2020 was a year full of surprises. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, not only businesses had to suffer financially but also look for new ways to stay afloat in the market. They had to adapt to the change and embrace new working models. Remote working and digital transformation became new norms.
As we are rolling towards 2021, we don’t know what destiny has in store for us. However, if we believe reports from various sources including Gartner, 11 business tech trends will accumulate popularity next year. In this blog, we will walk you through all of them in detail. Let’s begin:
1. Intelligent Automation
Hyper automation or intelligent automation is what many businesses are calling the next phase of digital transformation. We are not far from the days when artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotic process automation will become essential ingredients of a company’s business processes.
The idea before hyper-automation is to automate repetitive, time-consuming business processes that were once completed by humans so that we provide a much superior customer experience while reducing operational expenses at the same time.
Gartner has coined hyper-automation as a necessity in the present business scenario. According to its report:
“Many organizations are supported by a patchwork of technologies that are not lean, optimized, connected, clean, or explicit. However, the acceleration of digital business requires efficiency, speed, and democratization. Organizations that don’t focus on efficacy, efficiency, and business agility will be left behind.”
2. Internet of Behaviors (IoB)
Do you know data and analytics can influence customer actions and behaviors? With continuous feedback loops, it is possible. There is even a term for it called the Internet of Behaviours (IoB) which Gartner calls the next big thing in technology in the year 2021.
In its report, Gartner highlights how telematics can monitor commercial vehicle driver behavior and then use that data for better safety, driver performance, and routing. The report also talks about gathering data from different sources like social media, data processed by public-sector and government agencies, location tracking, etc.
So, the Internet of Behaviours (IoB) is going to be popular for sure. However, there are also some social and ethical implications that we will have to keep in mind.
3. Cybersecurity Mesh
The increasing reliance on the cloud and the increasing popularity of the remote working culture will also bring along cybersecurity threats. New types of attacks will begin surfacing.
As a result, advanced cybersecurity will become a priority for businesses and we will get to see new trends. One such cybersecurity trend will be cybersecurity mesh that allows the identity of a person to define the security parameters. Centralized policy orchestration and policy enhance will ensure the facilitation of this advanced security approach.
4. Everything as a Service
Trends like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS) have already changed the face of business culture by reducing on-premise costs, simplifying tech deployments, and ensuring faster project development with increased quality.
In the year 2021, this trend is expected to go one step further where everything-as-a-service (XaaS) will be the new norm. It will ensure a faster implementation turn-around for new applications and business processes as well as higher ROI margins.
5. Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT)
With over 7 billion internet-connected devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) is already an emerging trend. But in the year 2021, it will go one step further with the addition of artificial intelligence. It will give them a mind of their own and will improve the efficiency, productivity, and reliability of these IoT devices. Stats from this study are already showing that 90% of businesses are witnessing a faster impact after including AI for their IoT operations. So, we can already feel that AIoT is going to be a big thing in the next year.
6. Anywhere Operations
The anywhere operations became popular amidst the COVID-19 crises and will continue existing even after the pandemic ends. It will become one of the most popular trends in the next year.
According to a report from Gartner, Anywhere Operations is a “digital-first, remote-first” model. Since it facilitates the business being done anywhere, it should be the default for businesses all the time. Gartner even notes in its report that even physical spaces should be digitally enhanced.
7. Intelligently Composable Businesses
We are living in a time when change is inevitable. It will become even faster in the upcoming years when the business digital transformation will be the new norm. To ensure this change happens smoothly and businesses succeed in it, we must ensure data is available in a timely fashion. That’s why intelligently composable businesses will be a rising trend in the year 2021. It will allow companies to adapt and arrange themselves based on the changes happening around them.
Here’s what businesses should do for successfully adapting to the changing market:
- Enable better access to information
- Augment that information with better insight
- Respond quickly to the implications of that insight
Intelligently composable businesses also demand autonomy and democratization across an organization so that businesses can quickly react instead of bothering by inefficient processes.
8. Cloud Innovation
The cloud has become a game-changer amidst the work from home scenario. It is the reason why businesses have been able to ensure continuity amidst the COVID-19 scenario. Chances are that businesses will continue relying on the Cloud to support their operations and workforce.
One cloud innovation trend that is going to amass maximum popularity in 2021 is the distributed cloud. According to Gartner, it is the future of cloud technology. Keeping the services of public cloud providers closer will help them in reducing costs & latency, and ensuring compliance with laws that demand data must remain in a specific geographic region.
9. WebRTC
With the impact of the COVID-19 crises, businesses are looking for ways to stay afloat in the market landscape. They are looking for ways to communicate seamlessly on the web. This calls for the demand for media streaming applications that can facilitate seamless communication online.
As a result, the trend of WebRTC will pick pace in the next year and we will get to major advancements in it.
10. Privacy-enhancing Computation
With enterprises treating data as an essential asset and recognizing data and analytics as crucial drivers of digital transformation, privacy-enhancing computation will also become a rising trend.
Privacy-enhancing computation focuses on three technology to safeguard data while it is being used:
- Providing a trusted environment in which data can be processed and analyzed.
- Performing analytics and processing in a decentralized fashion.
- Encrypting data and algorithms before analytics and processing.
According to Gartner, this trend will allow organizations to securely collaborate on research across regions and with competitors without having to risk confidentiality. It will help them share data while maintaining privacy and security.
11. Total Experience
Businesses have also started realizing that if they want to sustain themselves in the market, they will have to think a lot ahead of user experience alone. This has given rise to a new trend called total experience which combines user experience, customer experience, and employee experience to impact and transform business outcomes.
According to Gartner, Total Experience will amass an insane amount of popularity and emerge as one of the most powerful business tech trends in 2021 as it is allowing companies to use disruptive aspects of the current pandemic like distributed customers, remote work, and virtual interaction to play the odds in their favor.
So, these were 11 business tech trends that will change the face of technology in 2021. What do you think? Please let us know in the comments.
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