Outlook 2020: Technology trends that will drive IT industry

In the modern era, everything around us is changing constantly. With ever-changing IT landscape, 2019 was no different. The year witnessed many disruptive technologies emerge and make headlines worldwide. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud, Blockchain and many more became the brainstorming topics of discussion for boardrooms, where as 5G was the show stopper the whole year. These technologies will continue to impact businesses in 2020 and will certainly become integral parts of companies’ plans to lead in the future.

Below are the technology trends from industry leaders that are likely to bring significant innovation and growth in 2020 and in the years to come.

Renaud Deraison, Co-founder and CTO, Tenable
Heading into 2020, we will see the emergence of OT to IT attacks and an increase in the discovery of new attack vectors as 5G becomes operational worldwide. Lateral attacks that gain a foothold in IT and spread to operational technology (OT) networks have been a well-documented concern over the past 24 months. However, heading into 2020, we will see the emergence of OT to IT attacks. These attacks will capitalize on the rapid convergence of IT and OT by targeting vulnerable OT environments as a path of least resistance to IT data repositories. For example, we can expect attacks that intentionally compromise industrial control systems (ICS) in order to gain access to IT networks and assets, like customer databases.

We should also expect to see attackers targeting OT infrastructures such as branch or remote locations at large organizations. Typically, smaller sites are connected to the larger OT network and, in the case of energy providers, to regional grids. As a result, a compromise at a remote site or even a small energy provider could have cascading impacts if an attack is able to spread.

Moving into 2020, 5G networks will continue to be rolled out in cities across the globe, with devices designed to take advantage of this technology. This will create more disruption to the enterprise which will have even more difficulty identifying what devices are out there listening to and observing employees via a rogue 5G security camera or smart speaker.

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. When their elevators, HVAC, CCTVs and smart speakers start connecting directly to the cloud via 5G, it won’t get any easier.

We have already seen MITM attacks that allow an attacker to perform device fingerprinting, battery draining and downgrading attacks. 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.

As devices evolve to capitalize on the latest generation of mobile wireless system, it’s even more important that the security of the device itself be considered.

Nikhil Korgaonkar, Regional Director India & SAARC at Arcserve
The year 2020 will again, be a year of big data. With the rise of super apps, connected devices, IoT, Wi-Fi enabled services and cross-functional customer platforms, historic volumes of data can be expected across all industries. Experts have already predicted there to be around 44 trillion gigabytes (44 zettabytes) of data by 2020. Given this acceleration, cyber criminals will no doubt be ready and waiting with more sophisticated forms of ransomware to steal and damage business-critical data. They are taking a more tailored approach to get control of our digital assets, making it more critical than ever to have solutions in place that secure and protect them.

The major verticals like Government, Healthcare and BFSI will be the most targeted verticals by cyber criminals in 2020. Organizations need to make more investments in more advanced threat detection and remediation software. Along with that, they should ensure companies’ data backup & disaster recovery protocols are in line with the modern era. Businesses should also look for cyber security and data availability technologies that integrate easily with one another and can close security gaps and reduce data loss issues.

Thus, data protection strategies along with right cyber security must be implemented to further the business and stay head of the competition in 2020.

Vikas Bhonsle, CEO at Crayon Software Experts
With newer technologies such as AI and IoT paving their way into industrial and consumer-oriented companies, tech innovations are moving at a speedier pace than expected. Cloud technology which was considered cutting-edge a few years ago is now a mainstream for many businesses. 2019 was more about laying the groundwork for these massive tectonic shifts in the IT industry. We shall all agree to the fact that the revolution in digital space has encouraged and led organizations to innumerable innovations & improve business outcomes. These new innovations are becoming more mature and are driving advancements and creating new paradigms across all sectors in an interconnected world.

Augmented analytics: The rising need and importance of data have paved a way for many of next generation technologies and data processing tools. New advances in AI & Machine Learning algorithms and decreased cost of computing power have created a new arena where businesses can utilize Augmented Analytics to gain a competitive edge. By expanding traditional business intelligence systems with new actionable insights, automating existing lines of business process, and enhancing existing products with intelligent services, augmented analytics is becoming exciting and disruptive technology with a promising future.

