There are 10 primary trends small business owners need to consider when evaluating long-term strategies.
Outside of the U.S., which will be experiencing strong economic growth due to the incoming Trump administration, the global economic and geopolitical headwinds in 2017 will constrain IT budgets.
Nonetheless, the rapidly changing business climate continues to push IT executives to do much more with tight budgets. Once again new waves of next-generation technologies are emerging and challenging the status quo and deserve IT executive attention.
These technologies will improve business outcomes as well as spark innovation and drive down the cost of IT services and solutions. IT executives must strategize with business executives to select and fund the appropriate next-generation technologies or find self-funding approaches to implementing them.
Simultaneously, executives will have to address the data and service level concerns that impact business outcomes, productivity and revenues so that there is more confidence in IT. Lastly, executives will need to increase their focus on automation, operations simplicity, orchestration, and security so that IT can deliver more at a lower cost while better protecting the organization from cybersecurity attacks and vulnerabilities.
There are a number of major technology trends bombarding the market, exciting business executives, and putting pressure on IT executives to deliver.
For the small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) there are 10 primary trends that executives should consider when evaluating long-term strategies and 2017 initiatives.
The 10 Disruptive Technology Trends
1. Analytics, AI and Machine Learning
Analytics not only is gaining momentum but is bifurcating into two additional subgroups – artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The former will pick up speed as the Amazons, Facebooks and Googles of the world push their AI offerings and inspire others to follow. Users are rapidly adopting the voice-first systems (such as Amazon's Alexa and Echo, Apple's Siri, and Google's Home) and smart agents.
Machine learning will remain experimental and a leading edge technology as firms learn how to take advantage of it. Meanwhile, the merger of analytics with real-time transaction processing is instrumental to mass personalization (discussed below), which large enterprises and digital startups are using to acquire and maintain customers. SMBs will need to keep pace with the innovators to protect market share and keep customers loyal.
2. API economy
The ability to utilize cloud applications and microservices through standard APIs is the next step in corporate virtualization.
It will quicken the pace of delivery of new, innovative applications by new digital disruptors across multiple industry sectors. Existing industry players are following suit and it is becoming the expected norm.
This methodology is already shaking up more than IT – it is lowering the barriers to entry and enabling entrants to provide services at lower costs. Look for 2017 to be another big year of disruption in all sectors.
3. Blockchain
While blockchain has been around since the arrival of Bitcoin, 2016 saw its emergence as a separate, sought-after technology.
It has already forked into different offerings – the most widely known are Etherium and the Hyperledger Project. Although each offering has different characteristics, the driving thrust behind its usage is a common, transparent, tamper-proof distributed ledger that is accessible to all parties of a transaction.
A significant number of large enterprises and FinTechs are already piloting solutions. 2017 will see the emergence of different blockchain offerings, some of which will disrupt their addressable markets and significantly reduce the cost of doing business.
4. Hybrid Cloud
Businesses will have to deal with a hybrid cloud market and its impacts.
SMBs (and others) will not be using a single cloud provider but multiple providers, all of which needs to be integrated into a cohesive business strategy and executed judiciously.
The reason: implementing a hybrid cloud environment integrated with one's existing solutions is complex, can be expensive, and has security exposures that must be mitigated. For business executives the key questions are which clouds does one build or buy; how to expense (CapEx or OpEx); what type of provider (public or private); and where should they be located (in-house or external).
5. DevOps
DevOps, which takes agile programming to the next level, will dramatically change the way expectations of IT and IT operations.
The ability to deliver code changes in less than a day, a day or a week will impact business and IT processes. The full implementation of DevOps will represent a true cultural change to an organization.
However, this "nirvana" will take years to implement and flow through decent sized SMB or a large organization and executives should be prepared for the active, and passive, resistance to the change. DevOps will be a hot topic in 2017 but progress will be slow and it is possible that 2017 is the year it falls into the trough of disillusionment.
