5 Critical Digital Transformation Trends To Understand In 2021

 
Believe it or not, you're in the latest Transformers chapter and needless to say you're in uncharted territory. Even though the world of business was already going digital, 2020 has expedited Digital Transformation at an unprecedented rate.
 
The Autobots (and you!) are in charge of leading businesses in their Digital Transformation journey and we're here to help. To get you going, we've brought together to top 5 Digital Transformation trends that you'd need to defeat the Digital Age Megatron (geez, have these guys got awesome names or what?).
 
Dive right in to explore where Digital Transformation is headed in 2021 and what you need to do to hit the ground running.

The past year we saw a rise in video conferencing and people working remotely. Also, little Johnny needs to learn about the Pythagorean Theorem from Mrs. Johnson and how will he do that if your network speeds is slow as what we had while using dial-up connection. (Some of you millennials won't get the dial-up reference but oh well! Google's always there to help).
 
As businesses move their infrastructure to a digital space, everything depends on the speed of the internet connection. Everyone wants "beefy speeds"!
 

Additionally, there's a dire need for reliable networks that can handle the load of phones, tablets and other devices, including an increasing number of IoT sensors. Telecommunications service providers are ready to supply this need with a real answer: 5G! The millimeter-wave offered by 5G networks lets a greater number of devices work seamlessly simultaneously, especially IoT devices and ones with low-latency applications and can handle large amounts of data transmission.
 
Sean Roberts, GM of Public Cloud at Ensono, says, "Telcos are pushing hard to meet the skyrocketing market demand for next-generation networks technology, and cloud offers them a potent asset to deliver 5G at pace: cost-effective, scalable, and flexible technology – unmoored from the previous reliance on physical equipment."
 
TechDogs' Opinion: Clearly, there's a high demand for 5G deployment. To cater to this demand,  telecommunication service providers, first and foremost, would invest in 5G infrastructure to make the technology readily available and accessible to all. As 5G becomes commonplace (and more affordable!), business would move their existing infrastructure to 5G-friendly devices–a terrific opportunity for IT manufacturers and vendors. By 2025, it is expected that one-third of the world's population would have access to 5G networks. In short, everything from your connected devices at home to your work computer will turn into their own versions of Jetfire (#jetspeed!). Now that's some All-Spark level technology to get behind!

Avoid "The Ultimate Doom" and get with the cybersecurity program!

Cybersecurity is one of the key priorities for organizations that have undertaken Digital Transformation initiatives. This past year saw fewer and fewer employees working on-site, which turned into a field day for the Decepticons, AKA Cyberbullies. Forbes reported a 238% rise in attacks on banks and a 600% increase in attacks on cloud servers within the first quarter of 2020. You might not even believe us but to deal with the newer avenues of vulnerability, businesses have started to look at cloud-based security solutions to protect their digital assets #CybercriminalsYouAreNotSafe.  

When it comes to securing data on the cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to the rescue! Research from Balbix concludes that integrating AI and ML in cybersecurity will significantly aid in reducing breach risk and improve data security. At this point, Optimus Prime would say, these technologies can swiftly analyze a multitude of events and recognize contrasting threats - whether it's malware taking advantage of vulnerabilities or identifying anything that could result in malicious code being downloaded.

TechDogs' Opinion: Me Grimlock say, 2021 would act as a year of opportunity for cybersecurity solution providers to get into advanced solutions for firewalls and intrusion detection as well as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). Businesses in the hardware, software and cloud development arena would also focus on creating infrastructure and products that are more secure and prepared to deal with the Digital Age Decepticons.    

Ask one, ask all and they will say, the digital age is not about developing awesome technology; it's about developing technology proficiently, quickly and at lower costs #SaveTheDollarDollarBills. Not just that, businesses need the flexibility to iterate faster and match rapidly changing market expectations to stay ahead in the game. Low-code or no-code tools are the perfect companions for business in this game.

