Editor’s Choice – IT Trends to Follow in 2022: Part 2

In 2020 and 2021, the development of technological innovations accelerated like a BMW M8 on a German Autobahn. Somewhat forced by the unfortunate events you’ve probably heard of (I won’t drop the boring C-word), the rollout of multiple digital concepts was stepped-up. Remote operations dominated the world of IT, demanding more security, more internet reliability, and more digital convenience.

Will 2022 continue this trend?

In part 1 of our IT Trends to Follow in 2022, we’ve talked about 4 interesting technological predictions. In part 2, we’re expanding our list by 3 more areas you should keep an eye on.

If you haven’t already, make sure to read the first part of this series.

Anything as a Service (XaaS)

I still remember my surprise when Microsoft introduced Office 365 and stopped selling one-time licenses for their Office software. (“Annual subscriptions… whaaat?”).

12 years ago, I wasn’t convinced it was a good idea. People will prefer to have something of their own, right?

Oh boy, how wrong I was.

Today, SaaS is one of the fundaments of IT. In B2C, its impact may have not been as grand. But in B2B, SaaS made a real breakthrough – it started replacing homegrown IT applications with customizable general-purpose apps, able to meet specific business requirements. SaaS not only reduced costs but also accelerated business operations.

Next, many other “as-a-service” options joined the scene. First, PaaS – Platform as a Service – enabled organizations to maintain software platforms and operating systems in the Cloud. Then, IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service – offered all aspects of IT hardware operations in the Cloud.

And we could keep expanding that list. For example, there’s also GaaS – Game as a Service – with its long-lasting pinnacle, World of Warcraft. There’s also one “as-a-service” that doesn’t seem to have its own abbreviation – Innovation as a Service. (After all, IaaS is already taken!)

In 2022, “as-a-service” isn’t likely to stop expanding. According to Frank Reda, the Associate Vice President and Deputy CIO at the Office of Information Technology, it’s hard to survey the technology landscape in 2022 without pondering the future of Anything as a Service – XaaS. Thus, undoubtedly more and more “as-a-service” options will appear. (Frank Reda gives the example of Transportation as a Service… which is already here in form of Uber).

Cybersecurity Mesh

Some are calling Cybersecurity Mesh one of the most notable trends for Cloud Security (and today’s other security concerns). It’s no surprise Gartner listed it in their 12 Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022.

Cybersecurity Mesh is a flexible, composable architectural landscape that integrates distributed and disparate security services across a wide environment. According to Gartner, by 2024 organizations using a Cybersecurity Mesh architecture will be able to lower the costs caused by security incidents by about 90%.

Citing CRN, cybersecurity mesh allows for modern-day, stand-alone security solutions to work cohesively to improve overall security by moving control points closer to the assets they’re protecting. Cybersecurity mesh can verify identity, context and policy adherences across cloud and non-cloud environments quickly, providing better security.

We already mentioned “general” cybersecurity in the first part of our IT trends to follow series. We’ve mentioned that, according to Deloitte, cybercrime costs are predicted to grow to $10.5 trillion by 2025. From that perspective, Cybersecurity Mesh can become a key enabler in making cybersecurity-related spending bearable.

If this prediction has convinced you to look closer at Cybersecurity Mesh, you can start your journey by designing a roadmap to bring cloud security and other solutions together. Such a unified, integrated system can uphold zero trust and other key defensive measures, which will make the task o creating and enforcing policies easier.

More Satellite-Based Internet and 5G Usage (plus 6G Development)

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking, there will be 1.4 billion more people using the internet by 2022 – compared with the 3.4 billion people that used it in 2017. This equals nearly 60% of the global population. By that time, users are forecast to consume 4.8 zettabytes daily per year. (And although I love watching Netflix in 4k, the eco-conscious part of my is crying right now. The forecasts also tell that the carbon footprint generated by us using the internet will grow from 2% to even 4%).

If anything, all the trends we discussed in these two articles will only contribute to the rising internet usage. XaaS, the Metaverse, and – probably most importantly – cryptocurrencies clearly won’t have a neutral impact.

Additionally, the factor that significantly boosted digital data consumption was (and unfortunately, still is) the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift to remote operations has made internet reliability more important than ever. And with a bigger focus on indoor entertainment, the internet has become one of the main providers of fun when pubs, gyms, and similar places are on lockdown.

And after we’ve finally gotten used to 5G, the sixth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks is appearing somewhere far, far on the horizon.

Interestingly, the U.S. and China started researching 6G already in 2018. Including companies like Apple, Google, or AT&T, and even countries from Europe and Asia, more and more entities are starting to think seriously about the next-gen mass-killing  mobile internet technology. In 2022, experts are expecting more announcements – we’re very curious to learn more!

What Are Your Predictions?

Do you agree with our list? Did any of the predictions surprise you?

Make sure to share your thought with us on our LinkedIn profile!

…and good luck in 2022!