Author: Thanooj Sathiamoorthy, Specialist Software Engineer
EXEC SUMMARY
The Digital era accelerated disruption in many areas of human life, but not in the overwhelming way it exploded in the year 2020/21 where the Pandemic radically transformed the world around us and influenced us in many new ways. Both as individuals and as stakeholders in the larger ecosystem, we must learn to welcome disruption for it is the new norm. We must be open to changes, new opportunities, new ways of being inclusive and continue our efforts towards building a better and sustainable future.
We all now demand seamless experiences, resilient assurances and in rightly pledging our duties towards ESG values. Today’s consumers want seamless experiences, reliable guarantees, and honest commitments to ESG principles.
It is imperative to foresee 2023 with the new lens of technology transformation and refocus business strategies to capitalize on new opportunities using sustainable innovation.
Datacenters are taking the paradigm shift because of the 3rd gen Processors more cores like Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice lake), AMD EPYC Milan processors and NVIDIA’s Grace (2023) CPUs while using state of the art robotics and automation for data center monitoring and maintenance. The data center industry is in a unique position to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices in measuring Carbon footprint for all Service model in IaaS/PaaS/SaaS/BPaaS and ensuring renewable energy to reduce climate change at a global level.
Cloud powered with technologies like Dataplex (intelligent data fabric for advanced analytics) and Web App & API Protection (WAAP) is changing the whole wave of accessing applications from External Networks. Innovation like Vertex AI (scalable ML models), Distributed Application Runtime (DAPR), Kubernetes Event-based Autoscaler (KEDA) and Chaos Studio (safely simulates outage) is helping to visualize the new era of development over cloud platforms; a point to note is that some of these offerings will mature for next gen On Prem/Hybrid Cloud.
Data Storage industry is swiftly adopting breakthrough non-volatile memory express (NVMe) and Project Silica – the first-ever storage technology designed for the cloud, leveraging ultrafast laser optics to store data in quartz glass by using femtosecond lasers.
The area of Enterprise Databases and middleware will also go througha vigorous transformation with the increased adoption of technologies & platforms like GraphQL (GraphQL is a query language and runtime providing a complete and understandable description of data in APIs), ksqlDB (embraces endless changes in the data flow), Time series DB (track and index fast data queries) and others, to offer better versatility and consistency.
Data mesh (distributed architecture – data management), Data Engines (ETL and Datalake integration) and Reverse ETL (copying DW data to operational systems) have led the way by introducing analytics products for their customers. We need to watch out for Cloud enabled Data-warehouse Platforms like Snowflake which provides autoscaling, BI, Security and AI Analytics.
Next-gen Networks will be open-seamless-optimized and built on cloud are transformed by network innovative technologies like fastpass (efficient packet routing), optical wireless technology (use optical light waves, rather than radio waves) and radio access network (RAN). Network innovations like secure access and secure edge (SASE) WAN and cloud access security broker (CASB) is enabling Zero Trust network security architecture.
Workplace services will see changes in new chips like Pluton (embedded Security Processor) handling Bitlocker, Windows Hello and System Guard to keep the Workstation safe and secure. The Pluton like HW delivers greater protection via Hardware and Internal Software than the Trusted Platform Module (TPM),hence providing greater capabilities with Zero Trust OS and Future Always Network on with 5G/6G.
Web Engine Services will see enhancements in search engine optimizations (SEO), Zero- Click Search and high-quality backlinks. Multi-depth and Bidirectional Encoder transformation algorithms will power the frequency and content delivery of search words. And in For App Areas, backend Frameworks App transformation platforms like Meteor (platform for web, mobile, and desktop) will shape the new application transformation world coupled with existing frameworks like strapi (headless content management system) and koa (web framework).
WE ALSO INTRODUCE THE 3DS OF SMART DISRUPTION:
DESIGN – DIFFUSION – DATA
For optimal efficiencies, we need to channelize our energy towards both sustaining and disrupting technologies. Technology Sustainability depends largely on incremental innovation that strengthens existing technologies and keeping an eye on disruptive technologies. Metaverse, Blockchain, Quantum computing, new AI spectrums, Satellite infrastructure, Mesh security etc. are some of the disruptive technologies which will significantly influence the future. Disruption needs to align the major themes of our technology ecosystem requirements of Design, Diffusion and Data to “the new normal”.
DESIGN – NOVEL ASPECTS
The digital world has reached new heights by pushing to integrate, connect and re-engineer data and Cloud platforms, leveraging both human and machine abilities. It is very evident that design requirements will always be the essence of any architectural decision, thus resulting in an appreciation among the tech community for the rise of API economy and next gen Architecture. This is leading the way to:
- Decentralized Infrastructure
- Future Accessibility
DECENTRALIZED INFRASTRUCTURE
Decentralized autonomous infrastructure focuses on designing/ developing web3 architecture using immutable, consensus, tokenized principles of blockchain technologies. The secure digital network infrastructure design promises new aspects for future keys, certificates and self-sovereign identity management.
TIME TO ACTION
The whole action can be managed in administering our enterprise computing use cases with the help of smart Contracts which aids to web3 design of regulated governance, security, undisputed audits, insightful transparency and application transformation leading to modular infrastructure powered by vertical/Hyperscalers Cloud solutions.
