Top 9 Strategic Technology Trends for 2021: Spaces and Things

Last week, we have started looking at the top technology trends for 2021 and their implications on small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), specifically the Internal of Behaviors, total experience strategy and privacy-enhancing computing. Today, let’s take a closer look at the final six tech trends of 2021 according to Gartner covering the topics of location independence and resilient delivery.  

Location independence

2020 has dramatically changed how—and most importantly where—we work. The shift happened in the distribution of infrastructure as well as the physical locations of employees and customers. Let’s look at all the possible ways a business may need to adapt to the shift in 2021.  

Distributed cloud

Public cloud accessible from different physical locations is the most secure, reliable, and cost-effective solution for remote work. For anyone who has ever struggled with document version control, using a cloud-based workflow would be eye-opening.  

3cloud cloud computing service augmented with a mirrored network for maximum reliability is an example of such service. 3cloud empowers you to disconnect your system from any physical location making it more reliable and manageable. You can host your applications and databases with 24/7/365 pro-active support and storage, continuously mirror data to minimize a chance of data loss in case of crashes, and regularly stress-test your system without disrupting the workflow.     

Anywhere operations

The transition to “remote first” work, according to Gartner, requires complete rethinking of “the technology infrastructure, management practices, security and governance policies, and employee and customer engagement models.” The best solution for business leaders not ready or willing to go back to the drawing board is to engage an IT expert with a scalable and flexible remote work solution already in place. Virtual office, like 3seat by 3nom, is the best remote work solution currently available.  

A virtual office like 3seat allows employees to do their works securely and efficiently from any location while minimizing threats of data leaks or system downtimes. A virtual office is operated by a managed service provider and equips a decentralized company with all components of a computer network such as hardware, software, backup, security, compliance and day-to-day IT support for one low flat monthly fee. Which means that the CEO no longer has to worry about collaboration, productivity, remote access, cloud and edge infrastructure, or the quantification and automation of remote work experience. 

Cybersecurity mesh

The cybersecurity mesh is a new framework of enhanced security that emerged amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to enable a reliably secure remote access of any digital asset regardless of where the asset or the agent are located. 

The main difference of the cybersecurity mesh approach is its plasticity in the face of the growing diversity of cyberthreats. The main question SMBs interested in this trend—or concerned with compromising or losing their data in the remote environment—is to ask themselves if the security they have in place is up to the task. The first step is to stress test your system to find important loopholes hackers may use to compromise the business. Step two would be to contact a managed service provider to devise the plan for implementing a more flexible and reliable network security protocols by leveraging the latest tools and resources.  

Resilient Delivery

In 2021, disruption are inevitable. We have seen them last year with massive data leaks topping 36 billion leaker customer records by September 2020. We have seen massive outages and ransomware attacks. To ensure smoother sailing than competitors’, a forward-thinking SMB will consider the following trends.    

Intelligent compostable business

Pre-pandemic, efficiency dominated infrastructure planning and execution which cause many sistems to be too brittle and unreliable to handle the “earthquake.” In the post-pandemic world, SMB leaders should think of their IT infrastructure in terms of better access to information, the ability to augment that information with new insights and learn from the market changes, and the modularity or systems and data. 

This means that not only the infrastructure but also decision-making should be decentralized to accommodate varied market conditions in different parts of the company. The assembly model will dominate for applications and services with various components being assembled on-demand for flexible and fitted solutions.   

AI engineering

If the terms DevOps, DataOps, and MLOps don’t ring a bell, don’t worry. These terms used together contribute to the scaling of AI projects beyond pilots which is the goal and the essence of AI engineering. AI technology can be a huge assets for a business but requires extensive and profound expertise to build, scale, and maintain. 

For SMBs with limited resources, the best strategy would be to leverage existing AI databases and tools and adapting them to their unique workflows and requirement to deliver usable results. A managed service provider can advise on the best mix of commercially-available and proprietary AI tools and stand them up on the existing IT infrastructure without the need for additional in-house resources.   

Hyperautomation

According to Gartner, hyperautomation is “a process in which businesses automate as many business and IT processes as possible using tools like AI, machine learning, event-driven software, robotic process automation, and other types of decision process and task automation tools.” 

Any organization today strives for digital excellence which, inevitable, includes the automation of tasks and processes as well as digitization of documents. However, extensive automation can be a lifesavor for SMBs that had to cut budgets last year and may no longer have the manpower to support historical workflows. For them, a great idea for Q1 of 2021 would be to review their business processes with an IT expert to discover opportunities for increased efficiency through optimization, automation, or both. 

If you need an IT expert to make sense of how the strategic technology trends for 2021 can help your business thrive in the nascent year, call 3nom. We are available 24/7 365 days per year and think about your business just as much.