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A Look at Emerging Technologies
Whether working from home or office, it’s important to keep an eye on emerging technology trends that could boost individual and team performance in the future. Seeing the direction of computing technology can also help you make smarter purchase decisions for your organization in the months ahead.
Among the biggest strategic technology trends for 2021 are the growth in edge computing, 5G data connections, cloud-based services and practical artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications, according to leading IT research firms.
In a recent study, “5G and Edge Computing—Cloud Workloads Shifting to the Edge,” Frost & Sullivan projects that 90 percent of industrial enterprises will use edge computing by 2022.
Rather than store and process information in an organization’s data center, edge computing technology brings data and analytics closer to the end user, improving response times and lowering bandwidth requirements. It’s an open, decentralized architecture using local computers or servers. However, it may require more robust processing power and storage capacity for users’ laptops and desktops.
Dell is one of the leaders in the edge computing trend. As Faiz Parkar, global messaging director, IT Transformation, Dell Technologies, posted recently, “The majority of enterprise data will be generated at the edge over the next decade, so organizations will need to evolve their infrastructure strategy from ‘cloud first’ to ‘data first’ . . . ”
5G Data Connections
Deployment of 5G technology supports the edge computing trend by bringing faster data transmission speeds to users working from home or locations where bandwidth is not readily available. The combination of 5G and mobile edge computing technologies will be particularly important for meeting demand for streaming media services, as well as team collaboration applications.
Cloud Services
It is probably no surprise that analysts expect cloud services and platforms will continue to grow steadily in 2021. After all, cloud-based applications and storage goes hand-in-hand with other decentralization trends that support the work-from-anywhere movement.
In a recent report, “Top Strategic Technology Trends 2021,”
Gartner predicted that distributed cloud would be an emerging trend this year. With this infrastructure, a public cloud provider manages services, which might be distributed to different physical locations. That brings services physically closer to users – an important consideration when addressing low-bandwidth situations. It can also accommodate privacy laws that require data to be store in specific geographic areas. “Distributed cloud is the future of cloud,” said the report.
AI Engineering
Another emerging trend cited by Gartner is AI engineering – putting AI right into the mainstream of operations, rather than being sidelined as a separate development concept. The goal is to delivering the full value of AI investments by facilitating the performance, scalability, interpretability and reliability of AI models. “This brings together various disciplines to tame the AI hype while providing a clearer path to value,” said the report. “It is the operationalization of AI accountability.”
While there are many other developments shaping the technology sector – from cybersecurity to the Internet of things – these four emerging trends are most likely to shape the computing landscape for Dell Client Community members in the months ahead.