Emerging Technology Roadmap for Large Enterprises
Renu Chaturvedi
Email: renu_chaturvedi@isb.edu
ISB Institute of Data Science, Hyderabad, India
It is the time of the year when research organizations, market research companies, and think-tanks come up with top trends in digital technologies in the year to follow. Gartner conducted an extensive study involving IT Professionals from 437 large organizations (Companies with > $ 1 billion in sales). The professionals collaborated to benchmark Adoption Plans, Anticipated Value, and Risk for 111 Infrastructure and Operations Technologies. This blog captures some of the interesting findings from the Gartner report.
It is interesting that most enterprises are adopting emerging technologies to fulfil the need for “Enhanced resilience” this year. A stark contrast from “Increasing speed & Agility” that was justified by 66% of respondents last year.
Of the rapidly adopted emerging technologies, those that enable democratized delivery are becoming increasingly important for I&O (Infrastructure & Operations) leaders. Surprisingly, this year, enterprises outside of IT influenced emerging technology adoption decisions across all technology domains evaluated. A whopping 85% of respondents agree that they have metrics to track customer experience before and after technology adoption. Establishments are offering several technology functions “as-a-service.”
The pandemic-induced widespread-hybrid work environment has prompted the creation of distributed platforms, supported by cloud technologies, that can enable an “anywhere operations’’ model for employees. Organizations are investing heavily in creating a strong cloud base that garners support from multi-cloud technologies. These technologies will ensure the smooth movement of work environments and information between physical and virtual locations.
The hybrid work environment has also prompted the need to increase the number of Security Technologies -From15% in 2020 to 84% in 2021, amongst evaluated technologies. This is an outcome of the increased threat, particularly to endpoint devices in such hybrid work culture. “I&O leaders who do not revise their infrastructure security strategy will face challenges due to the continued rise in the ransomware attack surface for enterprises,” savs Yinuo Geng, research vice president at Gartner.
(https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-09-13-gartner-survey-reveals-talent-shortages-as-biggest-barrier-to-emerging-technologies-adoption.)
Investments in the uninterrupted and effective delivery of network technologies have catapulted in 2021.
Internet of Behaviour is an emerging trend. It’s the collection of ‘digital dust’ that people leave behind in terms of location tracking, facial recognition, wearable devices and the like.
(wordpress.com/2021/08/30/8-technology-trends-for-2022-from-gartner-to-watch-out-for/)
As has been the trend for the past few years, organizations are investing intensively in intelligent data and analytics technologies to further their enterprise-wide digital ambitions. These include- artificial intelligence (AI) cloud services, AI IT operations (AIOps) platforms, and data science and machine learning platforms.
Edge technologies that enable a swift analysis of information closer to the point of data generation are in focus. Technologies such as edge computing, edge servers, and edge networking are in deployment this year.
Despite heavy investments in digital technologies, not all have continued to do well. Growth of few digital technologies has plateaued. Firms are selectively adopting technologies related to automation in 2021. There has been a slight decline in the number of Storage & Database technologies too. Rising Talent shortages challenge successful adoption of technology. Executives see talent shortage as the most significant adoption barrier to 64% emerging technologies, compared with just 4% in 2020. (https://emtemp.gcom.cloud/ngw/globalassets/en/publications/documents/le-emerging-tech-roadmap-2021-2023.pdf)
Overall, large technology enterprises continue to invest in a wide array of digital technologies in various deployment stages, ranging from the evaluation to pilot to full adoption. There is an increase in emerging technology investment from 29% to 58% (study respondent percentage) across all technology domains. While storage and database-related technologies have plateaued, other technologies that enable ‘democratized delivery,’ ‘anywhere operations,’ and ‘enhanced security’ are gaining traction. In a world moving from pandemic response mode to learning to live with the endemic virus through 2022 and beyond, organizations need to focus on innovation delivery.
