We will always remember 2020 for all the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the sad loss of human life, the enormous restrictions on mobility it imposed on the entire planet, and the profound impact it had on the global economy. But also, among all the bad things, it will be a year of digital breakthrough. Organizations discovered all the potential that technology and software development had to carry out tasks faster, more productively, and at a lower cost.
In this regard, we see several significant trends that will transform business and personal software development in the coming year. These will be increasingly key for creating solutions that respond to market expectations regarding flexibility and speed in their integration.
1. IoB or Internet of Behaviors
The so-called Internet of Behaviors emerges, as many technologies capture and use the data that people generate in their daily lives. What technologies are behind this concept? Facial recognition solutions, location tracking, big data. The dilemma here will be how to fit these technologies in ethically and socially.
2. Enhanced privacy through computing
In a scenario in which data legislation is increasingly mature, and the privacy and compliance risks for organizations are also higher, information technology that protects data will be a clear trend in use while maintaining privacy.
3. ‘Total experience’ of user
Making a satisfactory user, customer, employee experience possible is an issue that increasingly worries organizations. The ‘multi-experience’ technological trend is evolving to the concept of ‘total experience.’
Organizations need a comprehensive experience strategy as interactions become more mobile, virtual, and distributed, a reality to which COVID-19 contributes. The pandemic also highlighted the importance of facilitating cross experiences to achieve differentiation in the market.
4. Distributed cloud (distribution of public cloud services in different locations)
Within five years, most cloud service platforms will provide at least some distributed services. What’s more, a distributed cloud can replace the private cloud and provide edge cloud environments and other new use cases for cloud computing.
But what does this concept of ‘distributed cloud’ mean specifically? It involves distributing public cloud services to different physical locations, while the operation, governance, and evolution of those services remain the public cloud provider’s responsibility. It is a model that provides an agile environment for low latency organizational scenarios, cost reduction needs, and data residency requirements.
5. Operations from anywhere
By the end of 2023, 40% of organizations will have operated from anywhere to deliver enhanced virtual and physical experiences for customers and employees. This IT operating model is designed to support customers anywhere and allow employees to access corporate resources from wherever they are. It is a step beyond teleworking and remote customer service. It includes value-added experiences in collaboration and productivity, secure remote access, cloud, edge infrastructure, quantification of the digital experience, and automation to support remote operations.
6. Cybersecurity mesh
The cybersecurity mesh is also among the trends for the coming year. Its mission is to allow anyone to access all digital asset types securely, no matter where the asset or the person is. It is responsible for disconnecting the policy decision from enforcement through a cloud model and allowing identity to become the security perimeter. By 2025, the cybersecurity mesh will support about half of digital access control requests.
7. Artificial Intelligence will help automate DevOps
The development of software and applications powered by Artificial Intelligence will increase the following year. Many aspects of Development Operations (DevOps) can be automated and, over time, more efficient by using AI capabilities. Some of the key areas we expect to see significant growth: AI-assisted development, including suggestions for entities and workflows, data modeling, auditing, extraction, and processing using predesigned operations, among others.
