It’s that season for our clients… time to trot out the annual technology predictions and long-term vision for the coming year. Time to take stock of what went well (or didn’t) for a particular market segment last year, and address where that industry or technology is headed in 2022.
In fact, at Voxus it’s the culmination of several months of effort that typically started with brainstorming last Fall. Then came the media pitching and article drafting, the podcasts and video shoots.
If you’re new to the predictions game, there are typically two different opportunities for coverage:
- Roundups – many publications cast a broad net for insight, and roll those up into articles that cover a given segment that’s of interest to their audience… say DevOps or cloud applications. Your best bet for inclusion is to identify the publications and journalists that tend this direction, and directly pitch a handful of predictions on a given topic. Don’t make them chase down more information. They won’t. Just provide the entire prediction right in the pitch, tell them clearly who to attribute that insight to, and explain why they are an expert in their field.
- Bylines – with the shortage of newsroom staff, many publications are more than happy to take a vendor-neutral contributed article that collects your predictions – say, about network visibility. For these outlets, don’t include the entirety of your predictions in the pitch; just hit some of the high points, express your interest in providing an article, and again be sure to communicate your client’s expertise.
Our client prediction work covered a lot of ground this year, and as such it always provides an interesting snapshot of where technology is headed. Here are a few that caught my eye. Enjoy.
Does the hot job market mean a coming wave of indentured servitude? “We’ll see more companies in the US adopt the Revature model where students are placed into minimum-wage tech training programs, then upon graduating are placed in a job with a below average salary. If the graduate quits before their two-year contract expires, they could be on the hook for $36,500. The high demand for low-cost skilled labor makes these graduates who are tied up in the contract attractive hires.” – Ludovic Fourrage, Founder and CEO, Nucamp
The good, and bad, of AI? “Moving forward, AI and machine learning will be used to spot anomalous system behaviors. Just like the use of AI in radiology, patterns can be identified far earlier than the human eye to detect problems. By building and training AI models on typical performance behaviors of a system – coupled with training those same models on historical behaviors of systems while under attack – AI will be used by organizations to spot problems far earlier and enable faster response to mute threats. On the flip side, in many ways, the art of security vulnerability discovery is through performing actions on a device expressly in ways that aren’t expected or allowed. Attackers perform those actions and observe what happens in hopes that the system acts in a problematic fashion and exposes vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, AI and machine learning may further enable attackers to vary tactics and observe behaviors far faster than would be possible through human interaction.” – Tom Garrison, VP and GM of Client Security Strategy and Initiatives, Intel
Will Telcos challenge Amazon/Microsoft/Google in the cloud? “With the continued rollout of 5G infrastructure and the supporting open networking approach, telcos are finding themselves in a unique position. At worst, they’ll augment the cloud revolution, but at best, they can even challenge the incumbent cloud providers for a share of the massive (and expanding) application hosting market. Telcos will start developing more mature approaches to application hosting and leverage their unique differentiation of massively distributed networks to deliver hosting options at the edge. Additionally, more partnerships will emerge to facilitate the connection between developers and telcos’ 5G and edge infrastructure to solve their lack of expertise in this space.” – Walt Noffsinger, VP of Product, Section
The end of citizen development? “Citizen development has been attempted for a decade now, and the industry is going to realize that delegating solution-building to power users has limits. The applications being produced are often too fragile to be shared beyond a few users, and when they succeed the amateur developer soon becomes a professional developer and changes careers. When it works, it’s beautiful, but companies will realize this is so rare that they can’t depend on it.”
—Mike Fitzmaurice, vice president for North America and chief evangelist, Webcon
Does 2021’s record M&A activity now mean a surge of cloud computing? “Record high M&A activity means that more and more companies on the acquiring end of activity will look to the cloud to consolidate data and de-silo databases, streamline operations, improve data intelligence capabilities and support workplace productivity and collaboration. Demand for DR/Backups will continue as organizations look to protect IBM POWER systems (flight reservations, ERP systems, etc.) directly tied to business critical operations.” – Dan Jones, SVP of Products at Skytap
Is space the next frontier for cybersecurity? “With renewed government and private focus on the “Space Race” and recent cybersecurity research concentration on satellite vulnerabilities, we believe a “hack in space” will hit the headlines in 2022. Recently, satellite hacking has gained investigative attention from the cybersecurity community among researchers and at conferences like DEF CON. While satellites might seem out of reach from most threats, researchers have found they can communicate with them using about $300 worth of gear. Furthermore, older satellites may not have focused on modern security controls, relying on distance and obscurity for defense.Meanwhile, many private companies have begun their space race, which will greatly increase the attack surface in orbit. Companies like Starlink are launching satellites by the thousands. Between those two trends, plus the value of orbital systems to nation states, economies, and society, we suspect governments have quietly started their cyber defense campaigns in space already. Don’t be surprised if we see a space-related hack in the headlines one day soon.” – Corey Nachreiner, CTO at WatchGuard