Chip shortages, edge computing and IoT will drive IT transformation in 2022

Forrester Research pointed out in its research that many IT professionals believe that the Internet of Things and edge computing are inseparable, and both can help companies comply with government regulations.

Abhijit Sunil, author of a recent survey report released by Forrester Research, said recently that the growth in the use of the Internet of Things and edge computing are interrelated, and the development of these two areas will be greatly promoted by relevant regulations in the future.

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“We can’t separate the advances in IoT without talking about the impact on edge computing,” he said. “They are very much tied to each other…and their impact on use cases is combined.”

According to a report released by Forrester Research, titled "Predictions 2022: Edge Computing, IoT, and Networks," the demand for "sustainability-related services" will put IoT and edge computing front and center. Environmental use cases such as monitoring CO2 levels, pollution, and air quality will all become increasingly popular, and adopting IoT facilities will allow companies to manage resources (such as water and electricity) more efficiently.

Sunil said this is a major trend, especially among large companies.

“We surveyed Fortune 200 companies and as of 2020, 58% had a chief sustainability officer, with the rest having other managers in that position who are responsible for the sustainability of the business,” he said.

Sunil said it is increasingly difficult to separate IoT and edge computing from a company’s sustainability strategy, and despite all the talk about how IoT and edge computing can move technology from IT teams to business teams, the CIO is still the best person to take action.

He said, “How can leaders lead green IT strategies without understanding these emerging technologies?”

Chip shortage

According to Forrester Research, the chip shortage is unlikely to be resolved before mid-2023, which means that enterprise and consumer IT products will face price instability and availability issues in the coming months. Sunil said this is a particular problem for the IoT market because most of the chip supply will be used to produce high-end CPUs and GPUs. Therefore, the microcontrollers and sensors required for IoT devices will face more supply chain issues.

“If you think about the Internet of Things and systems that communicate with each other, all of these things are made up of some smart devices that need chips that support those communications or storage or computing, so chip shortages will have a ripple effect on all of those markets depending on the use case,” he said.

5G or satellite link?

In addition, the report predicts that 5G will dominate the next generation of network connections, especially in rural areas. But 5G may be replaced by satellite links, and the high cost of 5G deployment opens the door to alternative WAN technologies. The report points out that in rural areas, low-orbit Internet services like Starlink have more development prospects than 5G.

What's more, some cable providers are starting to offer satellite internet as a backup service.

Large DDoS attacks

Given the IoT's weaknesses in security, Forrester Research predicts that large-scale DDoS attacks powered by IoT botnets will hit critical communications infrastructure. Take the growing scale of IoT botnet attacks, such as last summer's 17 million requests per second attack, followed by another attack that reached 22 million requests per second. The report says that by 2022, IoT botnet attacks will reach 30 million requests per second, which will block critical communications. Therefore, Forrester Research recommends that companies re-examine their DDoS prevention efforts.