The defining trends for 2015 will include context-based computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), fashionable wearables, mobile computing and optimised cloud solutions, technology experts tell Team Viva
If 2014 was the year of big change in technology and new visions for India by the government — the digital India, Make in India and the smart cities campaign, 2015 will solidify these changes and start a transformation. Technology will play an important role with massive deployments in network, data, storage and analytics.
mushrooming of IoT
The year ahead will see quantum increases in data generation, led by the Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon. Data will become the new gold. A leading industry analyst firm’s Digital Universe analysis of the growth of data suggests that intelligent connected devices will increase the amount of “useful data” that can be analysed and used to make decisions from 22 per cent in 2013 to 35 per cent in 2020. “This ‘useful data’ needs to be in digital storage in order to enable the analysis. This will compel enterprises and government alike to think harder about network efficiency, storage and analytics. If India is to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves in 2014, a calibrated approach is an imperative, born of long term technology roadmaps. Analytics deployments will be spurred in the increasingly complex marketing and consumer engagement environment that have been created in the digital era,” says Anil Valluri, president of NetApp, India and SAARC.
Hybrid cloud architecture
Organisations contemplating both green field and brown field cloud deployments will tend towards a multi-vendor hybrid cloud environment, that will provide the benefits of both the worlds — public and private cloud. “Avoidance of lock-in, leverage in negotiations or simply a desire for choice will make customers reluctant to work with one cloud vendor. Multiple-vendor hybrid clouds will attain prominence. This growth will further be boosted as big data evolves and drives the need for sophisticated storage infrastructure,” says Valluri.
Computing is key
As mobile devices continue to proliferate, Gartner predicts an increased emphasis on serving the needs of the mobile user in diverse contexts and environments, as opposed to focussing on devices alone. “Phones and wearable devices are now part of an expanded computing environment that includes things as consumer electronics and connected screens in the workplace and public space,” said David Cearley of Gartner. “Increasingly, it’s the overall environment that will need to adapt to the requirements of the mobile user. This will continue to raise significant management challenges for IT organisations as they lose control of user endpoint devices.”
3D printing
Worldwide shipments of 3D printers are expected to grow 98 per cent in 2015, followed by a doubling of unit shipments in 2016. The 3D printing will reach a tipping point over the next three years as the market for relatively low-cost 3D printing devices continues to grow rapidly and industrial use expands significantly. New industrial, biomedical and consumer applications will continue to demonstrate that 3D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing.
wearable devices
Wearable electronic devices for fitness shipments are forecast to reach 68.1 million units in 2015, down from 70 million units in 2014, according to Gartner. This temporary dip in sales will be driven by an overlap in functionality between smart wristbands, other wearable fitness monitors and smartwatches. However, the market for smart wristbands and other fitness monitors will rebound in 2016 because of versatile designs and models with lower-cost displays.
“Fitness wearables are used for tracking health, which goes hand-in-hand with fitness and wellness,” said Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner. “Consumers will be able to integrate the data from most wearables into a single account where their data can be analysed using cognisant computing to provide useful insights to wearers. Funding initiatives from Qualcomm, Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Nike and Intel, among others, will build on early innovation in wearable fitness and health monitoring and create the infrastructure for merging data relevant to health and fitness.”
hack and attack
leaked images of the Hollywood stars or the Sony’s hacking scandal are not first or the last attempt by the hackers.
Trend Micro forecasts that targeted attacks will become rampant from more countries as hackers from the usual suspects have found success targeting victims around the world. Says Dhanya Thakkar, managing director, India & SEA, Trend Micro, “Following the success of targeted attacks from Chinese and Russian cyber criminals, many hackers from other countries will regard cyber attacks as a more practical method to grab a foothold in an organisation. Additionally, with the incessant barrage of data breaches emerging almost daily, it’s reasonable to presume that data breaches will be essentially regarded as a common offshoot of the present threat landscape.”
information dealers
As the retail sector escalates their defenses and security measures such as Chip and PIN technology are mandated, cyber criminals will be smarter in their credit card data theft.
In addition, these criminals will begin to seek a broader range of data about victims. These fuller, richer, personal identity dossier of individual users, consisting of multiple credit cards, regional and geographic data, personal information and behaviour, will be increasingly traded in the same manner as credit cards are stolen today.