7 Emerging Technologies IT Should Study Now
Staying on top of current technologies means anticipating future ones. Here, we look at seven technologies IT should be studying right now. One (or more) of these may well be the next big trend in the industry.
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Staying on top of technology trends is serious business for those of us in the field. Skill sets come and go at a breakneck pace, and it's important to stay ahead of the curve in an attempt to anticipate the next hot trend to keep oneself relevant in an ever-changing world.
Here's a look at seven trending technologies that IT professionals should be studying right now. Where these technologies lead us, IT jobs are certain to follow in order to help design, implement, and support each one.
Our goal for this list was to identify not only hardware and software technologies, but also ideologies and legislative movements that can dramatically influence how and when a particular technology will reach a critical mass in terms of impact on our lives. You'll find that our list contains not only technologies that are attempting to solve problems we see today, but also ways to move beyond what we have today and push us into uncharted territories.
To help understand the importance of studying emerging technologies, simply look back at the past decade and contemplate the disruptive technologies that have revolutionized the way IT infrastructure works today. Topics such as server virtualization, big data, and cloud computing were once merely high-level concepts and ideas. Yet, those of us who investigated and learned about these technologies early on had a dramatic advantage over our peers in the workplace, once these technologies came to fruition.
As our technologies increase in complexity, it takes more and more time for technologists to start to comprehend new technologies, let alone learn how to implement and support them. So it's in our best interest to start our education as early as possible by first identifying the technology trends likely to shake up the IT landscape in the years ahead.
The proliferation of mobile computing around the world clearly indicates that a focus on future wireless technologies would make our list. The same goes for IT's hottest topic of the past few years -- IT security. Other technologies, such as three-dimensional imagery and robotics, will advance many areas of our lives that have remained stagnant for years.
Click on the following pages to see our top seven picks for technologies IT needs to watch and study now. Then, let us know what you think about the list and tell us about the technologies you think we're missing out on. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
The concern that data is insecure is one of the factors keeping the cloud computing movement from exploding even further than it already has done. Our current encryption technologies leave us either to trust our cloud service provider fully, or to encrypt our data before moving it to the cloud. While more secure, the problem with the latter option is that encrypted documents can't be searched until they're decrypted. This is where homomorphic encryption comes into play. Homomorphic encryption is a method whereby encrypted files could be categorized, and mined, while still remaining in an encrypted state. The concept has been around for years, but real strides have been made over the last few years which may soon make homomorphic encryption a reality.
Where cloud computing can be thought of as fluffy white clouds way up in the sky, fog computing surrounds us. Fog computing takes cloud computing and pushes it out to the edge device, as opposed to keeping it in a data center. The idea is that our end devices will not talk back to a handful of cloud providers, where our applications and data live. Instead, fog computing creates a wireless mesh at the edge, where point-to-point communication with devices in our geographical proximity are far more prevalent. By creating a heterogeneous mesh that all talks together, a fog approach streamlines, optimizes, and improves availability for mobile device connectivity.
Three-dimensional technologies have been much more of a novelty than a technological breakthrough in the recent past. This mostly has to do with the fact that 3-D displays are difficult to achieve. But the latest 3-D display offerings are seriously good. Although many of us still struggle to find a purposeful use for 3-D displays in our own daily lives (they're not going to help with spreadsheet or database work), niche areas such as mechanical design, engineering, advertising, and various medical fields can and will find uses for this type of technology.
It's high time that we kill off the use of the dreaded complex password. The requirements for this type of authentication continue to increase in an attempt to thwart advancements in password-cracking technologies. But instead of trying to stay one step ahead, many are dramatically shifting focus to potentially more secure and certainly much easier to use biometric authentication methods. Biometrics clearly do have a way to identify users. The key is to wrap hardware and software around it to make it foolproof. And while we're not quite there yet, many are getting close. Clearly we'll be seeing and using biometrics more and more on a daily basis.
While battery life seems to get marginally better every year, we can't help but feel that portable power continues to be the No. 1 pain point in mobile technology. There are some interesting new technologies being introduced and re-introduced to help alleviate the problem of having to tether a device to an outlet continually. If you think that mobile technology has exploded already, just wait until battery life technology gets to the point where we can truly be mobile.
The field of robotics has taken a huge leap in terms of usefulness over the past few years. Fully robotic manufacturing, medical procedures, law enforcement, and even restaurants are just a few areas where robotics can and likely will replace human labor. And while robotics may seem like a job-reducing area of study, there is great potential when looking at the IT side of the technology. One major obstacle that will need to be overcome is in the case of human-robotic collaboration. After all, even the most advanced robotics can't do all things that humans can do. Sophisticated software will need to be developed to ensure that humans and robots can communicate and understand each other accurately and efficiently.
Obviously, there are plenty of other technologies beyond these seven to monitor and study. This list should at least get those creative juices flowing about what your personal predictions and study list will be.
If you think we missed a big technology on the horizon that is sure to shake up the IT world, we'd love for you to share in the comments section below.
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