In 2023, the economic
climate will continue to be shaped by reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Many companies are therefore looking to the future for innovative technologies
that can help here. Today, Cisco outlines the seven technology trends for 2023
in the areas of security, increasing network efficiency, sustainability, and
AI.
Reem Asaad, Vice President, Cisco Middle East and Africa said: “The dominant theme throughout these trends is the pace of
technological evolution that is continuing to accelerate. These technology
trends are on the rise in our region and are shaping the future of every
business across all industries, driven by ambitious national visions that are
putting technology at the heart of governments’ initiatives in the Middle East
and Africa. Today we are at the intersection of a vast potential such
technologies hold, and the challenges that should be mitigated through robust security
measures.”
“One of the key highlights we’re witnessing today more than ever
is that businesses need to consider the social context of their actions.
Increasingly, we see a focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in
the region. Whilst we realize that achieving sustainability is complex and
multifaceted, what’s certain is that technology continues to play a pivotal
role in driving ESG agendas for governments and enterprises,” she added.
Sustainability
and AI
1.
Sustainability
Net Zero will drive common standards to
meet sustainability goals with advancements in Power Over Ethernet (PoE) design
and hardware to transform data centers for a more sustainable future.
Networking and APIs will become more advanced within data center platform
management to monitor, track, and change the use of energy. IT vendors and
equipment partners will be more transparent in their reuse of hardware
(circularity) to move the needle with the sustainability processes.
2.
Responsible AI
In 2023, we will see multiple, highly
publicized instances of artificial intelligence used by some individuals and
organizations to achieve unethical and socially destructive objectives.
Industry, governments, academia, and NGOs will come together to begin hammering
out a framework for governing AI in an ethical and responsible manner to
mitigate potential harm. This framework will be based on principles such as
Transparency, Fairness, Accountability, Privacy, Security, and Reliability and
will ultimately be applied to model creation and the selection of training data
as defining principles of AI systems.
IT Security Trends
3.
Quantum Cryptography
Transmitting keys is a fundamental risk
to security, as they can be harvested and decrypted later. Quantum Key
Distribution (QKD) is poised to be particularly impactful because it avoids any
distribution of the keys over an insecure channel. In 2023, in preparation for
a post-quantum world, we will see a macrotrend emerge with adoption of QKD in
datacenters, IoT, autonomous systems, and 6G.
4.
Application and API Security
As modern cloud-native applications are
becoming drivers of business, protecting the underlying application environment
is critical. In 2023, developers will get more and more support from various
development tools that speed up development cycles and allow them to manage and
secure distributed application architectures with an emphasis on delivering
exceptional, secure digital experiences. We will also see continued movement
toward tools that allow security experts to collaborate seamlessly on these
outcomes.
Business
Efficiency and Resilience
5.
Optimizing Multi-cloud
Architectures
As deglobalization and issues around data
sovereignty accelerate, in the year ahead we will see a noticeable shift in how
companies leverage multi-cloud architectures. While 89% of enterprises are
adopting a multi-cloud strategy for a variety of reasons (geopolitical,
technical, provider diversification), the benefits come additional complexity
in connecting, securing, and observing a multi-cloud environment. We will see a
big move toward new multi-cloud frameworks such as Sovereign Clouds, Local Zone
Clouds, Zero-Carbon Clouds, and other novel cloud offerings. This will create a
path toward more private and edge cloud applications and services ushering in a
new multi-cloud operating model.
6.
Full-Stack Observability tied to
Business Outcomes
The problem with monitoring has always
been too much data with too little context and business correlation. The
evolution of application monitoring toward full stack observability will
increasingly provide a view relative to business context. When applied
systematically, this will drastically speed up response and optimize business
operations in real time. In 2023, business context will become widely
recognized as an integral part of monitoring and visibility outcomes.
7.
Internet of Things (IoT) makes
supply chains more resilient
Enterprises and logistics providers will
increasingly utilize IoT to bring full visibility into their supply chains in
2023. IoT and other technologies will not only play a larger role in bringing
resiliency and efficiency into supply chains but will also improve cybersecurity
and IT/OT network management. As a result, enterprises and logistics providers will
reconfigure supply chains around predictive and prescriptive models including
smart contracts and distributed ledgers. This is a major transition toward more
sustainable business practices and circular supply chains.