Next- The Disruptive Technology Trends 6 through 10
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6. 3-D printing
3-D printing continues to be a quiet success and will gain more ground in the new year. It is already in use in aerospace, automotive, construction, healthcare, manufacturing, and rapid prototyping and by parts suppliers.
Over time the use of 3-D printing will revolutionize the way companies produce materials and provide support services, including self-help components.
Leading-edge companies will gain a competitive advantage from their first-mover advantage. This is still in its infancy but it is a technology but one that could enable a firm to leapfrog competitors.
7. IoT Everywhere
The growth in IoT devices will gain steam in 2017 but parts of the ecosystem will be missing.
Vendors will build awareness and addressability into myriad devices, providing enterprises with a mountain of new data streams for mining. IoT security remains a lagging component and major exposure as these devices creep into organizations and networks. Executives should be aware that IoT is not just about the endpoint devices – their usage drives significant (100x or more) demand upon networks, servers and storage.
Cloud solutions will also arise to help corporations gather and make sense of this information; however, SMBs will not have the bandwidth or see the necessity to effectively slice-and-dice it all. IoT can be a boon to enterprises but poor planning that fails to balance enterprise-wide needs for actionability, reusability, and security will doom many initiatives and later require significant re-architecture.
The market is still immature so executives should not be concerned about making mistakes or even deferring action at this stage of maturity.
8. Mass personalization
Mass personalization means each individual's interaction with a business will result in content uniquely tailored for him or her presented on the device of the user's choosing.
It also means the use of analytics by businesses to know your customer (KYC), including history, location, and preferences, and to perform anti-money laundering and fraud analysis. For the business side it is geared to drive loyalty and revenues. But on the IT side, it will represent a major change to applications, databases, and the underlying platforms.
It will be transformative on both sides, with new disruptive players leading the way and the traditional firms striving to catch up.
9. Mobility and the Consumer Channel
The view of one's customer has morphed significantly such that there is no longer the view of different channels to market but just a single consumer omnichannel. In 2017 the leading service providers will be delivering first generation omnichannels.
Expect this to become mainstream over time but over the next 12 months most firms will be unable to catch up with the leaders. Additionally, the technologies behind it – mobility and a 360-degree perspective (from the customer side) – are shifting from mobile first to mobile only.
Executives should also be aware that expanded use of mobile devices leads to more mobile SaaS (software as a service) applications and more data out in the cloud.
10. Security
Despite the numerous massive security breaches in the news in 2016 and the continuous warnings, many executives still underestimate the security concerns caused by the use of mobile devices and insecure server-side infrastructure.
The lack of control of user devices is fraught with peril as encryption, password, policy, and enforcement practices are often treated as an "add-on" to enterprise security policies instead of subject to the same scrutiny used on the server side. Particularly in light of the oncoming onslaught of IoT initiatives and the continuance of corporate security breaches, inadequacies must quickly be addressed or 2017 will see more breaches than 2016.
Executives need to limit the types of devices allowed to connect to enterprise systems. Mobile management and enforcement technologies need to integrate with other enterprise security software to simplify and universally apply policies and updates.
Additionally, encryption everywhere – application, device, network, and storage – must be the new norm but cost and enforcement will plague implementations. IT executives must work with business, legal, and executive stakeholders immediately to fully uncover gaps in policy and procedure, assess risks, and determine appropriate action.
Furthermore, they must ensure security policies are documented, known, and implemented universally in all new and upgraded initiatives. Executives should ensure individuals and departments are held responsible for non-compliance.
Summary
2017 will be another challenging year for IT executives and keeping pace with technology advances will have to be part of any IT strategy if executives hope to achieve their goals for the year and keep their companies competitive.
This will require IT to understand the rate of technology change and adapt a data center transformation plan that incorporates the new technologies, including clouds, at the appropriate pace. Additionally, IT executives will need to invest annually in new technologies to help contain costs, minimize risks, and improve resource utilization.
IT executives should collaborate with business and financial executives so that IT budgets, plans and strategies dovetail with the business and remain tightly integrated throughout the year.
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