyzed by brands and governments, creating mechanisms to influence our behavior.
I mean, yes, it is a controversial subject. It will be necessary to discuss the edge ethical use of this data.
But I think you agree that we cannot deny that it is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of all this information to improve citizens’ and consumers’ lives.
Total Experience
The concept of Multi Experience (MX), Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience (EX), and User Experience (UX) come together. The total experience becomes a decisive choice factor for consumers. It will allow brands to stand out from competitors through new ways of interacting with their target.
Privacy-Enhancing Computation
There are ways to process and take advantage of user data without exceeding privacy limits:
- Greater security and privacy in branded environments, third party companies, and using reliable hardware;
- Work with data in a decentralized manner, using ML tools with a focus on privacy;
- Convert data into algorithms so that the information can proceed with complete confidentiality.
Distributed Cloud
The public cloud operation keeps to carry out all the development and storage of data remains. However, according to each region, maintaining processes in local cloud computing environments can reduce latency problems and make the privacy laws implementation easy.
Anywhere Operations
Allowing all stakeholders to carry out their activities from anywhere is necessary to adapt infrastructure, security policy, governance, management, and fair practices usage (employees and customers).
Cybersecurity Mesh
With the remote access increment by employees and customers, the focus is on cybersecurity. It is necessary to maintain the high availability of information with the required care.
The goal is to offer more layers of protection without compromising business development.
Intelligent Composable Business
During the pandemic, a sudden break in productivity showed that the processes are fragile and complicated to reorganize in time for the resumption of activities. It will be necessary to operate under highly adaptable solutions.
Technology companies must develop more customizable solutions instead of pre-molded solutions.
On the other hand, CIOs will play a key role in organizations, showing that infrastructure elasticity plays a crucial role in repairing business damage caused by sudden market changes.
AI Engineering
AI projects must come to real-life definitively and using in large-scale production. Without AI engineering, many companies will not get out of prototypes and endless test models.
AI engineering runs by three pillars: DataOps, ModelOps, and DevOps.
Just think that an artificial intelligence project is being fed all the time with new data, models, and codes.
Well-formatted artificial intelligence projects bring savings by anticipating scenarios, in addition to playing a role of organizational and social responsibility.
Hyperautomation
A “patchwork of technology.”
Brian Burke – Gartner
This definition described in the Gartner report is realistic and summarizes what many organizations present. Managed Cloud Services, for example, is a service available from Webera that enables the journey towards total automation in companies.
When an organization does not enjoy the benefits of automation, it becomes expensive. According to Brian Burke, the era of Hyperautomation has arrived, and there is no possibility to escape it.
