How Change In Technology Trends Created An Impact On IT Sector
While technology is not a panacea, it has definitely proven to be a boon in many circumstances, especially for businesses and the corporate sector in recent times.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot of distress to the lives of billions of people across the planet, and as such, the commerce of the entire world wasn’t spared.
It is here that technology offered a means to carry out business operations while keeping social distancing measures intact. Today we see technology blooming everywhere around us.
According to a recent study by Finances Online, 62% of businesses invest in technology to replace EOL (end-of-life) hardware, 52% to reinforce growth, and 46% to meet project requirements.
Furthermore, for CIOs (Chief Information Officers), 72% are interested in AI, 46% consider IoT as a priority, and 35% rate RPA (Robotic Process Automation) as the top wanted technology.
On the other hand, where SaaS (Software as a Service) is considered, 95% of companies rely on them, with 78% of companies looking forward to expanding their tools.
Impact of Technology On IT
In the past two to three decades, we have seen an incredible pace of technology becoming an integral part of our everyday lives, including private and professional circles. Especially in highly urbanized settings, one can clearly observe the range of gadgets and smart devices gathering in numbers.
Plus, with the increase in internet penetration across the world along with cellular services, it is only a matter of time now before 5G wireless technology brings about another revolution in our lives and how we use technology.
With better internet speeds and a tremendous amount of data flowing through the airwaves, we have truly entered the “Zettabyte Era”. Today, big tech corporations like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft share well over 1,200 petabytes of data between them. Here I would just like to point out that:
- 1 Zettabyte = 1,000 Exabytes
- 1 Exabyte = 1,000 Petabytes
- 1 Petabyte = 1,000 Terabytes
- 1 Terabyte = 1,000 Gigabytes
As analyzed by the IT experts from crowdwriter.com,
“Today, information in any form races across the planet at lightning-fast speeds, with countries like UAE, Qatar and South Korea enjoying average connection speeds of over 160 Megabits/second. However, the record for the fastest internet speed of 178 Terabits per second was recently achieved by a team of engineers at the University College London. Presumably, with such speeds, one can download the entire Netflix library in less than a second.”
With that out of the way, now let’s take a quick look at how new technology and the latest trends are supporting business growth around the world.
- Artificial Intelligence
While many may consider Artificial Intelligence to be still in its infancy, it is already making incredible progress in a range of industries, and no one can deny its potential to be even more impactful in the future. Here are some incredible things that AI is already accomplishing today:
- IBM Watson is AI for smarter businesses offering business-ready tools, solutions, and applications that are designed to reduce hurdles. Companies currently using IBM Watson Studio include the likes of American Airlines, Bouygues Telecom, Smartbridge, and Wells Fargo, to name a few.
- Numerous AI applications in the healthcare industry offer benefits and use cases like prognosis, diagnosis, and drug manufacture. Examples include PathAI, Buoy Health, and AIDD (AI-Driven Drug Discovery) platforms, to name a few.
- AI for marketing, where numerous tools and software allow marketers to make informed decisions and develop business strategies. Examples include Albert, an AI-empowered marketing platform and Slackbot that analyzes Google Analytics data to deliver insightful reports.
- Blockchain
Blockchain initially started out in 2008 as a public transaction ledger for the cryptocurrency bitcoin and was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto (who, to this day, is still unidentified).
However, with time, people began to realize the potential blockchain technology could have for ventures. It wasn’t long before private blockchains gradually started emerging and, when carefully designed, started to show a secure practice of keeping business records protected.
Today IBM has created its Food Trust blockchain to trace the journey of food products across numerous locations.
Plus blockchain is also being used in the banking and finance industry, where consumers can see their transactions being processed in as little as 10 minutes. With blockchain, banks have the opportunity to exchange funds between institutions more quickly and securely.
- Cloud Computing
With Big Data doing the rounds, companies and establishments were earnestly looking for a solution to access vital business information anywhere and at any point in time.
This is where cloud computing came and offered them the incredible capacity to have their computing prowess at their disposal 24/7 and 365 days a year.
Today, businesses worldwide use cloud computing to store their valuable files for regular access and share information synced across multiple devices. In other instances, cloud computing is able to provide SaaS (Software as a Service).
This allows services like Google Apps, Office 365, QuickBooks Online, and Salesforce to provide SaaS solutions to numerous businesses.
- Employee Monitoring Software
Today, in a world where telecommuting, remote working, and work-from-home culture are gaining popularity, micromanaging employees becomes a challenge.
In order to overcome this hurdle, technology has paved the way for the development of great software and tools that can enable you to monitor employee performances and manage your projects across distances. Here are some of the popular ones:
- Activ Trak
- Hubstaff
- InterGuard
- SentryPC
- Teramind
- Productivity Tools
Whether you are working in the office or a freelancer, you simply cannot get anything done these days without productivity tools.
Meeting daily targets, delivering results, and managing your due dates or deadlines matter a lot, and these productivity tools are the only sources of comfort when time is racing by and you have a pile of work to do.
Young pupils are often observed using productivity tools to deliver their assigned tasks and projects. Here are some common productivity tools you might already be using on a daily basis
- Adobe Photoshop – visual design creation tool
- Microsoft Office Suite – documentation and content creation tool
- Slack – communication and collaboration tool
- Time Doctor – time management tool
- Zoom – teleconferencing tool
- RPA
With the advent of IoT (Internet of Things), it wasn’t long before people began to realize how interconnected devices with a central controlling system can quickly lead towards business automation.
RPA became the only natural progression of what machines can do for us when connected through a powerful network. Today companies like Alibaba and DHL have accomplished automated warehousing, all thanks to robotic process automation tools and software.
- Smartphone Applications
When it comes to connecting people and promulgating your business’s image, no one can negate the fact that smartphones are simply terrific. From old to young, billions of people around the world own and use a smartphone.
Hence, it is evident that businesses that want to succeed in a highly competitive environment while delivering tremendous impressions have to invest in getting their smartphone applications in the store.
Conclusion
Now that we have seen and observed what technology can do for us, there is no way to unsee it. Incredible tools and applications brought to life allow ventures to overcome bottlenecks and accomplish breakthroughs and reach unprecedented milestones.
There is no question that technology today is able to propel businesses beyond their initial limitations and reach new horizons. I hope this post was able to offer you some meaningful insights as to how technology has and continues to impact all of us. Cheers, and all the best for your future endeavors!
Author Bio
Stella Lincoln currently works as Blogger at Crowd Writer. This is where higher education students can request professionals to write their essays. Stella keeps herself updated with technological trends. During her free time, she likes to surf the internet for all the latest developments in tech.
