7 key IT trends

7 key IT trends for 2022

The year is drawing to a close. Therefore, it is time to check which course you have already set for the future of your company. And where you might still need to readjust.

This course concerns your IT department in particular. Because the execution of the IT landscape today determines the performance of the entire company. Do not run the risk of lagging behind your competitors! To do so, you as an IT manager or managing director are faced with the challenge of identifying the relevant IT trends of the coming years at an early stage. And then to adapt these in your company.

But not every hype offers you added value. We have therefore summarized the 7 most important IT trends. You will hardly be able to avoid them in the next few years.

International cybersecurity standards will determine your destiny

IT Trend 1: Cybersecurity

Increasingly, the weal and woe of a company no longer rest solely with its own IT security department. With cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS), a lucrative—albeit illegal—global business segment is increasingly developing. According to a study by IDC, 70% of the companies surveyed have already been affected by ransomware attacks. As a result, there is growing pressure on companies to implement cybersecurity mechanisms across the supply chain. At the same time, the past attacks on software-as-a-service providers such as Solarwinds and Microsoft in 2021 have shown one thing; strong IT security inside your own company is not enough. If there is a cyber attack on a SaaS provider, this also has an impact on the security of the connected systems and companies. In the future, this will lead to increasing global harmonization of security standards in politics and business.

But just as important as securing globally networked systems is securing your own internal IT landscape. Fortunately, as the danger increases, so does the realization within companies that more must be done to secure their IT systems. In addition to the technical implementation of security mechanisms such as improved authentication procedures or malware detection programs, companies are increasingly focusing on awareness training for employees.

Future-oriented growth in the Multi-Cloud

IT Trend 2: Multi-Cloud
Using the “one cloud” was yesterday! Companies are increasingly turning to multi-cloud structures to map their complex business processes in the best possible way.

In a multi-cloud infrastructure, they can harmoniously combine several cloud models, services, and providers. At the same time, they are loosening their dependence on one provider. At the same time, the multi-cloud opens up new flexibility for companies in the use of cloud services compared to the traditional hybrid cloud model. However, the increasing complexity of such a cloud landscape increases the demand on IT departments concerning cloud management. Therefore, the demand for employees or service providers who can take over this complex task is increasing.

Process automation can be found at every step

IT Trend 3: Automation
The fact that work processes are increasingly being automated is nothing new. We are particularly familiar with this from the manufacturing industries. With the increasing digitalization of all areas of work, this is now spreading to other areas of business. A study by GitHub, for example, shows that automation in the software development environment is a strong productivity driver. This finding can be applied to other areas as well. Concepts and technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Low Code/No Code, Cognitive Capture, Embedded AI, AIoT, or AIOps will therefore be indispensable in the future. This development, which we are currently mainly familiar with from large players, will also spread to smaller companies in the future.  The implementation of process intelligence and automated data collection, for example in the areas of HR, recruitment, and marketing, will shape the business world in the future.

Modern Working as a Data Fabric

IT Trend 4: Data Fabric
Increasing process automation requires and creates a large amount of data. The modern enterprise will therefore be data-driven. Process intelligence and automated data collection in all areas of the enterprise as well as within supply chain processes will provide the necessary multitude of analyzable data. The problem, however, is that each system, each application initially collects it differently. Breaking down these disjointed data silos and building out a single data management structure to analyze all collected data in one system is probably the biggest challenge for companies in the coming years. Only with the establishment of a data fabric can the data at hand be orchestrated and optimized; only a sufficiently high level of data quality enables companies to make better strategic decisions for their growth.

Software and IT service providers must face data privacy and compliance audits

IT Trend 5: Compliance and Data Protection
In recent years, the political framework for data protection and security concepts has increased. Software providers and IT service providers are also increasingly feeling the effects of this development. Audits for the specific implementation of data protection guidelines in the respective country as well as increased compliance requirements are on the rise. This also means a change within the own IT department. IT managers will increasingly educate themselves in data protection as well as IT security issues.

An example? Increasing multi-cloud use confronts IT departments with complex data protection issues. After all, each cloud provider brings different data protection and security concepts to the table. Thus, in addition to technological expertise, data protection experts will also become important in the future to orchestrate the inconsistencies of the providers.

This development naturally also affects other departments that decide to introduce new software solutions to automate their processes. Because with the increasing amount of data in HR or marketing departments, for example, the potential for data leaks as well as for GDPR incidents also increases significantly.

Open-source experiences new high

IT-Trend 6: Open-source
Open-source is back in vogue thanks to cloud business; this has been recognized not only by IT departments in need of new software solutions but also by major vendors such as Microsoft. The once biggest enemy of the open-source idea now also offers open-source projects alongside their licensed products.

