Whilst the last two years have been challenging in terms of healthcare the business of technology continues to strive forwards. In 2021, tech giants such as Apple Inc., and Microsoft Corp. thrived, adding $2.5 trillion to their valuation. The Managed Services Provider (MSP) market also had a bumper year helping companies shift operations to the cloud, maintain smooth staff communications, secure their data and infrastructure, and so on.
As 2022 blossoms, what kind of areas should a business be looking at to make sure they stay competitive and take advantage of the latest technology trends?
Top five IT trends in 2022
Technology is a business of change and making predictions can be tricky. However, here are our most likely technology top predictions for 2022.
Continuation of remote working: technology requirements
Remote working is not specific to the Covid Pandemic, but this era has created an appetite for home working. The concept of the hybrid worker, who has the option to work from home at least part-time, is something that is impacting businesses the world over. A report into this situation has found that 73% of employers will offer hybrid working as an employee benefit to retain staff. Remote working presents specific technology challenges that must be surmounted to maintain communications and productivity. In 2022, the modern office will embrace the extended office that reaches out beyond the corporate boundaries into an employee’s home. This will require a more flexible approach to technology, and the use of remote working tools, as de facto, to maintain a fluid work environment. To ensure you can keep up with this trend, look for tools that enhance communications across all channels, including laptops, mobile devices, tablets, IoT devices, etc. Look for hosted Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), VoIP, and IP Telephony solutions that can handle the complex nature of hybrid workers and communication.
Business continuity leans in
Business continuity plans were put to the test over the last two years with Covid and cybersecurity issues. Now 2022 is here we can apply the lessons learned from sudden changes to work and business operations. It has not only been the healthcare emergency that we have been through, but cyber-attacks have taken their toll too. Ransomware attacks have never been so prevalent. According to the Sophos State of Ransomware 2021 report, 37% of businesses were a victim of ransomware in 2021, with the cost to rectify coming in at US$1.85 million, on average. In 2022, businesses must embrace the importance of having good business continuity planning to prepare for worst-case scenarios. Set out robust and enforceable plans for disaster recovery that account for natural disasters as well as cyber-attacks. Look for robust solutions that will help make your business resilient against disaster. Identify hosted data backup and recovery services that protects your company against any worst-case scenario.
Low code/no code app building
Software developers and other app designers and creators are at a premium. New platforms that fill in the gaps are offering hope in 2022 to fill the skills gap in the technology space. Low code apps have become a useful tool to help overloaded development teams and other IT professionals complete apps faster and help in digital transformation projects. Gartner Inc., predicts that by 2024, 65% of development projects will make use of low code platforms. MSPs are also using low code options to deliver apps to clients or enhance their technology stack to deliver improved services.
Zero Trust identity everywhere
The discipline of digital identity reached market maturity during the Covid Pandemic. The move to home working made the control of access to corporate resources more complicated. Cross channel access, and the use of personal devices to use apps and access cloud-based data, placed digital identity at the top of the minds of IT teams and C-level execs alike. This prioritization of Identity and Access Management (IAM) will continue into 2022 and beyond. Increasingly, digital identity requirements will need to cross the employee-consumer barrier as this barrier becomes fuzzier. A Zero Trust approach to manage app and data access has become a best practice. This Zero Trust approach to security uses identification and authentication to enforce employees and non-employees to authorize themselves at the point of an online transaction, access to data, or app login. Okta found that 60% of North American organizations started a zero-trust initiative in 2020. IAM approaches that mirror a Zero Trust approach will be employed into 2022 and beyond.
Security solutions and the MSP
A robust and resilient cybersecurity strategy is central to the continued health of any organization. A cyber-attack impacts a company in many ways including downtime, regulatory non-compliance and fines, as well as lost data and reputation damage. The challenge to maintaining company cyber-health is access to skilled staff and best-of-breed solutions that can deal with the complexities of modern cybercrime. MSPs are the bridge to meet the demands of the changing cybersecurity landscape. The MSP market in security solutions has continued to grow over the last few years by offering centrally managed cloud-based security solutions. In 2022, managed security services (MSSPs) will offer intelligent solutions that use AI and machine learning-based security solutions that can detect complex cyber-attacks. Ransomware will also continue to rear its head as a major source of income for cybercriminals. MSPs are expected to focus on ransomware mitigation and remediation in 2022.
To subscribe or not to subscribe, that is the question
One clear outcome from the last two years is that nothing is ever certain. However, technology has risen to the occasion and saved the day in many companies by facilitating home working, allowing communications to continue, and assuring good productivity, even if work happens outside the walls of the office. This has not come without a cost. This has led to the rise of the subscription economy to manage these costs. In the consumer space, the subscription market has increased by 435% over the last 9 years. This method of paying for goods and services translates well to business too. To have access to great technology and IT services, organizations have turned to managed service providers. This use of managed services and payment on subscription for technology looks set to continue to increase in 2022. This is highlighted in the State of IT report that concludes IT budgets allocated to cloud and managed services will continue to grow over the coming years as “workloads shift away from on-premises data centers.”
The last two years have seen changes that could not have been predicted. However, moving into the next 12-months, we hope that our most likely predictions will help give your business insight into the technology needed to weather any storm.