After a rough 2020, the tech industry is showing signs of recovery. Revenues have jumped, and spending on cloud and managed services have increased. However, significant challenges persist, such as mounting cloud costs, ransomware threats, the ongoing chip shortage, and supply chain disruptions. Let’s look at the top technology trends in 2022 that will define how organizations will handle these challenges and enter the next phase of digital transformation.
Forrester projects U.S. tech industry budgets to expandOpens a new window by 7.4% in 2021 and 6.7% in 2022. Compare this to the pandemic-ravaged 2020 when tech budgets contracted by 2.5%. Meanwhile, the 2022 State of IT report from Spiceworks Ziff Davis, based on a survey of more than 1,000 technology buyers in companies across North America and Europe, found that 92% of tech companies expect their revenues to increase (61%) or remain stable in 2022.Â
“Businesses expect a continuation of pandemic-related challenges in 2022. Despite these perceived obstacles, our annual study reveals that businesses are upbeat about the future, and more willing to invest in tech now than in the past two years,†the report found. It projects that 88% of tech companies will keep their budgets intact or improve IT spending in 2022 and invest heavily in cloud-based services and managed services while limiting hardware allocations.
It remains to be seen what impact the new Omicron variant will have on the revenues of tech companies in 2022, but there are many other challenges to be considered. Most organizations are more concernedOpens a new window about ransomware than other cyberthreats. In 2021, the total number of attacks targeting organizations worldwide will exceed 700 million, and according to Josh Rickard, security solutions architect at Swimlane, the average ransomware payout will double in 2022 thanks to the proliferation of Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) proliferates.Â
“Similar to how cybercriminals have developed phishing kits to launch attacks with minimal effort, ransomware groups will seek to grow the RaaS ecosystem and improve infrastructure. In 2022, this will make it even easier to deploy ransomware attacks and will lead to a rise in more sophisticated attacks such as double extortion,†he says. Â
Another major challenge for ITDMs is to find ways to tackle the Great Supply Chain Disruption, which, IHS Markit says, “will continue into 2022, with the potential for new, unexpected shortages that will hit companies and add to inflation.†Booming cloud computing costs will also be on their radar.Â
Anodot found in a recent survey that 77% of businesses with more than $2 million in cloud costs were surprised by how much they spent in 2021, and 50% of companies saw cloud costs surging by 25% to 100% during six months. Heavy costs associated with on-premise storage ensure few alternatives to cloud adoption.
Let’s hear from industry experts on what they predict will be the top trends within the industry in 2022, defined by recent disruptions and the unquenchable quest for digital transformation across the board.
See More: IT is Ripe for Modernization, But Supply Chain Issues Will Continue to Persist
More Flexible Workplaces to Tackle the Great Resignation
Workplaces to evolve to suit workers’ needs
“I see the future of work as supporting an increasingly flexible workforce inside of an increasingly flexible workspace. What I mean by that is that I think people will now feel almost every employer will have a heightened sense of comfort. Comfort with hiring people in relatively remote areas. At the same time, I think regular office visits will need to take place, again for that important face-to-face time and collaboration time,†says Simon Taylor, CEO and co-founder, HYCU.
The way that that paradigm shift plays itself out, even in terms of real estate, is that employees would demand more office space, not less. “Employees will desire the flexibility to be in a private area and collaborative space, or even in a space that may reflect some of the things they enjoyed at home, sitting on a couch, open area, etc. I believe we will continue to see increased flexibility in both the workplace as well as increased flexibility in the way that we work,†he added.Â
Employees want companies to accommodate their lifestyle, not the other way around
Lizzie Burton, executive vice president of People & Culture at Snow Software, says that in 2022, companies will have to embrace a more flexible approach to work to attract talent amid the ‘Great Resignation.’ “Potential new hires are seeking out organizations that treat them as trustworthy individuals and offer the flexibility to create work schedules that fit their lifestyle needs. If businesses cannot be transparent and consistent, top talent will look elsewhere.â€
Another major trend is that employee focus is shifting away from compensation (salary, bonuses, stock) to benefits, especially around wellbeing. Traditionally, companies would look to offer attractive compensation and rarely review and refresh benefit offerings. “Now, more and more organizations are differentiating themselves around the flexible ways of working they offer and their benefits, especially those around health, including mental, physical and all-around wellbeing,†Burton told Toolbox. Â
See More: People and Technology Will Drive the Workplace in 2022: ADP Predicts
Cloud Computing Trends
Public cloud slowly creeping into the on-premises space
“For the last few years, hybrid cloud was championed by technology vendors who sold on-premises technologies, but now public cloud vendors are offering cloud-like experiences on premises,†says Jesse Stockall, chief architect, cloud management at Snow Software.Â
“This is not a good or bad thing, but as companies decide how they will approach their hybrid cloud strategy they need to consider how much control they want to maintain. By handing their private cloud to a public cloud vendor, companies may lose some control and ability to customize, but they will gain a unified, consistent private cloud experience. Companies need to decide what will be best for their business, but overall the conversation has shifted with public cloud vendors taking the wheel.â€
Greater focus on portability to maximize the hybrid cloud advantage
Stockall says that organizations are still unable to take full advantage of hybrid cloud (and multi-cloud) because of portability challenges. The inability to architect the technology stack accurately can create silos where applications and data live in two completely separate environments, which can be solved through strategic architecting and maintenance.Â
“Whether organizations lock into one vendor for their public and private cloud needs or choose a multi-cloud strategy, companies need to invest time and resources to ensure their technology environment gains the full advantages of hybrid cloud. Portability has been and remains a key element to hybrid cloud ROI,†he adds.
