What Will 2018 Bring to Enterprise IT?

With the new year quickly approaching, now is the time to think about the enterprise IT trends that will shape 2018. Understanding IT trends will provide you with knowledge of industry changes. You can also use the information to identify how to use emerging technologies to your advantage. Here are some fascinating enterprise IT trends for 2018.

Adoption of Emerging Technology

Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been buzzwords for several years now. These technologies have clear benefits to businesses. For example, IoT can help companies save money by controlling the maintenance and operation of HVAC systems, maintaining fleet vehicles and more. And, virtual reality offers the ability for businesses to provide more immersive experiences to their customers.

Currently, almost 30 percent of organizations have adopted the Internet of Things, 18 percent use virtual reality technology and 13 percent have utilized artificial intelligence. Among bigger businesses, these numbers are even more substantial. And, the percent of companies using these tools is expected to grow significantly in the next year. In 2018, more and more organizations will adopt these state-of-the-art technologies as they realize the tangible benefits of doing so. Since these new technologies are expanding and evolving rapidly, companies will need to invest in processes, skills and staff to manage these systems.

Increased Spending on IT

Technology spending will rise among European and North American businesses, according to a recent survey by Spiceworks. Forty-four percent of the companies surveyed said that they plan to increase IT budgets within the next year. Another 43 percent said that they plan to keep their IT spending steady. Just 11 percent of businesses in the study plan to decrease IT budgets in 2018.

Market optimism combined with the growing acceptance of new technologies is expected to drive up IT budgets. Revenues are expected to rise for many corporations in 2018. A lot of the businesses will invest a portion of the profits towards IT services. The investment will pay off, though, as the increasing dependence on technology in the workplace means that the need for IT services will increase. Many organizations will need to increase their IT staff to manage new software, hardware and IT services. Increasing IT budgets will help companies stay ahead of today’s technologies.

A Greater Emphasis on Cloud Computing

Cloud computing provides a way to store and access massive amounts of information. More and more businesses are supported by cloud-based infrastructure. Thanks to an increasingly mobile workplace, globalization and the collaboration of companies all over the world, the use of cloud-based services will only continue to grow. In fact, cloud computing to expected to increase from $67 billion in 2015 to over $160 billion by the year 2020. This number equals an annual growth rate of 19 percent.

Cloud computing has evolved significantly within the past couple of years and offers streamlined collaboration, increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Although some organizations have moved all of their data to the cloud, there are still some companies that are leery of using cloud-based services due to security concerns. As security advances this year, the adoption of cloud services will rise.

Increased Digital Collaboration

With more and more companies embracing global communication, there will be an increased focus on digital collaboration. Sharing documents, accessing calendar information and scheduling calls across platforms will be critical for large enterprises.

Technologies that allow for collaboration will transform the workplace. The arrival of new collaboration and communication tools can overwhelm organizations that are not prepared.  Savvy businesses will find a way to stay on top of these devices and integrate them into their teams.

Advanced Security Solutions

The variety, sophistication and rate of security breaches continue to increase all the time. At the same time, the need for businesses to securely share regulated data continues to grow.

Organizations will have to adopt advanced security solutions, such as breach detection, encryption and biometrics to reduce vulnerabilities and secure data. Data analytics and artificial intelligence will be increasingly used to perform advanced monitoring and reporting. This will help companies identify internal security threats by identifying anomalies.

Protecting data breaches from public clouds will be a huge focus in 2018 among businesses. More than 20 percent of organizations will develop data security governance programs, according to Forbes. These programs will help identify security policy gaps. Companies will then need to adopt solutions to deal with the deficits.

As the world becomes more complicated, IT enterprise services will be critical. Outsourcing IT services can help take some of the pressure off limited IT departments and drive business success.