Technology does many things to many different businesses. As 2017 rolls in, developments and trends in business technology can either push businesses forward or hold them back. Will the new year bring in unwelcome challenges, or will businesses find more reasons to embrace technology as an integral part of their strategies? Here are some predictions on essential business IT support solutions that will set the pace in 2017.
Cloud technology will continue to precipitate efficiency
Several years ago, moving all tech resources and capabilities to the cloud may have seemed like an absurd idea. Today, the reverse thinking is true: Why wouldn’t you move everything to the cloud? Cloud technology has brought a great deal of convenience to businesses, and in 2017, cloud-based solutions’ popularity will continue to rise.
Research and advisory firm Forrester predicts that “the influx of enterprise dollars will push the global public cloud market to $236B in 2020, up from $146B in 2017.” This prediction could only be hampered by issues inherent to relatively new technologies, like lack of in-house expertise, security concerns, and regulatory issues, among others. But as long as there is a clamor among businesses for practical, efficient and cost-effective storage and applications hosting, cloud technology will remain a formidable force of nature within the tech market.
VoIP will continue to fill a void
The impact of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to businesses cannot be emphasized enough. It has simplified the way business stakeholders communicate, provided them with various means to call, and has caused significant cuts in their communications budget.
Telephony solutions have gone from being a novelty to becoming a highly efficient communications tool indispensable to business communications. Research predicts that mobile VoIP will reach 1 billion users in 2017, which makes a compelling case for businesses to adapt Internet telephony. This is a prediction that hardly registers shock, as businesses will always have a need for flexible, feature-rich, and affordable unified communications.
Increased need for network security
Another trend that won’t die down in 2017, and in the years to come, is that of cyber-thieves coming up with innovative ways of cracking down on businesses’ IT networks.
As demand for Internet-enabled devices and cloud services increases, so do the security risks. Hackers’ heightened interest in the value of data that can be pilfered from the cloud can be attributed to the increase of valuable and sensitive datasets that are moved to and can be extracted from the cloud. If you have plans of shifting to cloud-based technology for your business, one of the best decisions you can make is to beef up your managed network security and be covered for data breaches and other conceivable cybercrime.
Greater demand for Managed IT Services
Among the tech trends predicted to be prevalent in 2017 is further dependence on IoT (Internet of Things)-enabled systems that businesses will surely adapt. As more specialized technologies emerge, the coming year will see the demand for managed services follow a similar pattern of expansion. Businesses looking to take advantage of IoT capabilities that will inevitably take over the tech scene will have a greater need for support for network connectivity, performance, and security.
In 2017, businesses will rely on even more technology, not as a substitute but as a standard. As technologies become increasingly complex and the need for proactive IT management and solutions swell, so will the demand for Managed IT Services.
These predictions are based on tech trends that have been observed in the current and previous years. As a business owner, this may be an opportune time to determine which of these predictions will likely impact your business, and for you to act accordingly.
Changes in technology move at a rapid pace that some businesses can’t quite keep up with. Your business can face business technology trends with the right IT support. For a complete suite of managed IT services suited to your 2017 IT plans, contact our experts at www.intelligis.com. We’ll be happy to help.