Shifting Priorities of IT Companies to Cut Costs
Shift from CapEx spending to OpEx spending to rise
2022 could see a massive rise in new PCs and tablets sales due to organizations and individuals replacing outdated software that will no longer run on the latest Windows 11 OS. However, global supply chain disruption will impact corporate, and cloud physical growth as local parts caches are exhausted and too many manufactured products are stuck in shipping delays. This could trigger a large volume of last-generation products arriving simultaneously as the next-generation products are manufactured. This may force buyers to delay purchases or accept the older product to address their immediate needs, says Michael Delzer, an analyst at GigaOm.
“We saw the tip in global technology purchases shift to cloud as a majority in 2020, and now OpEX spend is now greater than CapEx spend by enterprises in 2021. This puts pressure on lagging enterprises to accelerate their modernization efforts at the same time as first half supply chain issues constrain their ability to accept delivery of capital purchases. To address this, look for more traditional technology providers to shift to OpEx as a way to move their on-site product purchases,†he adds.Â
Managing cloud costs with FinOps-ITAM partnerships
Becky Trevino, VP of product marketing at Snow Software, says that cloud-centric companies are increasingly partnering their FinOps and ITAM (IT asset management) initiatives to bring cloud and SaaS technologies together in a unified way.Â
“I predict more enterprises will want to be viewed as a critical player in the cloud and distance themselves from legacy architecture – motivating them to lean into a FinOps/ITAM partnership in 2022. At Snow Software, we’re seeing this in our own IT management practices, and it’s redefining the use cases for SAM; what was once all about IT governance is now about cloud cost containment, she says.
See More: 5 Ways To Stop Your Cloud Costs From Ballooning Beyond Your Control
Top DevOps Trends for 2022
GitOps becoming increasingly relevant for product management
“Enterprises have missed the “app store moment†largely because each organization has been running their own infrastructure for the past decades. While the adoption of Containers is providing the next level of abstraction to encapsulate applications and brings us closer to the app store ideal, it’s really Kubernetes that adds the security and management that will finally turn enterprise software into an asset,†says Alexis Richardson, co-Founder and CEO, Weaveworks.
“Companies want to use the same core platform everywhere so they can focus on the same skill set, the same tools, the same way of thinking, but not the same data centers. In 2022, we’ll see GitOps increasingly deemed essential for product management-oriented DevOps teams to deliver standardization for enterprises’ core platforms so that people, their most important asset, can truly focus on delivering applications.â€Â
Big Tech will ramp up software releases with DevSecOps/GitOps approaches
Steve Schmidt, the general partner at Telstra Ventures, says that Big Tech giants, such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (FAANG), will continue to increase the gap between themselves and the rest of the pack by pursuing an unrelenting place of innovation in 2022. These companies know that continuous release of software improvements, and not digital transformation projects, will ensure their leadership in the long run.Â
To increase the pace of software releases, mainstream companies will build stronger continuous software development muscles with companies like GitLab and incorporate a DevSecOps/GitOps approach to designing, building, testing, deploying and managing their applications at scale. These innovations will need to be released onto autonomous and composable infrastructures that leverage the power of Kubernetes to deliver high levels of flexibility, automation, resilience and speed.â€Â
Which top trend will shape the tech landscape in 2022? Let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!