FUTURE ACCESSIBILITY
Innovation offers far-fetched opportunities to admire the promises of full- fledged access to technology which enables us to create an inclusive design of the ecosystem. Improvements in design architectures of cognitive situations, visual/physical impairments, e-accessibility can be managed well with the new design options.
TIME TO ACTION
The end-user total experience use-cases as per the design patterns of futuristic smart wearables, next gen AR/VR, Assistive Robotics & Accessibility guidelines (like WCAG) etc., must be explored to balance the advanced design requirements. Sustainability and Eco-design will play a critical role in reducing the environmental and economic effect of the data we create in any Software development, App design, or IS architecture. We need to fortify more Green Architecture, Green Tooling, Green coding and Green project management & sourcing which has lately gained popularity due to its focus on environmental goals.
DIFFUSION – DISTRIBUTED FUTURE
Remote collaboration and communication are dramatically transformed with the necessity of the new normal, in the post-pandemic world. Users are looking for freedom to work from anywhere, autonomous identity but no compromise in the overall experience bundled with trust and security in a distributed network. The response is within the technological transformations of thematic codes of:
- Ubiquitous Operational EX
- Pervasive Trust
UBIQUITOUS OPERATIONAL EX
New Experience is interfaced at every level of stakeholders from customer to employee to contractors, and gone are the days when the experience was limited only to the customer’s delight. People-centricity is the vital characteristic of diffusing the experience from end-user to employees.
TIME TO ACTION
The end user computing use-cases are related to Virtual workplace experience and maintenance, Conversational AI, Humanoids, End user self-service experience platforms minimizing the dependencies of centralized operation teams.
PERVASIVE TRUST
Trust becomes the most essential ask when we transform and adapt new technologies with managed services and operations. It looks for a wholesome secure experience beyond the firewalls. Discovery, access, authentication of users and machines with pervasive trust is increasingly sought for modernized, transformed, and distributed application experience with more confidence.
TIME TO ACTION
Pervasive trust can be built by leveraging the full potential of Cyber AI, Cybersecurity mesh for Privacy & Security, Quantum security – QKD, Homomorphic encryption for Cloud, Blockchain digital self-sovereign identities – SSI.
DATA – FUTURE COINAGE
The traditional approach of working on big data platforms with loads of
historical data is not performing as intended and requires a transition
into the next orbit of intelligence. Smaller data sets with wide access are
the need of the hour for data transformations through:
- Cognitive Acumen
- Synthetic Metaverse
COGNITIVE ACUMEN
Today technology is making it possible for our tools, applications, and
bots to talk, listen, and even feel the emotions of a human. Cognitive
acumen needs to imitate the rationality of the human behavior of
learning, reasoning, problem-solving and ultimately making intelligent
decisions.
TIME TO ACTION
We need to borrow the integrated innovations from data science to
design, model, train, implement, monitor, and build cognitive intelligent
solutions, dive in for more data insights and fine tune the existing
processes to redefine the Cognitive acumen. We also need to bring in
regular NLP, machine learning, assistive robotics, deep learning and
neural networks for operations, network, platforms, cloud- analytics
use cases and make full use of the upcoming capabilities of Graph
Technologies, which provide the next level of Analytics and Data
management solutions.
SYNTHETIC METAVERSE
The integration of the virtual, and the real world coupled with human
perception has led to the creation of synthetic realities for 3D spaces,
distributed experiences and Xtreme realities. This has become further
possible with the increased adoption of head-mounted devices to access
and experience the virtual world. The result is the metaverse, where
the persona of ‘live’ and ‘experience’ is predominantly powered by the
internet.
TIME TO ACTION
We can be early adopters in riding the metaverse bandwagon with the
use cases of providing virtual office space with digital avatars powered by
virtual reality and mixed reality environments. This will make the remote
work experience more productive and delightful through customization
of the solutions for training, office spaces, meetings, events and
symposiums. , However, we should be careful about choosing the use
cases – keeping in mind the need to minimize our carbon footprint.
CONCLUSION
WE – AS INNO TORCH BEARERS
We must increasingly play the role of responsible contributors towards sustainable innovation based on stakeholder needs and new standards. State of the art – The 3 Ds of Disruption can present the Virtuous dynamics between strategic CSR and Innovation; this transformation will provide a rational response to the current dynamics of external and internal ecosystems. It will directly influence all personas from business leaders, Excos, employees, stakeholders, and our society as a whole.
We need to watch out for Metaverse, Practical Blockchain use cases, Quantum computing, New AI spectrums, Sat infra, Mesh-security, Distributed fabric, Cloud transformations and other upcoming technologies. Now we need to look out for the right signal to develop the Disruptive, Meta and Immersive IT into reality to provide the ‘umbrella effect’ and nurture the proposed – 3 Ds of disruption in a comprhensive6 manner.
Strengthening the existing norms, working around threats, intensifying innovation & the efforts towards sustainability – these are the behaviours we should adopt wholeheartedly, and welcome the new realms of digital disruption in our daily chores.
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