Top 5 Must-Know Technologies for 2016.

As IT professionals, we love this industry because of the constant change and innovation. In today’s wide array of technological advancements, it can become a bit confusing as to which technologies we should be following. Although certainly not an all-encompassing list, the following illustrates what’s on the top of many executive’s minds in today’s business world. This post aims to highlight a few current topics which every IT person should know — or at the least — be aware of.

Cloud Computing Services.

Yes — cloud has been in the news for some time; but there will still be a lot of growth and evolution. Cisco already predicts that global data center IP traffic will nearly triple (2.8-fold) over the next 5 years. Furthermore, by 2018, 59 percent of the total cloud workloads will be Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) workloads, up from 41 percent in 2013. We’re going to see more organizations migrating to the cloud and utilizing more services to deliver their content. Platforms like Google Nearline already help revolutionize how data archival takes place as even more content becomes digitized and cloud-delivered. Be ready for even more cloud flexibility, and new types of cloud services.

Virtualization (application, server, user, hardware).

At this point, there arevery few organizations which have not adopted virtualization in one way or another. New ways to virtualize workloads will impact delivery methodologies. Keep an eye on containerization and the way developers are optimizing the content delivery process. Furthermore, we’ll see software-defined technologies help abstract the logical layer from the physical infrastructure even further. Keep an eye on new virtualization technologies and how they can impact your users and the business. Most of all, you’ll find new ways to control resources, entire user groups, and cloud integration points.

Content-Delivery Technologies.

Digital content will become the dominant form of content in the very near future. New types of interconnected devices and more users coming online all point to more data and requirements around effective delivery. Consider this, Cisco points out that globally, the data created by IoE devices will reach 403 ZB per year (33.6 ZB per month) by 2018. And, the data created by IoE devices will be 277 times higher than the amount of data being transmitted to data centers from end-user devices and 47 times higher than total data center traffic by 2018. New solutions around WANOP, content optimization, user efficiency technologies, and content control will absolutely impact future delivery models.

Next-Generation Security.

We are way beyond traditional security technologies. Requirements around security range from data center to cloud and everything in between. The amount of digital content out there has created a very economized and industrialized hacker economy. Organizations will be looking for platforms which can provide better contextually-aware security engines which can build security solutions around real-world scenarios. Consider this, Juniper Research suggests that the rapid digitization of consumers’ lives and enterprise records will increase the cost of data breaches to $2.1 trillion globally by 2019, increasing to almost four times the estimated cost of breaches in 2015. This means that the protection of user and corporate data will be an absolute critical initiative.

The Digital Evolution & Mobile Computing.

Welcome to the mobile age. We all know the buzz phrases — BYOD, IT Consumerization — where users are utilizing more devices to access data center resources. Everyday users are now bringing in their own devices and requesting that workloads be delivered to those types of end-points. Consider this, another Cisco report indicates that global mobile data traffic grew 69 percent in 2014. Furthermore, global mobile data traffic reached 2.5 exabytes per month at the end of 2014, up from 1.5 exabytes per month at the end of 2013. More is being done with smartphones, tablets and mobile devices than ever before. Having a clear understanding of how these devices interact and affect an environment is crucial to designing an infrastructure capable of handling a mobile computing initiative. Most of all — the kinds of devices that are connecting into the business are evolving as well. By 2019, mobile-connected tablets will generate nearly double the traffic generated by the entire global mobile network in 2014. This digital revolution will encompass data centers, service providers, cloud organizations, and of course — your business.

Innovation and technological advancement is all a part of our drive to simply the computing process. Faster technologies aim to conquer physical distance by bringing people and workloads closer together. With that innovation come challenges, considerations and planning points. The good news with new technologies is that it’s a bit easier to test them out. Virtualization and cloud allow us to carve small sandboxes to test new systems and solutions.

It’s also important to note that there are truly, many technologies that could make this list a lot longer. Already, there are so many great technologies impacting business decisions on a daily basis. Remember, these trends aren’t going away. The digitization of the world will have profound impacts on business and the entire cloud community. Make sure to keep pace with the evolution.

Originally published at rainmaker-labs.com on October 22, 2015.