Technology Trends Update Continued

About a week ago I wrote about the Top Four Technology Trends for 2019 and with this post I would like to continue with the next four. There are in fact additional technology trends and updates taking place but most of the experts do believe that these eight trends are most important.

The four trends I wrote about last week were: Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Robotic Process Automation and Blockchain. I will now continue with the last four technology trends.

5. Edge Computing

Formerly a technology trend to watch, cloud computing has become mainstream, with major player AWS (Amazon Web Services), Mirosoft Azure and Google Cloud dominating the market. The adoption of cloud computing is still growing, as more and more businesses migrate to a cloud solution. But it’s no longer the emerging technology. Edge is. Move over, cloud computing, and make way for the edge.

As the quantity of data we’re dealing with continues to increase, we’ve realized the shortcomings of cloud computing in some situations. Edge computing is designed to help solve some of those problems as a way to bypass the latency caused by cloud computing and getting data to a data center for processing. It can exist “on the edge, closer to where computing needs to happen. For this reason, edge computing can be used to process time-sensitive data in remote locations with limited or no connectivity to a centralized location. In those situations, edge computing can act like mini datacenters. Edge computing will increase as use the Internet of Things (IoT) devices increases. By 2022, the global edge computing market is expected to reach $6.72 billion.

As with any growing market, this will create job demand, primarily for software engineers.

6. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) immerses the user in an environment with Augmented Reality (AR) enhances their environment. Although VR has primarily been used for gaming thus far, it has also been used for training, as with VirtualShip, a simulation software used to train U.S. Navy, Army and Coast Guard ship captains. The popular Pokemon Go is an example of AR.

Both have enormous potential in training, entertainment, education, marketing and even rehabilitation. Either could be used to train doctors to do surgery, enhance theme parks or even enhance marketing.

According to an article at Monster.com, the demand for job candidates with VR knowledge is up 37 percent, but the potential employees are in short supply. That demand will only increase. There are major players in the VR market, like Google, Samsung, and Oculus, but plenty of startups are forming and they will be hiring—or trying to, in light of the shortage. Getting started in VR doesn’t require a lot of specialized knowledge. Basic programming skills and a forward-thinking mindset can land a job, although other employers will be looking for optics as a skill-set and hardware engineers as well.

7. Cyber Security

Cyber security might not seem like emerging technology, given that it has been around for a while, but it is evolving just as other technologies are. That’s in part because threats are constantly new. The malevolent hackers who are trying to illegally access data are not going to give up any time soon, and they will continue to find ways to get through even the toughest security measures. It’s also in part because new technology is being adapted to enhance security.

 Three of those advancements are hardware authentication, cloud technology, and deep learning, according to one expert. As long as we have hackers, we will have cyber security as an emerging technology because it will constantly evolve to defend against those hackers. The number of cyber security jobs are growing three times faster than other tech jobs.

Many cyber security jobs pay six-figure incomes, and roles can range from ethical hacker to security engineer to Chief Security Officer, offering a promising career path for someone who wants to get into and stick with this domain.

8. Internet of Things

Although it sounds like a game you’d play on your smartphone, the Internet of Things (IoT) is the future. Many “things” are now being built with WiFi connectivity, meaning they can be connected to the Internet—and to each other. Hence, the Internet of Things, or IoT. IoT enables devices, home appliances, cars and much more to be connected to and exchange data over the Internet. And we’re only in the beginning stages of IoT: The number of IoT devices reached 8.4 billion in 2017 is and expected to reach 30 billion devices by 2020.

As consumers, we are already using and benefiting from IoT. We can lock our doors remotely and preheat our ovens on our way home from work while tracking our fitness on our Fitbits. The IoT can enable better safety, efficiency and decision making for businesses as data is collected and analyzed. It can enable predictive maintenance, speed up medical care, improve customer service and offer benefits we haven’t even imagined. Experts say that not enough IT professionals are getting trained for IoT jobs and inadequate skill levels could be the industry’s biggest obstacle.

For someone interested in a career in IoT, that means easy entry into the field if you’re motivated, with a range of options for getting started. Skills needed include IoT security, cloud computing knowledge, data analytics, automation, understanding of embedded systems, device knowledge, to name only a few. After all, it’s the Internet of Things, and those things are many and varied, meaning the skills needed are as well.

Well that’s all for now. We will continue with future posts regarding the latest Technology Trends for 2019 and beyond.