Today, technology is changing every area of human life, ranging from education to medicine, manufacturing, military, transport, and governance. There are now areas you thought could be difficult to incorporate IT have an intensive use of it. IT is evolving rapidly, facilitating quick progress and change, which may become exponential in the future.

The effects of the current pandemic have caused a stir in the technology world. The approach of IT professionals might have taken a different path in this contactless world. They are now learning, relearning, and unlearning which is now out of necessity.

This means you have to be up-to-date with current trends while keeping your eye on future trends, on new skills that may be required of you to keep your business on the competitive edge or secure your job.

Importance Of IT Support

Whether you’re operating a large company or a small company, knowing why IT support is important and incorporating it into your business can help you increase your sales. IT can help you reach a wider customer base and better run your business processes. You can use IT in security, business problem solving, communication, customer support, organization and research management, decision making, marketing strategies, and monitoring.

Below are some of the leading IT trends to watch in 2021 and beyond.

1. Machine Learning And Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Although artificial intelligence has been around over the last decade, its effects continue to be realized in the way people work and live. AI is widely used in speech and image recognition, smartphone personal assistants, ride-sharing apps, navigation apps, among others.

Besides these benefits, in the future, AI is projected to be able to analyze processes and determine underlying insights and connections. Such data will help predict the demand of services such as hospitals, to help authorities plan for resource utilization, identify the change in customer behavior patterns through the analysis of almost real-time data, and also drive revenues.

Machine learning which lies under AI is in use in numerous industries raising the demand for machine learning professionals. It’s believed that automation, AI, and machine learning may take up to nine percent of U.S. job openings by 2025. Some of the skills that you may want to learn in AI are robot monitoring experts, automation specialists, content curators, and data scientists.

2. Edge Computing

This is a new technology which you should watch. Global brands like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure are reigning in the market by cloud computing technology. It’s expected that the adoption of cloud technology will continue to grow as more businesses are migrating to this solution. However, the new advancement is Edge computing from cloud computing.

The quantity of information that some businesses are handling is quite huge, which has revealed some shortcomings with cloud computing. Thus, edge computing is now being adopted to bypass such challenges. Edge computing stores information in a data center for processing. Edge computing can be used in remote areas with limited connectivity or lacking connectivity to analyze time-sensitive data to a central place. Edge computing is also used as mini datacenters.

An increase in Internet of Things (IoT) devices is expected to raise the need for edge computing. Related jobs you can grab are cloud reliability engineer, cloud infrastructure engineer, DevOps cloud engineer, software engineer, cloud architect, and security architect.

3. Quantum Computing

This upcoming technology employs quantum phenomena, such as quantum entanglement and superposition. It’s immensely used to curb the spread of COVID-19 and the manufacture of potential vaccines. Quantum computing can comfortably query, analyze, monitor, and work on data despite the source.

Other fields you’ll find the use of quantum computing are applications used in finance and banking, managing credit risk, fraud detection, and high-frequency trading. Computers used in cloud computing are several times faster than normal computers with brands like Honeywell, Splunk, AWS, Microsoft, and Google.

If you may be interested in this trending technology, you need to know linear algebra, quantum mechanics, information theory, machine learning, and probability.

4. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Extended Reality (ER), Virtual reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) is revolutionizing the IT field. VR brings you to the environment while AR broadens the environment. You’ll find this technology majorly in gaming, though it’s gaining traction in training with a simulation software.

In the future, this technology is expected to be popular in the entertainment industry, education, after injury rehabilitation, and marketing. You may also expect its use in training surgeons, enhancing theme parks, and giving museum visitors a deeper experience.

5. 5G

This technology follows the IoT. You’ve used the 3G and 4G to browse the internet, for increased bandwidth when streaming YouTube or Spotify, and in data-driven services. 5G is expected to completely change computing by allowing the use of advanced technologies such as VR and AR, other cloud-based technologies.

Technology experts believe that it’ll be applied in factories, smart grid control, smart retail, and HD cameras to enhance traffic management and safety. Several telecom companies are tirelessly developing 5G applications.

6. Blockchain

Apart from block technology being used in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, you can use blockchain to offer you security in different ways. With blockchain, you can only add data, and you can’t reduce it, hence the use of the term ‘chain.’ The inability to take away data from previous blocks is how it secures you. Blockchains are also operated on consensus, taking away control of data by a single party. A third party is also needed to validate and oversee your transactions.

For you to excel in blockchain, you require knowledge in programming languages, relational and flat databases, web design and development, data structures, and networking.

Conclusion

With the fast-moving and changes in IT technology, the above technology trends are foreseeable opportunities to leverage on your business success now or in the future. They are also potential career areas for individuals who are IT enthusiasts. Most of these technologies are in great demand for professionals, so you can get trained in any technology of your choice to better position yourself for progress now, and in the future.