Despite all the challenges resulting from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Ukrainian businesses are trying to stay afloat. Moreover, they are trying to become more flexible and less resource-consuming. To optimize their activities as much as possible, owners need to know the general trends of the global market know the general trends of the world market, predict technologies that will be relevant, and understand how to use them in favor of their business.
To understand the full picture of the future of technologies for the next few years, Inna Soloviova, CEO & Founder of Integrity Vision IT company, has analyzed different sources — reports, articles, podcasts, and interviews of famous international analytical centers. World experts from Gartner, Deloitte, Forrester, Boston Consulting Group, and Statista came to the same conclusion regarding the six main technological trends. As for the Ukrainian scenario, some of these trends will be particularly relevant due to the challenges that the war has brought us.
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The main technological trends that global analysts predict
- Automation
(Expert forecasts from Gartner, Forrester, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, and Deloitte)
Gartner analysts say that companies will automate as much as possible of their business and IT processes and train employees in new technologies. A new business approach will appear — automation fabric. It will allow to simplify the management of automated processes, build the work of hybrid teams with people and mechanisms based on artificial intelligence, and increase the efficiency of this cooperation. Forrester researchers say that the changes this technology will bring to the companies will cause their accelerated development.
Deloitte calls automation “the key to business improvement.” It saves human resources and gives the chance to concentrate on more important tasks. Thanks to it, businesses can increase their efficiency and improve customer service. Boston Consulting Group analysts emphasize that IT service companies searching for a “growth engine” should look closely at the combination of robotic process automation, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions.
- Innovative cloud technologies
(Expert forecasts from Gartner, Forrester, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company)
Cloud platforms allow you to create new and flexible application architectures and use modern programming languages. Cloud technologies make it possible to implement innovations faster, quickly make changes in the conditions of distributed teams and significantly reduce costs for the purchase of physical equipment. Gartner analysts predict that by 2025 cloud platforms will be the basis for more than 95% of new digital products.
- Artificial Intelligence
(Expert forecasts from Gartner, Forrester, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company)
Companies are constantly working to improve the future for their employees, customers, and the products and services they create. So artificial intelligence is predicted to have a central place in this future. According to Forrester expert, one in five organizations will double their investments in artificial intelligence, and machine learning (ML) will be used in many new industries.
- Cybersecurity
(Expert forecasts from Gartner, Statista, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte)
Corporate cybersecurity services will be more loaded by cyberattacks that are difficult to detect because the methods of cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated. Statista researchers say that to combat modern cyberattacks, companies need to increase investment in AI-based cyber systems.
Deloitte also emphasizes that the combination of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence will allow it more quickly to respond and predict cyberattacks. Companies that have already implemented such technologies say that it’s the artificial intelligence in the system that has helped to reduce resource consumption for identifying threats and fighting them.
Also, a new approach to the protection of information data will become popular. It is a cybersecurity mesh — an architecture that combines the forces of all the company’s security services to strengthen overall protection. Gartner says that the Cybersecurity mesh will be able to protect the necessary assets, quickly and reliably check identification data, compliance with policies in the cloud and non-cloud environments. By 2024, companies that implement network cybersecurity will be able to reduce their financial losses from threats by up to 90%.
- Metaverse
(Expert forecasts from Statista, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company)
BCG experts advise technology companies to decide whether to enter the metaverse market in the near future and tell them exactly how to do it. According to some estimates, by 2030 the value of the metaverse ecosystem will reach $1 trillion. “It is too early to say which technologies and platforms will dominate. But it’s not too early for tech companies to join the metaverse ecosystem. This is an opportunity for them to participate in the formation of future standards,” says the BCG expert.
- Quantum technologies
(Expert forecasts from Harvard Business Review, McKinsey & Company, Deloitte experts)
In the next ten years, quantum technologies will change the way of computing, sensor systems, and communications — say the researchers of Deloitte. These technologies will probably dominate the digital landscape after a decade or more.
What technologies will be relevant in Ukraine?
With the beginning of a full-scale war, many companies faced lots of problems — a change of location, problems with logistics, a lack of resources and specialists, more cyberattacks, loss of important corporate data, and unstable operation of the IT infrastructure. All this only emphasized the relevance and perspective of some global trends in the Ukrainian market.
- Automation of business processes
Many companies lost a significant number of their employees: some of them went to fight on the front lines, some – left the country, and some employees were fired because of the impossibility to pay salaries. Those companies that set up automation before the war managed to better withstand the hard times and quickly reconfigure processes in new conditions.
Fine-tuned processes, their optimization, and automation, monitoring of execution, and control of efficiency — it is very important for a business that works in war conditions to maintain management and optimize its costs. Moreover, companies that have such systems now will be able to scale and grow much faster during the reedifying of Ukraine. First, the pandemic, and now the war in our country showed how important automation tools are because they provide significant flexibility and manageability of business. Therefore, investments in such technologies will increase and quickly pay off.
- Cybersecurity
In addition to missile and artillery attacks, the Russians are also fighting against Ukraine in the IT environment. During the war, the number of cyberattacks tripled — Russian hackers are trying to gain access to the corporate and personal data of Ukrainians and damage the infrastructure of state and private enterprises. Any organization or business is at risk, not only large companies. Most often, hackers attack government institutions, banks, financial organizations, online stores, IT companies, and factories. Businesses must be ready to face these challenges and ensure maximum protection of data from enemy attacks.
- Cloud technologies
Due to war, many companies and institutions faced a sea of problems related to the performance of the IT infrastructure: physical destruction, problems with the electricity, and the inability to access data centers. Most organizations evacuated their data centers to safer places in the west of the country or abroad. New realities forced many to decide on partial or full transfer of data to cloud environments. Because the cloud makes it possible to save all data and business processes, and continue the stable operation of the company even during the war. We can confidently say data migration services and deployment of backups in cloud environments will be relevant in Ukraine in the coming years, as well as the development of a backup alternative platform based on cloud infrastructure.
The trends of the Ukrainian market are quite difficult to predict because our country lives in war. But the implementation of these technologies will definitely help to increase business resilience and reduce the negative impact of unpredictable scenarios.
The challenges brought by the war forced Ukrainian companies to build strong armor in the form of a competitive advantage on the global market. No one European business has hardened itself the way our companies are doing now. And this stability is already appreciated by the global industry. Despite the war, Western partners cooperate with Ukrainian businesses and are ready to invest in it.
Written by Inna Soloviova, CEO & Founder of Integrity Vision IT company
