TECHNOLOGY

TRENDS AND EXPECTATIONS 2018 AND BEYOND

JULY 27, 2017 COPYRIGHT 2018 C. RAFTER

Employment

The concepts of work and job are changing

Contractor/Freelance/Subscription Economy

Technology enabling multiple positions and hours-worked is no longer the sole indicator of
worker effort or productivity

Companies like Spare5.com exploring ways of micro-segmenting peoples abilities and activities,
combining them with Machine Learning and creating micro-contracts for individual tasks, some
taking as little as 30 seconds

These will be used to train ML bots that will accelerate machines performing these tasks instead
of humans

Continued, explosive growth of data

Virtually every device is becoming connected and data-generating

Devices are getting smaller, and their data generation capability is increasing

Digitization, images, video, audio, all driving growth in storage consumption

Tasers fastest growing business is not from cameras or from stun weapons, its from
cloud storage and video analysis than it does from selling cameras.

Devices are getting smaller, and smarter simultaneously

No perfect solution to the data deluge, embedded analytics becoming the expectation

Retail

70 to 80% of companies will be disrupted by software in next 5 years

Software only companies like Uber and AirBnB have shown ability to disrupt existing business

Amazon, one of the worlds largest retailers, largest and fastest growing Cloud company, big
th
player in media, streaming content, home automation, just became 5 largest grocery chain.
Likely to face anti-trust action in the next 5 years if growth continues.

Software & Applications

Python has emerged as the top language to know and work in.

Docker, Kubernetes, cloud containers, and Serverless applications are all where applications are
headed.

Automation & AI

C O PY R IG H T 2018 C U R IO SIT Y SO LU T IO N S LLC

 Jobs requiring basic knowledge retrieval, simple task execution, and basic diagnostic (a form of
knowledge retrieval) are ripe for automation

Intelligent agents can now understand context, respond to natural language requests, and do so
with great speed and low cost.

AI is not just targeting low-level positions, it is being developed for professional roles as well,
such as doctors, lawyers, auditors, accountants, any field where knowledge work and decision
making can be effectively and reliably modeled

This does not eliminate humans from these positions, but it will dramatically change the work
humans do, and result in higher productivity through a human-AI collaboration

Natural language recognition Chatbots emerging as the default interface for this, but will be
followed closely by voice recognition and eventually facial and gesture recognition as well

Security & Attacks

Be worried about your customers

Industries ripe for disruption include retail, transportation, business services, manufacturing,
logistics,

Blockchain Technology

Keep an eye on this over the next several years. It solves several security, trust and efficiency
problems.

A new way of storing data, headless

Ultimate trust authority

Distributed, no central database, instead its made up of thousands of independent nodes that
share information.

Cannot be tricked or hacked, because the hack has to originate from somewhere, and the minute
its tried, the other nodes flag it and reject it.

Applications for secure data storage, trusted validation of identity, patient, healthcare records,
Only shows data its authorized to.

Realtime, streaming data processing

Rise of GPU (vs. CPU) based processing for data analytics

GPUs can be up to 100x faster and the cost of CPUs for large scale analytics tasks.

GPUs designed to handle complex computation and bring hundreds of computing cores where
CPUs have only a few.

Managed Services Outlook

Continued emphasis on verticalization

C O PY R IG H T 2018 C U R IO SIT Y SO LU T IO N S LLC

 Your Mess for Less Isnt Enough

Explore ways to add more value: Cloud Migration-aaS, DevOps, Security Assurance, efficiency
improvement, shared-risk contracts

Cloud continues to effect MSPs, not just the presence of Cloud Environments, which is mildly
disruptive, but the presence of major cloud players like AWS and Microsoft. These players insert
themselves between the customer and MSP and change the relationship

Most of the executives are (re)considering who they partner with and what they partner for to
accelerate the value technology brings to their organizations.

Companies making news: 2nd Watch, Cascadeo, Cloudreach, REAN

Cloud, Smartronix, Rackspace, and Logicworks.

Continuously watch and reinvent your value proposition to avoid being disrupted, especially
around your existing contracts

C O PY R IG H T 2018 C U R IO SIT Y SO LU T IO N S LLC