It’s time to turn the page. At long last, 2021 is drawing to a close. After the destabilizing tumult of the pandemic’s early months, this was the year in which the tech industry started to bounce back, adapting fully to remote working environments while embracing new innovations and evolutions.
Cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and automation carried the conversation, as businesses and wider society became increasingly digitized and virtualized, though such trends were not precipitated so much as accelerated by the pandemic. It’s easy to see Mark Zuckerberg proposing a “metaverse” as a harbinger of change on the wind, as digital worlds existing in parallel with our physical ones become increasingly familiar concepts, but tech leaders have been identifying and moving in rhythm with such trends for years.
On one front, there is little disagreement: where tech trends are concerned, digital transformation is the name of the game. Heading into 2022, what are tech executives watching most closely, and what will the next stage of technological advancement mean for their businesses? We spoke to three local leaders to find out.
ExtraHop provides cybersecurity for hybrid and cloud businesses, analyzing all network interactions and applying cloud-scale machine learning for complete visibility, real-time detection, and intelligent response.
What’s one tech trend you’ll be watching closely in 2022?
Increasing regulatory scrutiny around cybersecurity and its effects on both organizational end users and technology providers.
What impact do you think this trend will have on your industry in particular?
This year, a series of high-profile attacks repeatedly demonstrated the extent to which ransomware has gone from opportunistic criminal activity to advanced extortionate threat — and the U.S. government is taking notice.
In the days after the DarkSide ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, the Biden administration announced that it was adding ransomware to the list of terrorist threats. Following the Kaseya supply chain ransomware attack just a few weeks later, U.S. operatives took out the perpetrators of that attack. In October, legislators announced the Ransom Disclosure Act, which would require companies that paid to resolve a ransomware attack to disclose that payment to the government.
Demand for technologies that can provide detection and response, as well as forensic level insight, will increase.”
As the U.S. government moves toward stronger cyber regulation and scrutiny, organizations will be forced to rethink their approach, including how they evaluate and implement cyber tech. As disclosure requirements go into effect, federal regulators — and shareholders — are going to want to understand how the organization was breached and the scope of the damage. Demand for technologies that can provide detection and response, as well as forensic level insight, will increase alongside that demand.
Logic20/20 is a people-first business and technology consulting firm, delivering cutting-edge solutions based on real need. Its clients vary from startups to Fortune 100 companies, and include state and local government organizations.
What’s one tech trend you’ll be watching closely in 2022?
2022 will be the year Web 3.0 comes into full fruition. As we hopefully transition to a post-Covid environment, the elements of Web 3.0 — including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality — will contribute to the industry’s recovery with new digital solutions and could completely transform the way we work, shop, and consume products and services.
Web 3.0 will transform the future of how we work and who we work with.”
How do you plan to apply this technology to your work in 2022 or beyond?
Remote work will not be going away after Covid-19. Web 3.0 presents a renewed digital toolbox that brings solutions to our new way of working. Companies will be able to delocalize and work with anyone with internet access. Company training and employee education will see vast improvements via virtual and augmented reality. Web 3.0 will transform the future of how we work and who we work with.
For our clients’ business goals, Web 3.0 will be a game changer, especially for artificial intelligence solutions. AI and ML algorithms layered on top of a new decentralized data structure will give companies access to more data. Systems of engagement will also be able to process information better, providing insights and recommendations to support the decision-making process. This will increase the value and speed of AI solutions.
Foursquare is the most trusted, independent location data platform for understanding how people move through the real world, building intelligent location-enabled solutions for consumers, advertisers, app developers, and enterprise organizations.
What’s one tech trend you’ll be watching closely in 2022?
We are going to see a significant amount of investment from enterprises across every sector focusing on becoming data-smart and unlocking the full value of data. The volume of data being collected is increasing exponentially, and being able to implement scientific approaches, algorithms and frameworks to pull out the insights from the noise will help companies across industries make smarter decisions. With advances in security, encryption and storage, companies will become much more comfortable with sharing data with and receiving data from trusted third parties who operate in the cloud. This will increase the innovation flywheel for the vast majority of companies in unlocking data.
We are committed to doing the heavy lifting, so customers don’t have to.”
How do you plan to apply this trend to your work in 2022 or beyond?
Companies across every vertical are going to be required to invest heavily in engineering, data science, and security to unlock the full value of data. It’s frankly just too expensive for most businesses to do on their own, which presents opportunities for companies like Foursquare. Over the last six months, we’ve seen exponential growth in the volume of data we receive; indeed, we’re now tasked with analyzing 15x more data. As such, we’re investing heavily into our own data science teams, who are experts in dealing with copious amounts of various types of location data. By making these investments, we are accelerating offerings that we provide to every vertical, customer and partner to drive richer insights and personalization, and to reduce the investment needed to unlock location data. We are committed to doing the heavy lifting, so customers don’t have to.