Gartner reveals that going ahead, most larger organizations would use a minimum of 4 low code development platforms. These could be used for initiatives related to user experience as well as the development of IT applications and for a good reason. #LowCodeLowProblems

Research by ZDnetresearch reveals that Lines Of Business (LOB) are planning to indulge in Digital Transformation at an unprecedented rate. However, most Lines Of  Businesses (LOBs) feel that their IT department is unable to keep up with this fast-paced transformation. So, adopting aids that would take away or reduce the dependency on code is what businesses would be readily going for. Ahem Ahem, not just for IT, these low-code alternatives would be actively used by business analysts, customer support professionals and data analysts as well.

TechDogs' Opinion:  Even though low-code tools are not a novice concept, their potential to accelerate Digital Transformation is yet untapped, just like Zorro's power in One Piece have just scratched the surface. This would change in 2021, with business leaders using low-code tools along with remote process automation and integrations to enhance user experience. Additionally, it will also modernize traditional business processes at a greater scale. Not just that, these tools would also reduce dependency on DevOps, software development and cloud professionals who already have their plates full. It's high time the Autobots took charge!

How many times do people feel like they are interacting with a whole bunch of small companies within a company instead of one organization? Truth being said–often. Customers then find themselves repeating the same information to different reps that they are connected to in their quest for the information they seek. So, what needs to happen?
 
It's time to get the Combiners in the war! You tell 'em, Grimlock! (Who could forget the leader of the Dinobots? Geez, the 90s were a weird time for cartoons!) Businesses are rapidly leveraging Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) to gather data from all sources, mark it, organize it and make it available to everyone who wants to use it.

Lindsey Irvine, CMO, Mulesoft, explains, "Integrating and unifying data across these systems is critical to create a single view of the customer and achieve true Digital Transformation...As the number of systems and applications continue to grow exponentially, teams realize that key to their success - and their organization's success - is unlocking the data, wherever it exists, in a way that helps them deliver value faster."

The bottom line is that in 2021, CDPs that are going to be utilized by everyone from mom-and-pop firms to mid-sized businesses and enterprises.

TechDogs' Opinion: CDPs will drive businesses towards agility in 2021. In the digital age, businesses are burdened with the pressure of delivering a unified experience. At the same time, they must constantly improve and keep up with the ever-evolving market needs. CDP would allow businesses to have the agility to transform quickly. Through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities, CDPs enable businesses to act on key trends faster and make their customer experience more efficient.
 

Not so long ago, Digital Transformation was akin to getting on the cloud. While businesses were ready to take the next step in their digital relationships, they were not ready to fully commit, that meant getting into a hybrid structure where they juggled resources between data centers, private clouds and public clouds. They should have known juggling in relationships is never a good idea and can get you into trouble. Understanding that, they slowly moved entirely to a public cloud. Then, just like Optimus Prime, cloud technology evolved.
 
Soon businesses became aware that they can't stay dependent on a single public cloud. Not only they'd have to deal with vendor lock-in and stricter pricing, but they'd also not be able to innovate on emerging services. That's where the idea of operating on multiple public clouds took roots.
 
Having said that, building infrastructure that supports multiple clouds is not easy. However, you and the Autobots can handle it with a little support from services like Google Anthos, Azure Arc and Kubernetes clusters that aid multi-cloud IT management.
 
TechDogs Opinion: Until now, businesses moved to multi-cloud for resilience or compatibility. For most, it was 'multi-cloud by accident' and not 'multi-cloud by choice.' The narrative will change in 2021, with businesses deploying a well-thought-out multi-cloud strategy to reduce costs, get the best environments for their applications and reduced dependency on a single cloud service provider. The growing number of multi-cloud management tools and deployment options would further assist their cause.

Unlike the "Ice Age Wars," you and the Autobots cannot call a truce and go into hibernation this time. Digital Transformation is underway and you must tap into these leading trends if you want victory to be yours in the "Digital Age Wars." If you choose to sit out, your competitor will rise to the challenge and steal away your market share. Even though these trends may have been set in motion due to the unexpected changes brought in by the pandemic, they're here to stay. Me Grimlock says, if you want to win in business, you must get down with these five Digital Transformation trends today!  

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