7 Top Tech Trends of 2018
It’s been a year of tech growth, with Africa in the spotlight. Here’s what we’ve been talking about all year:
1. Big Cloud Comes to (South) Africa
The big Cloud providers are also opening their first data centers in Africa. Microsoft will be opening Azure regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg “in 2018” — although it’s looking like that will slip to 2019. And Amazon has announced that in 2020 they will be opening an AWS region in Cape Town. The availability of world class cloud services in South Africa will greatly benefit organisations that have data sovereignty requirements. In the future we would like to see more data centers like these in other parts of the continent.
2. “Async Native” Programming Languages
At Praekelt.org we’ve started experimenting with alternative languages that are purpose-built for problems that feature asynchronicity. We’re big fans of Elixir and have written about our uses of it and how it compares to Python. As more of the volume of messages we handle pass through more advanced messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, we’re able to build messaging services with more powerful features and new types of media. As these services grow, it’s important that our services scale and remain very responsive. Languages such as Elixir can help with this, and our new WhatsApp for Social Good platform, Turn, is built with Elixir.
3. Cloud Native Tech Goes Mainstream
Container and so-called “Cloud Native” technologies continued to grow at an explosive rate in 2018. The annual KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America conference doubled in size from 4,000 to 8,000 attendees. For the first time, a single API for managing containerised workloads is available from all 3 major cloud providers. All provide a managed Kubernetes service that provides a common interface to compute, networking, and storage resources.
4. AI/ML/Data Science is All-consuming
The rise of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science seems unstoppable. JetBrains’ 2018 Data Science Survey provides a good overview of trends in tech in the data science space. At PyConZA this year, there was an entire conference track dedicated to Data Science and it was given the largest stage and the closing keynote. And Google announced an AI research lab in Ghana.
Still, ethical questions around the use of AI technologies remain persistent. In April, Google employees protested against the company’s involvement in Project Maven. Amazon faced backlash for selling its Rekognition service to government agencies such as ICE. And most recently the British police forces trialed facial recognition tech in London. We’re continuing to look at these issues as we grow our Data Science team.
5. Agriculture Tech is the New Fintech
In Africa alone, the number of startups operating in the agritech market grew 110 percent over the past two years, with more than $19 million invested in the sector during that period, according to a recent report by Disrupt Africa entitled “Agrinnovating for Africa: Exploring the African Agri-Tech Startup Ecosystem Report 2018”. From drone technology and artificial intelligence to mobile apps that assist farmers across the continent, Africans are embracing tech to enhance production and ensure a more profitable future while maintaining food security.
6. Move over SMS
IP, or internet protocol, messaging services, like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, have changed the global messaging space — an industry that boasts 2 trillion messages a year. WhatsApp reaches nearly 2 billion users, and Facebook Messenger nearly 1.5 billion. Allowing for a higher degree of engagement, including the ability to send rich media and images, and a substantial reach in emerging markets, IP messaging is quickly become the preferred mode of communication over SMS. We are tapping into this in our health projects.
7. Digital First Health Care
“Digital health should be like a hospital bed”. I heard this at a health conference earlier this year and it resonated throughout all the talks and panels I went to this year. It no longer seems like integrating technology is even an option in healthcare, but an essential part of the consumer journey. At the Node Digital Medicine conference, Matthew Farkash from Blueprint Health talked about the importance of culture, mindset, and process in terms of integrating technology into health care. He drove home the need to be specialized but also integrated — that new products must also sell integration. All of this is key for technology to thrive in the healthcare space.
We’re looking forward to keeping ahead of these trends in 2019!
Contributed by Jamie Hewland, Ambika Samarthya-Howard, & Sewagodimo🎈
