6 ICT trends that will change the business world in 2017

2016 saw the rise of automation, cloud-based services, big data, the Internet of Things, innovations in working life, and smart city solutions. In 2017, these trends will take on a new dimension. Let’s have a look at the ICT trends that are going to shape the CEE region this year, and how our business customers will benefit from them.

#1. Automation will improve and optimize businesses
IT automation in particular, which makes systems and software self-acting or self-regulating, will drive businesses and become the norm: Tools automatically aggregating real-time data will save time and reduce errors in database management. Automated password resetting, diagnostic tools, and self-service portals will relieve support staff. Security will be improved by incident responses that identify threats and quarantine infected system parts much faster than humans.

#2: Workforce mobility will keep employees productive
People now work flexibly. The mobile workforce will grow as they pressure companies to adopt home office solutions, but this requires mobile managed services. Employees need to access applications and files anytime, on any device. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) solutions for phones will boom. Mobile security will be huge for IT managers, as studies show a third of companies have no rules for it yet.

#3. Advanced features will become more important for IaaS
Analysts predict 20-percent further growth for IaaS, with cloud security and agility overtaking cost flexibility as main motives. Advanced features like elastic server provisioning, automated management, object storage, load balancing and horizontal scale setups are gaining importance, with a stable position in DT’s offering. SaaS is seen as the ultimate cloud step but has yet to take off in central and eastern Europe.

 #4: Smart city projects will digitalize the public sector
2016 saw many smart city pilots worldwide. At DT, we launched, for example, street lighting, video surveillance, smart parking and waste management in Croatia, Slovakia, and Romania among others. In 2017, we’ll see more solutions go live. Administrations and technology vendors must collaborate more closely with ICT firms, which will provide networks, new connections like narrowband, cloud services, and analytics platforms. People will generate data in apps for smart parking, metering, energy management, and take part in local decision-making on government portals.

#5: The Internet of Things will become the Internet of Everything
The Internet of Everything will continue to rise across more and more industries. To cope with the data mass, IT departments will have to prioritize processing – and consider outsourcing to the cloud. Analytics tools hosted in flexible clouds and open IoT platforms for managing connected devices will gain ground. Only the strongest will survive – the same goes for data centers. With the IoT, companies will have more devices to keep secure. Voice assistants will bloom as manufacturers upgrade their devices. Having tested the IoT in 2016, companies will now monetize their solutions.

#6: Big data will begin to generate value
As IoT solutions and social media grow, data volumes are exploding. In 2017, firms creating real value from this data to will get ahead. Advanced data analytics will be needed to handle raw data from Web applications and real-time input from machines. Big data’s predictions will improve both maintenance and customer experiences while boosting cloud computing. As consumers no longer tolerate security breaches, firms storing data or outsourcing its processing will have to guarantee data privacy.

The EU supports digitalization efforts
To support governments’, cities’, and businesses’ efforts to digitalize, several EU-funded projects will be launched this year. 50 billion euros of public and private funding are budgeted to digitalize industries across Europe and to boost the digital single market. Initiatives for big data, security, cloud computing, networks, and IoT projects will increase the percentage of industries and companies that begin to implement all of these ICT developments in 2017.

Across the CEE region, we are consistently improving our offerings in line with these trends to become and remain the partner of choice for all customer segments.The cloud, for instance, is going to be a very important part of our MagentaOne Business proposition for small businesses, because it’s the key to their digitalization. Thanks to the IoT,  we will continue helping cities to digitalize and deploy smart city projects that improve their citizens’ quality of life. We will also continue leveraging our regional footprint and data centers across 13 countries to support our corporate customers, particularly those with cross-border needs.