AR and VR technologies: AR and VR provides a fun, unique, and memorable experience for customers and if adopted early, enterprises can stand-out in this race. This visually interactive digital technology serves as catalysts in magnifying businesses’ capabilities for serving the next generation of the connected world. According to Gartner, by 2022, 70 per cent of enterprises will be experimenting with immersive technologies for consumer and enterprise use, and 25 per cent will have deployed to production. The future of these conversational platforms will incorporate expanded sensory channels that will allow the AR&VR platforms to detect emotions based on facial expressions to become more conversational in interactions.

Autonomous Things:  IT automation examples are everywhere, be it in cars, robots or agriculture. Its reach has been so much widespread that it is now an integral part of any IT operations. With the digitization of processes, autonomous technologies are increasingly helping organizations to streamline the process, reduce costs, minimize resources, and drive profits. With multiple applications in industries such as robotics, automobile, logistics, retail, transport, and more the rise of autonomous things signals an exciting future ahead.

Edge Computing Solutions: With the adoption of data intense technologies and devices, the quantity of data we’re dealing with continues to increase. While processing data, many organizations realize that there are shortfalls such as latency, cost and bandwidth in cloud computing. To help eliminate these drawbacks, companies are moving towards edge computing – an alternative approach to the cloud environment. Edge computing can lower the dependency on the cloud and can simultaneously improve the speed of data processing as a result.

Smart Spaces: Based on the digital technologies, automation and IoT devices, ‘Smart Space’ is a concept of making an intelligent living and work environment. The spectrum of smart space varies in size from homes, offices, factories, stadiums to cities. According to the recent report by ResearchandMarkets, the smart space market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.4 per cent over the forecast period (2019 – 2024). The rapid increase in urbanization coupled with the advent of new technologies like IoT & 5G is expected to augment the growth of the smart space market.

Ashutosh Garg, CEO & Co-founder at Eightfold
Artificial Intelligence has paved its way into all the major sectors, improving the standard of living. AI is playing a great role in automating and improving traditional processes, whether in security, manufacturing, design, or other areas, and we are now seeing this effect from AI in the world of talent. In 2020, AI will continue to improve workplace operations and create efficiency and productivity, and will play a key role in hiring processes and helping employees to build their careers. By 2030, more than one in three workers will likely need to be reskilled as AI changes their jobs by automating routine tasks. AI will also help with reskilling, showing workers how to develop the advanced skills that will remain the effort of people and not machines. Because of these coming changes, technological skills won’t be the only focus points for hiring managers. After all, technologies change very quickly. Tomorrow’s candidates will need strong critical thinking and social skills, which will position them to remain valuable even as the technologies around them change. AI powered hiring platforms will help companies to specifically choose the right person for the job role, improving the operational efficiency of any organization.

Satish Kumar V, CEO at EverestIMS
The year 2020 can witness major IT developments across various segments like healthcare, manufacturing, law enforcement, aviation & space exploration, etc., that will redefine the IT world. India will be a lead player in adoption of IoT across the Asia Pacific region. As devices has exploded across the country, the future of IoT market share is expected to be play well across distributed industry sectors like utilities, manufacturing, transport and logistics, automotive, healthcare and so on.

IoT is unfurling an exciting new frontier for man’s interaction with technology. From real-time insights which lead to better and faster product development to medical breakthroughs, it will slowly permeate almost all paradigms of technology in 2020. When combined with analytics IoT becomes a powerful tool helping increase efficiencies and improved decision making in businesses. Many start-ups and companies are heavily investing in breaking new ground. As these improvements start entering the mainstream we will observe even better permeation of IoT across personal, commercial and industrial usage in 2020.

Further the Government of India is pushing hard to further IoT with its robust initiatives like Draft IoT Policy 2016 and National Digital Communication Policy 2018. With increasing consumer applications every day, we can also witness strong adoption of virtual and augmented applications in customer engagement experience. Thus, IoT will be unlocking greater value in India and enables in transforming lives.