{"id":31529,"date":"2020-01-20T09:03:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T09:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=31529"},"modified":"2020-01-23T14:59:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:59:35","slug":"five-technology-trends-expected-in-2020-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2020\/01\/20\/five-technology-trends-expected-in-2020-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Five technology trends expected in 2020 and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

David McMurdo, Regional Director, South Africa, Veritas Technologies, looks at five technology trends that he expects will happen in 2020 and beyond.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019 the South African technological landscape saw tremendous changes. However, unlike in previous years, terms such as 5G, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics were no longer just concepts at tech conferences but became part of day-to-day business operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South\nAfricans are increasingly looking to online digital platforms to carry out\nactivities such as banking, shopping and trading. As application workloads\nshift to the cloud, the need to protect cloud-based data increases. Many South\nAfrican businesses are deploying data protection in the cloud to address this\nneed. The migration to cloud computing, AI adoption and digital transformation\nare some of the technology trends expected to increase in 2020 and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI will gain more traction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many local organisations have been experiencing a shift from the traditional core enterprise data centre to a decentralised on-premises and cloud infrastructure. Another major trend for South Africa is what Veritas terms ‘Digital Users’, which include machine agents, IoT devices and API driven infrastructure. AI in South Africa is maturing, and this includes the use of algorithms to analyse data and improve business decision making and efficiency. Local businesses that make use of AI technologies have managed to create a competitive advantage even though the AI market is not as ripe as it is in more developed parts of the world. As more businesses seek to improve their competitive advantage, they will venture more into AI-based business solutions and provide unique services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edge\nbecomes more accessible <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Edge will be the next important shift in IT infrastructure for South African businesses. Mobility, 5G networks, AI-enabled applications, the economic demands of many markets and IoT devices mean businesses will augment traditional core data centres with decentralised data centres, adding edge elements to their essential core. Cloud services like storage, data transmission and computing are on the rise, and shape the operations of many local enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edge\nwon\u2019t replace the cloud paradigm, but businesses will build on their cloud\ninitiatives and develop new capabilities to create, process and securely store\nand protect data at the edge of their enterprise networks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with the cloud, the core data centre model won\u2019t become obsolete. After all, just over a third (39%) of all South African organisational data is stored in the cloud today, but as increasing amounts of data is created outside traditional data centres, we will see an increase in smaller, distributed data centres and a shift closer to the end user, and the devices themselves at the edge of the network. As a result, data protection at the Edge will become a huge priority for enterprises in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transformation\nin employment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nuse of communication and collaborative technologies will continue to pave the\nway for the rise of distributed workforces. We will continue to see the\nphysical presence of employees in the workplace decrease significantly as more\npeople opt to work from home or other remote locations, enabled by the use of\ncloud technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nremote working brings with it a greater risk of data silos and breaches, as\nemployees use edge devices to conduct day-to-day business operations. Data at\nthe edge requires the same enterprise-class protection as in the data centre.\nIn 2020, it\u2019ll be more important than ever for businesses to invest in\ntechnology that not only enables enterprise-class data protection at edge,\nbranch offices, and remote locations, but also saves time, money, and reduces\nthe risks of any downtime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As-a-service channel offerings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\npartners look for new ways to become a trusted advisor and to automate\nprocesses, we will see the emergence of new platforms designed to bring\ntogether multiple technologies that are guaranteed to work together. For\ninstance, combining security, backup and workload technologies with an\nautomated billing platform based on a partner\u2019s integration capabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nthe same time, channel partners will need to have a very clear integration\nplan. The local business landscape will require them to understand a vendor\u2019s\nroadmap, its integration technologies and have a strong go-to-market plan that\nwill continue to add value to the customer after the sale. Channel partners can\ntake advantage of integrating their technologies with those of the vendors.\nThis type of development is most likely to have a positive impact on customer\nservice as it is poised to effectively address customer needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasing adoption of automation <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nkey business functions are already becoming increasingly automated. In 2020,\nautomation will transform how organisations protect and utilise their most\ncritical data. However, companies can\u2019t afford to neglect the basics of sound\ndata management in the present. Many of tomorrow\u2019s most exciting solutions\ndepend on data that has already been centralised, cleaned up and correctly\nlabelled. Automation may take over many of the day-to-day requirements of data\nmanagement, but employees will still have to know where their company\u2019s data is\nto make the most of it.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data\nresponsibility will continue to be an important skill for businesses to instill\ninto their employees through training and rewards. Databases often fragment or\nbloat because employees lack strong guidelines.\nOrganisations should encourage the adoption of data management tools that break down silos and help\nemployees see what data they have and where it is at all times. Once the\norganisation has complete visibility, automation tools will help organisations\nglean better insights to improve operations, regulatory compliance and customer\nexperiences.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As South Africa pursues digital fluency and strives to attain digital supremacy, technological trends will continue to evolve. The AI-enabled technologies will be a key trend in the technological landscape as organisations sense and respond to these trends and stay abreast as they navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David McMurdo, Regional Director, South Africa, Veritas Technologies, looks at five technology trends that he expects will happen in 2020 and beyond. In 2019 the South African technological landscape saw tremendous changes. However, unlike in previous years, terms such as 5G, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics were no longer just concepts at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":31534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,6,399,19,9059,10675,262],"tags":[871,496,2593,386,826,294,12326,390,453,1497],"class_list":["post-31529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-insights","category-more-news","category-regional-news","category-south-africa","category-thought-leadership","category-used","tag-5g","tag-ai","tag-api","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-automation","tag-cloud-computing","tag-david-mcmurdo","tag-iot","tag-south-africa","tag-veritas-technologies"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31529"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31538,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31529\/revisions\/31538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}