As we get right into the New Year, the Now IT Works team has prepared a few technology predictions.
What are you predicting? Tell me on the chat button, bottom right of the page.
1. 5G will change how we handle data…
In the United States, we have pretty good Internet speeds – it doesn’t compare to other nations who have skipped interim steps, but it’s pretty good.
When 5G becomes available to the nation, it’s going to be like 1956 all over again.
NOTE: 1956 was when the Interstate Highway System was started.
Gordon McKenna, CTO of cloud Enosono says, “With its lower latency and faster speeds, 5G is set to deliver the greatest wave of innovation since the advent of the internet. It will add trillions to the global economy with new products, services, and even new business models and industries. The impact this will have on our society will be unprecedented – from the explosion of different form factors of devices to the changes to how we view and receive data and the undoubted strides forward in cloud computing in the form of edge computing. The mainstream use of IoT devices in smart cities and autonomous vehicles combined with 5G will enrich our lives and require a next generation of infrastructure.”
2. …but 5G expansion will bring security challenges
Speaking of new form factors and new IOT devices, consider HVAC, CCTV and smart speakers that are only controlled by Internet only interfaces.
A new way to think about security is going to require an additional strategic conversation. Renaud Deraison, CTO of Tenable agrees.
“With 5G networks will come the advent of 5G-only IoT and IIoT devices, which do not require connecting to the local network to operate. This will diminish the risk of an IoT device used as an attack vector against the rest of the network. But it will create more disruption for enterprises that already struggle to determine which equipment they have in their digital infrastructure.Moving forward, we anticipate an increase in the discovery of new attack vectors as 5G becomes operational worldwide and implementation issues are exposed by researchers.”
3. Remote work will increase
What if work continues to evolve into more of a thing, rather than a place?
It’s an interesting concept – some of my clients have recently renovated their space to accommodate more of an open floor plan. Yet, they have a very flexible remote work policy. Makes me think that we have multiple places to work.
Jason James, CIO of Net Health says that, “The war for talent will continue to heat up. As major markets become more competitive, CIOs will look outside of their traditional office locations and embrace remote talent. Work will continue to evolve more into a thing, rather than a place. As CIOs manage larger remote teams, they will need to ensure collaboration tools are being utilized effectively to support a decentralized workforce.”
4. Smaller cities will draw more tech startup HQs
Start-ups are everywhere – a lot of them are in Silicon Valley and such places where talent, money and resources exist – but startups are everywhere.
“Who needs San Francisco and Seattle when you live and work in Portland, Oregon – or Maine, for that matter?”, states Todd Olson, CEO and co-found of Pendo. “In 2020, we’ll see more founders, operators, and venture capital migrating to the habitable climes of smaller cities. Places like Raleigh, NC, home to top universities, will become the destination for companies that want to scale affordably and ride the broader trend of highly marketable professionals trading likely-suspect locales to grow their career in more affordable places. In addition to Raleigh, expect a mad dash to Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, and Nashville.”
5. Cyber-security talent shortage will worsen in government agencies
We have become immune to the cyber-attacks, the database breaches and the ransomware attacks – it’s happening to big companies all the time.
What about the local government agencies? With an older talent pool, insufficient funds for adequate support and services and pretty impressive data sets that we should all be worried about.
Larger, more lucrative and more fun opportunities will make the talent pool even more scarce for local governments.
“While the average pay for cyber-security positions in North America is $90,000, pay levels in some areas – such as local and federal government – is below what’s needed to attract and retain skilled talent.” Says Bret Fund, Head of Cybersecurity, Flatiron School. Local government agencies will have to think creatively about how they can reskill their current employee base to meet their cyber-security needs.”
6. More blockchain use cases will come to light
Of all the technologies that have come up in the past few years, this one feels like it’s here for the long haul – but we aren’t ready to use it.
I think that organizations haven’t had the right resources to utilize the data for practical use cases.
“New use cases for blockchain will become possible as machine learning adoption grows across all industries, says Hannu Valtonen, VP of product, Aiven. “Both machine learning and blockchain applications require digesting large amounts of data to initiate specific processes and outcomes – organizations so far haven’t had the right resources to utilize the data for use cases beyond experimentation. 2020 will be the year that the benefits of machine learning and blockchain are actually seen by enterprises as a part of their technology initiatives.”