Big Technology Trends That Will Affect Enterprises In Today's World

Organizations and the Age of Technology

The present age is the age of technology. The technology revolution has swept across various strata of business and society and has changed the game not only for large corporations but for small and medium sized businesses too. Nevertheless, there are many challenges that organizations face while performing their business related responsibilities.

In a recent survey conducted by Deloitte, nearly half of the respondents said they viewed technology as a critical differentiator and the key to future growth. In addition, a majority of the respondents said that the spending on technology was higher in the current year than compared to the previous year.

Some of the top technology related worries that organizations face are keeping up with modern technology innovations and budgeting so that they can remain sustainable while implementing new technology. For many organizations, the truth is plain and stark – technology and business strategy are linked deeply to each other.

It is further clear that technology trends such as the advent of the cloud, online privacy and information security and analytics & big data are the top three heavers that are affecting businesses currently.

Information and Cyber Security

Today, one of the topmost issues facing management is information and cyber security. This aspect deals with the protection of valuable business information and intellectual property that exists in digital form. Cyber security is a serious economic and financial challenge that the corporate world is facing presently. All sorts of records were broken in 2015 for cyber-attacks as this activity cost the global economy up to $ 575 billion.

Since there has been a 30% increase in the existence of internet-connected devices in 2016 compared to 2015, the opportunity for hackers has increased considerably. The issue is the existence of ever-present cyber-attacks. This comes in various forms such as the presence of cybercriminals ever hungry to steal and misuse sensitive corporate data or even disgruntled employees releasing sensitive information to competitors or selling intellectual property to rival companies.

For example, the question of mobile security took centre stage in 2015, which was considered as the ‘age of the hack’ by security professionals, according to the website HPE Matter. This website notes that the number of security breaches is increasing in frequency and the amount of data compromised each year is setting a trend that will well continue into 2016 and beyond. Mobile security has become a big question and security industry experts fear that mobile devices are going to face more threats in coming years.

Also, enterprises faced the worst ever security scenario in 2015, which saw high profile data breaches involving companies such as Ashley Madison, JDWetherSpoons and TalkTalk according to the website Information-Age. In the case of TalkTalk, the DDoS attacks not only breached around 157,000 customer data records of this UK telecom provider but also cost the firm an estimated £35 million.

This only proves that many companies worldwide are facing several sophisticated and crafty attempts to rob them of their data. Those companies, which will fail to protect their data against cyber criminals, will have nowhere to hide in the increasing spotlight of the media and the legislature.

Among security risks, phishing and targeted attacks top the list along with risks faced while integrating with external systems. Many companies even have had to face ransom attacks against their tech environments and many cases of ransom payment even have been hushed up without the knowledge of the public. Hence, the will to upgrade infrastructure to meet this technology trend needs to come from the top.

Critical business information needs to be protected without restraining growth and innovation. Nevertheless, many middle level and senior level executives are ill prepared to face the eventuality of a security breach.

Many companies do not even have the most up to date and robust security measures in place to avoid these security breaches, as they simply do not have the right resources to put these innovations in place. Hence, cyber security can be considered as a major technology trend that has the strong capability to affect enterprises.

Big Data Analytics

Big Data Analytics is finding favour with many organizations presently and is no longer just an experimental tool. With the help of big data analytics software such as Hadoop and cloud based analytics, companies are reaping significant cost advantages.

Big Data Analytics has also made organizations improve their decision-making capabilities and accelerate them. However, while many organizations have commenced using analytics, only a few have deployed analytics organization wide.

Nevertheless, Big Data Analytics has a strong role to play in influencing business strategy as well as operational priority. In the light of this development, it is essential to understand that as business increases, the competition will also increase and along with it, data volumes will continue to grow. Additionally, there is an increasing trend, which shows that prescriptive analytics will be built into the business analytics as early as 2020.

Cloud Computing

With the help of cloud computing, it is possible to set up your own virtual enterprise office so that your get the flexibility of connecting to your business at any time from any location. Today, the number of web connectible devices are growing and their use is also increasing in the business environment of today. Hence, it is possible to access your data from anywhere in a straightforward manner.

Companies are experiencing lower IT costs by the way of managing and maintaining their systems on the cloud rather than purchasing systems and equipment for your business. They can also reduce the costs by utilizing the resources of the cloud service provider itself.

Besides, today’s companies get the advantage of better scalability because they can upscale or downscale their operational needs quickly. The cloud technology also offers better ability for business continuity planning to ensure protection of your data and systems in the long run. Today, many top business functions such as Sales Force Automation and Customer Relationship Management are already in the cloud.

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

The emergence of cloud has given rise to a drive to integrate on-premise applications with the Cloud. This integration is being termed as Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS). Since cloud integration is a daunting task for many organizations, iPaas has emerged as a cloud based integration solution that slowly and steadily is gaining preference within many organizations. Although this is a relatively new concept, iPaaS vendors are emerging in the market with solutions like ecommerce/B2B integration and cloud integration. According to Gartner, the iPaaS model is currently in its early stages, and it may not include all the features that Gartner has include in its reference model. According to Gartner, 3 categories of iPaaS will exist – ecommerce and B2B integration, cloud integration, and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) + Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure.

Concluding Thoughts

Looking at the rapid pace at which technology is progressing nowadays, organizations must budget for technology or become obsolete in today’s world. Staying abreast of technology today will not only help organizations to become more competitive but also help them become more agile and responsive to consumer demands.