This is the time of year when industry analysts and experts make predictions about the technology landscape in the years to come. Given the pace of change and the hype that often surrounds new technology solutions, that’s a profoundly tricky proposition.

At the same time, many organisations are looking for guidance as they begin mapping their strategies for 2022 and beyond. Here are some of the trends that are likely to be significant in the coming year.

Enhanced security measures will be a top priority in 2022

Cyberattacks and data breaches continue unabated even as organisations spend more money and effort on security. Key challenges include a lack of visibility across the enterprise and growing numbers of zero-day attacks and advanced persistent threats. These trends drive uptake of extended detection and response (XDR) solutions that collect and correlate security data from the endpoint to the data centre and use a behavioural approach to threat detection. Additionally, the zero-trust security model is gaining traction to strengthen user authentication and access controls.

The cloud adoption and opportunities will continue to expand

Cloud adoption has expanded significantly over the past two years as organisations seek to streamline access to resources amid the shift to remote work models. International Data Corp has estimated that public cloud spending will total US$385-billion globally in 2021 and will see a compound annual growth rate of 21% through to 2025. There’s no indication that the race to the cloud will slow down in 2022, but some analysts are predicting that organisations will rethink their cloud strategies to keep costs under control. Organisations are also looking for more straightforward, “as-a-service” solutions to overcome a lack of cloud expertise.

SD-WAN will continue to gain traction

Software-defined wide-area networking offers a more flexible and scalable alternative to the traditional corporate WAN to better support work-from-home users and Internet of things (IoT) devices. Continued cloud adoption and the roll-out of 5G networks are also driving the continued growth of SD-WAN solutions. The network function virtualisation (NFV) market is expected to grow as organisations replace specialised networking gear with commodity hardware and virtualiaed solutions to create more open and automated networking platforms.

DevSecOps will drive forward-thinking enterprises

DevOps is an IT model that integrates software development and system operations to shorten the application development lifecycle and enhance software quality through continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). DevSecOps adds a security element, incorporating security best practices into all software design and development phases and utilising automation to detect vulnerabilities. In a recent survey by Venafi, 97% of IT and development professionals said software vendors need to enhance the security of their software development processes. Supply-chain attacks such as the SolarWinds breach and open-source vulnerabilities such as Log4j exacerbate these concerns.

The IT talent shortage will become more serious

Organisations are already competing for a limited pool of technical talent, and the IT skills shortage will become increasingly acute in the coming year. At the same time, skills that were once considered essential will become less important as more automated, AI-based solutions enter the mainstream. Security analysts and cloud experts will see the most substantial demand. More organisations will be looking to offload some or all of their security and cloud operations to managed services providers.

Improving your IT strategy with Rahi’s Elevate Services

As a leading systems integrator company, we at Rahi constantly investigate new approaches to help our customers reduce costs, streamline their operations and boost the bottom line. As we enter 2022, we would love the opportunity to discuss your technology initiatives and help you fine-tune your IT strategy.

With an ability to engage as an IT consultant, Rahi covers the entire life cycle of technology solutions and works across various IT disciplines to advance digital businesses. With 40+ global locations and 100+ vendor-neutral partners, Rahi works globally to simplify technology and add value to resolve these challenges through our OEM partnerships and in-house capabilities.

Contact the team of experts and be ready for 2022 trends.