FEATURE : 2021 TECH PREDICTIONS
of what started in the second-half of 2020 : a rapid and sustained evolution to deal with the pandemic ’ s disruption . Mollet added that there won ’ t be a mass migration back to the physical office , but a move towards a hybrid working model . “ Organisations are going to continue accelerating their investment in robust Cloud Data Management strategies and we are seeing an increasing number of companies seeking out the most cost-effective and efficient ways to harness the power of the cloud . One of the most pressing questions C-suites face today and which will intensify over the course of 2021 , is how best can they invest in efficient multi-cloud or hybrid
COMPANIES ARE RAPIDLY MOVING TO SIMPLIFY AND SHIFT THINGS TO THE CLOUD AND CISOS ARE ADAPTING TO SECURE THE NEW ENVIRONMENT .
cloud strategies , where data is secure across all their platforms ,” she said .
Mollet explained that as little as a year ago many organisations were on a single path , with one public cloud provider , either AWS or Azure , for instance . As we know , 2020 saw a rapid shift to a decentralised workforce and digitisation of all appropriate and critical systems . Under these circumstances , many customers in South Africa chose to hedge their bets , so to speak , and not rely on a single cloud service provider but have a more diverse approach , which included investment into multiple cloud service provider platforms . infrastructure turns into code , the better ‘ choke point ’ to scan for infrastructure vulnerabilities becomes the code rather than servers in production .”
5G and Edge Computing
IBM ’ s Ratshefola explained that CIOs are also looking to 5G and Edge Computing which can bring computation and data storage closer to where data is created and make it easier for companies to act on the insights it generates .
“ The challenge is to connect all of the different elements into a cohesive platform that enables agility and rapid delivery of new features and services . This is why we introduced new edge and telco network cloud solutions built on Red Hat Open Stack and Red Hat OpenShift . This now enable clients to run workloads anywhere – from any data centre to multiple clouds to the Edge ,” he said .
Mollett said key technologies CIOs should look out for this year include Kubernetes-native backup solutions because they are critical for businesses as Kubernetesbased environments are fundamentally different from those based on earlier technologies and therefore , require a different approach . “ This benefits businesses in a number of ways , including application scale , protection gaps , security and ecosystem integration . As such , businesses will be able to keep applications as the unit of atomicity for consistent operations with a Kubernetes-native backup approach ,” she added . “ Further , businesses can enjoy consistent security operations as Kubernetes security features deny access to internal application components and their associated data centres . It is a backup solution that comes with workload knowledge to select the capture primitive best suited to the application ’ s requirements – a key attribute for a cloud-native infrastructure ecosystem .”
Digital Transformation
Paul Farrington , EMEA CTO , Veracode , said : “ If 2020 has taught us anything , it is that a business is only as agile as its infrastructure , proving how much we depend on cloud-native technologies . With infrastructure becoming increasingly immutable , I predict we ’ ll see the impact of this specifically as it relates to the rise of cloudnative technologies and infrastructure as code . Both of these trends offer major business benefits in terms of automation , cost , scale , and security .
“ As companies continue to outsource their infrastructure to third parties and pivot their focus to consuming services , they will need to focus less on the security of the operating system and runtime environment and more on the application layer . Furthermore , as
With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic being felt on businesses of all types , CIOs have been accelerating their Digital Transformation strategies .
Rod Johnson , Global President and Chief Revenue Officer , Infor , said : “ As a direct result of COVID-19 , we are going to see the acceleration of digital supply chains in 2021 . While supply chain leaders have traditionally viewed Digital Transformation in the context of efficiency and cost , the focus will now be on agility and resiliency . That ’ s where digital technology comes in . A multi-enterprise , digital supply chain enables better end-to-end visibility , better predictive analytics , better and smarter automation . Leaders will be able to customise and flex their supply chains based on market
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