5 Fast-Developing Technology Trends in the Network Industry in 2017

At the start of every new year, experts and forecasters from various companies begin to predict the trends that are likely to impact the technology industry over the next 12 months. For 2017, here are the top technologies and trends that are likely to impact IT professionals:

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1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) began to emerge in 2016, and the technology is likely to develop rapidly in 2017. Enterprises are trying to use AI technology to help them understand their big data (especially IoT data) and help them provide better services to customers. In 2017, Forrester predicts that investment in artificial intelligence will increase threefold, and enterprises are gradually looking to use complex systems, advanced analysis and machine learning technologies. According to IDC, by 2019, 40% of digital transformation initiatives and 100% of IoT initiatives will be powered by AI.

2. Internet of Things

AI is closely related to the second hot trend in 2017 - IoT. Not only are consumers starting to buy connected devices, but businesses are also turning to IoT devices and systems to help them improve efficiency and productivity. Gartner predicts that by 2020, IoT will help consumers and businesses save $1 trillion in maintenance, service and consumables costs each year.

But there is a downside to this trend, Forrester points out: "IoT also brings threats, which will expose enterprises to security breaches, and IoT itself may become a DDoS weapon."

3. Augmented Reality

Experts also predict that 2017 will be the year of augmented reality (AR). Most consumers had their first AR experience in 2016 through the Pokémon GO mobile app. In the new year, businesses will be looking for new use cases for AR to help them increase profits. IDC predicts that in 2017, 30% of consumer-facing G2000 companies will try AR/VR as part of their marketing efforts. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that by 2020, 100 million consumers will buy AR products.

4. Automation

As enterprises begin to embrace DevOps, automation technology will change IT. IT teams will use software to complete a lot of work autonomously instead of relying on manual work, which will allow employees to focus on more strategic tasks. Some experts even predict that AI will take over most of the programming work that developers currently do.

5. Cybercrime

Unfortunately, in 2017, analysts agree that cybercrime is not going to decrease, but will increase. According to Forrester, targeted espionage, ransomware, denial of service, privacy breaches, etc. will all increase in the new year. Interestingly, Forrester also predicts that cyberattacks will become a major political issue. The company correctly predicted last year that cybersecurity would be a major issue in the 2016 presidential election, and they also predicted that within 100 days, the new US president will face a major cyber crisis.

Don’t forget about the cloud

Cloud computing has dominated lists of technology trends for years, but with the vast majority of businesses adopting cloud computing, it has become a staple in IT usage rather than an emerging trend.

However, there is still a lot of innovation happening in cloud computing. In 2017 we will see the emergence of serverless architecture, also known as Function as a Service (FaaS).