Trends in business technology regarding its adoption and implementation have for a number of years now suggested a strong inclination by organizations of all sizes towards increased uptake in digitization.
We can mostly observe this in greater investment in technology initiatives, particularly as they pertain to cloud services, among SMBs across the world and the United States.
In this infographic, we’ll be looking at the key trends that are pushing forward the world of business technology trends in 2022.
For more information on each of the trends, read on below the infographic for a more in-depth look at each of the trends.
Data Fabric
A “data fabric” refers to the architecture management system within which endpoints (commonly computers and mobile devices) are fully connected across multi-cloud and hybrid network environments.
Data fabrics standardize practices relating to data management in organizations; helping companies improve information visibility, access, protection, and compliance.
Once implemented, a data fabric provides a data architecture that’s scalable, flexible, and secure. It represents an approach to data management that allows for a far more comprehensive flow of information and reduces the incidence of data silos.
Data fabrics help businesses more effectively leverage the information they possess in order to achieve better business outcomes.
Cloud-Native Platforms
In recent years, there has been a big push among companies to adopt cloud technology and migrate their data onto cloud-native platforms—that is, applications that are designed to run exclusively on the cloud and use its computing to scale and distribute services.
The top solutions in terms of fully cloud-based business adoption are websites (55% of companies), email (54%), and communications software (26%).
Migration to the cloud has led to businesses adopting “lift-and-shift” policies, whereby they move data and applications from legacy systems onto cloud-based infrastructure.
As cloud computing becomes an increasingly common fixture in business operations, it’s likely this trend will continue for many years to come until such a time that cloud-native platforms are the norm.
Decision Intelligence
Decision intelligence represents a key field of interest in organizations which encompasses greater use of business intelligence (BI), artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics in order to make more informed business decisions.
The use of AI and machine learning (ML) opens up opportunities for creating a decision intelligence framework.
One example of this would be the use of predictive analytics that can assess past trends to better understand patterns (like seasonal patterns, for example) which can then be used to make informed decisions about the future.
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation is the use of technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotic process automation (RPA) to automate business tasks and processes that are usually done by humans.
It’s an approach to automation that aims to automate every process (within reason) in order to achieve a business where operations are as streamlined as possible.
The end result should aim to get rid of repetitive tasks, save time, lower outgoings and waste, collect more data, and increase efficiency within an organization.
Distributed Enterprise
Distributed enterprise refers to an increasing prevalence among businesses to operate across multiple branches and locations.
As organizations look to adopt remote-first policies to take advantage of the benefits of operating a distributed enterprise, there are nonetheless security concerns which must be accommodated to ensure they are not at risk from opportunist cyberattackers.
Related Post: The Biggest Data Breaches of 2021 and What We Learned from Them
Total Experience
Total experience refers to a developing method of interlinking four different disciplines.
These are:
- User experience (UX)
- Customer experience (CX)
- Multi-experience (MX)
- Employee experience (EX)
Total experience can be seen as part of a broader effort among businesses to unify their systems and networks to create a cohesive platform that intersects between all stakeholders involved in an organization.
Related Post: 20 Customer Experience Stats SMBs Must Know
As customer experience becomes a central aspiration for SMBs to improve, other experiences become significant, too—not least employee experience as expectations grow among workforces.
Generative AI
Generative AI is about the use of artificial intelligence to assess existing information in order to create new, actionable data that can then be used by stakeholders and decision makers.
Generative AI platforms assess underlying patterns in data (often unstructured data) to transform it into actionable data.
An example of this is image processing. Generative AI can be used to upscale and restore existing footage to higher resolutions at 60 frames per second automatically through machine learning.
Bottom Line
There are several emerging trends in business technology that are becoming more prominent with each year.
The most significant insofar as its impact on technology investment among SMBs is the emergence of data fabrics, cloud-native platforms, and hyperautomation, all of which have operational applications that are universal across organizations regardless of industry.
Companies should consider whether they are planning for these emerging trends which will soon become the norm.
If you are in need of advice about digital transformation but don’t know where to start, Impact Networking has the tools and expertise to help. Don’t hesitate to get in touch now!
