Questions About What Lies Ahead? Here are Top 2017 Tech Predictions

by Sam Dean – Dec. 05, 2016Comments (0)

As 2016 draws to a close, some interesting predictions are arriving for what we’ll see on the technology and open source scenes next year.

Here at OStatic, we have recieved several missives with specific predictions ranging from the growth of the Internet of Things to how cloud computing scenarios will play out next year. Here are some of the prognostications.

Teradata executives Dan Graham, Marc Clark, Bill Franks, and John Thuma (respectively) have made the following predictions:

The Internet of Things Architect role will eclipse the data scientist as the most valuable unicorn for HR departments. The surge in IoT will produce a surge in edge computing and IoT operational design. 1000s of resumes will be updated overnight. Additionally, fewer than 10% of companies realize they need an IoT Analytics Architect, a distinct species from IoT System Architect. Software architects who can design both distributed and central analytics for IoT will soar in value. – Dan Graham, Internet of Things Technical Marketing Specialist
We will see a significant increase in the move to hybrid architectures. With test/dev and DR being the main components of a company’s environment that will be moved to the cloud, and production continuing to remain on premises. – Marc Clark, Director of Cloud Strategy and Deployment
Deep Learning will move out of the hype zone and into reality. Deep learning is getting massive buzz recently. Unfortunately, many people are once again making the mistake of thinking that deep learning is a magic, cure-all bullet for all things analytics. The fact is that deep learning is amazingly powerful for some areas such as image recognition. However, that doesn’t mean it can apply everywhere. While deep learning will be in place at a large number of companies in the coming year, the market will start to recognize where it really makes sense and where it does not. By better defining where deep learning plays, it will increase focus on the right areas and speed the delivery of value. – Bill Franks, Chief Analytics Officer
More augmented reality based products. Waze and PokemonGo are just the start. Imagine leaving breadcrumbs across your life journey. EXAMPLE: You leave a breadcrumb at the grocery store so next time you buy some taco shells. You walk into the store two days later, and an alarm goes off telling you to buy taco mix. Augmented Reminders, Augmented Notation, and Augmented Journey Maps. - John Thuma, Director

Meanwhile, Arcadia Data executive Sushil Thomas, Co-founder and CEO, sent the following predictions over:

Companies will continue to strive for integration while maintaining security, connecting business units and vertical industries such as marketing, healthcare and financial services, instead of restricting access to a handful of data scientists. Enterprises will finally be able to speak about Big Data in terms of ROI, and not be limited to a TCO-only conversation that has surrounded it thus far.
Organizations trying to scale their existing BI platforms to Big Data size will hit a brick wall with legacy analytics tools. Research firms like Forrester have seen seen increasing interest from enterprises not only moving their data to Hadoop, but also running analytical applications on Hadoop clusters. Running BI natively on Hadoop allows analysts and business users to drill down into raw data, run faster reports and make informed decisions based on real-time data instead of abstracts.
New BI use cases, such as city traffic services reacting to sensors in cars, will soon become the norm, bringing real-time and streaming data to the forefront in across enterprises.

And finally, Zach Supalla, CEO of Particle, an IoT Startup, foresees the following:
The battle for low power, wide area (LPWAN) networking will be fought. A research study from Business Insider estimates that 700 million IoT devices will be connected over LPWAN standards by 2021. Why? Because LPWANs will help IoT take off. 2016 was a year of big hype and little progress. There’s a clear barrier of cost and power consumption when it comes to IoT products and if we can get these two pain points down, IoT will explode. LPWANs connect devices over a larger geographic area and use less power and those companies who can leverage these assets the best, will win out.
The IoT market will see greater consolidation as technology and processes improve and – much like natural selection – the strongest ones will survive while the smaller players are gobbled up to build out more robust portfolios. Look at SAP, for example. They just acquired an enterprise-grade IoT solution last month and Cisco made waves in February when it purchased Jasper at 1.4Bn. The rate at which these tech giants purchase startups will only increase as they continue to thirst for the innovation so many of these young companies are born from.
2017 will be a “team-building year” for many in the IoT space, where investments are made in fostering internal talent and attracting the right external hires to address the complex needs of launching a connected product.