Technology Trends: What to Watch in 2021

There was an unprecedented level of constant change in 2020. In turn, organisations needed to assess, adapt and react ­fast. Technology has been the great enabler and is set to continue helping businesses seize opportunities in 2021.

Technology Trends for 2021

A new report from research organisation Gartner shows that the forecast technology trends for 2021 reflect three themes:

1. People Centricity

• Internet of Behaviours – collecting data about people is increasingly valuable to organisations. Data security and safety is increasingly critical for businesses. Cloud backup ensures that sensitive, confidential information is held and accessed securely.
• Total Experience – traditionally, technology helps key areas such as customer and employee experience and operational processes. The growing trend is for “total experience”, linking and streamlining across all aspects of key business functions. This can be achieved by adapting existing systems or creating bespoke applications to truly differentiate from competitors.

2. Location Independence

• Anywhere Operations – supports customers everywhere, enables employees everywhere and manages the deployment of business services across distributed infrastructure. The model for anywhere operations is “digital first, remote first.” It’s crucial that the technology involved is seamless and scalable. This is forecast to influence how cloud services and technology infrastructure are used within business operations.

• Cybersecurity Mesh – allows anyone to access any digital asset securely, no matter where the asset or person is located. It decouples policy enforcement from policy decision-making via a cloud delivery model and allows identity to become the security perimeter. Information Age predicts that by 2025, the cyber security mesh will support over half of digital access control requests.

3. Resilient Delivery

• Intelligent Composable Business – re-engineers decision-making by accessing better information and responding more nimbly to it. Key to achieving the benefits available are efficient, robust cloud services and reliable internet connectivity.
• Hyperautomation – used by organisations to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many approved business and IT processes as possible. As operations become increasingly reliant upon automated technology, proactive IT management is required.

Many of these strategic technology trends build upon the impact of the pandemic on business operations during 2020.

“Remote working and cybersecurity were huge issues for many businesses during 2020,” says Eric Hughes of EMH Technology. “Technology is at the forefront of enabling organisations to adapt and embrace change. The trends forecast for 2021 show that IT solutions build on and reinforce each other, increasing business benefits.”

Would you welcome a discussion about your organisation’s approach to technology and the potential it offers? Contact the friendly EMH Technology team without obligation. Let’s talk.