The advantages of using open source software are obvious for companies: the public code offers them maximum transparency as well as high security through peer-review processes. Development within a community also shortens release times and often leads to higher quality software than with closed code. At the same time, dependencies on a single vendor are reduced. In addition, open-source usually allows the code to be adapted to one’s needs. Finally, expensive licensing costs are often eliminated, since open-source companies usually limit themselves to selling only additional hosting and/or services.

Growth yes, but sustainable, please

IT Trend 7: Sustainability
One last trend should not be ignored: the focus on one’s sustainability. Awareness of one’s responsibility is growing more and more in the management floors—no longer just as a measure for marketing and PR, but also in terms of actually generated results.

Because those who want to be successful on the market in the long term must also be and become aware of their ecological footprint. This also includes IT departments: How high is the ecological footprint of your own IT department? What are the CO2 emissions of the company’s own and rented server landscapes? And above all: how can this be reduced or compensated for? How can hardware be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner at the end of its business lifecycle?

A study shows that the positive effect on the environment is also linked to improved business results: companies that implement comprehensive measures for sustainable IT record better ESG ratings (61 percent) as well as higher customer satisfaction (56 percent) and realize tax benefits (44 percent).

Are you ready for the future of your company?

cloud-providers: AWS vs MS Azure

AWS vs. MS Azure: Is there the one business cloud provider?

The cloud has long since ceased to be a trend – rather, it forms the basis for highly scalable business growth. With the crisis year 2020, companies have learned to appreciate the advantages of the location-independent availability of cloud applications. The positive experience with the new territory of remote work has reduced the fear of contact with the cloud. According to a Gartner study from Q2 2021, global revenue from public cloud services has increased by 23%. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) remains the largest segment; however, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) are also seeing strong growth.

So it’s a good time to take a closer look at the two top dogs in the business cloud business. Because we can already reveal, not all clouds are the same; each provider has its own technologies and use cases, which is why not every cloud provider and every cloud model is equally suitable for every business model.

Highly scalable for best performance

The cloud: Highly scalable models for best business performance

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) was developed in 2006, among other things, as a solution for virtualization and is therefore still particularly strong today in the provision of (cloud) infrastructure. With around three dozen web services, AWS offers a broad portfolio for the needs of both small and large companies. However, the focus of the online giant Amazon is on the provision of a fast and powerful infrastructure. Therefore, especially online commerce or streaming services rely on the AWS cloud.

The focus of the AWS Cloud is on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. Amazon wants to enable customers to make a simple, fast and future-proof transition to the cloud: Therefore, in addition to infrastructure solutions (compute resources, storage solutions, databases), the cloud provider also offers solutions for current and future trends such as Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Internet of Things (IoT).

The advantages of the AWS offer at a glance

Pay only for what you consume thanks to pay-per-use cloud servers.

AWS provides customers with virtual servers in the cloud. These are suitable for both Linux and Microsoft Windows distributions. Amazon even offers its own storage service for pure data storage: Amazon Simple Storage Service (AWS S3). The pricing model of the AWS cloud solution is based on the amount of usage – e.g. time usage used working storage or used compute units – so you only pay for what you actually use. However, it is important to calculate the resources used precisely so that you don’t get a nasty surprise at the end.

Global server network reduces access times; regional server choice supports GDPR compliance

Amazon delivers the content of the various AWS cloud services via CloudFront, the content delivery network (CDN) belonging to the cloud. Currently, servers are distributed across 18 geographic regions in 54 Availability Zones. The data is distributed globally across servers, which significantly reduces access time. To comply with DSGVO regulations, companies can choose where their data is stored. The access times reduced in this way make AWS particularly interesting for web hosting.

Developer tools for agile software development

AWS offers strong approaches for software development: Developers can develop, analyze, debug and test products in the cloud; with access from anywhere in the world. The pay-per-use principle also allows costs for virtual servers and access times to be well calculated.

AWS Marketplace for the IT world of tomorrow

In addition to providing servers and storage capacities, AWS also offers a selection of software from independent providers. These address the modern IT trends of IoT, AI and Big Data in particular. This offers companies a good entry into the IT world of tomorrow.

Who is the AWS Cloud offering aimed at?

Despite the high level of functionality, AWS is hardly worthwhile for companies that want to use the cloud almost exclusively in an office environment. The situation is different if the cloud is used for application development. Or a web store is to be connected. Especially for development environments, the pay-per-use system of AWS is also quite attractive, since budgets can be planned very precisely with it.

The Cloud as a Growth Accelerator for Your Business

The cloud as a growth accelerator for your business

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft followed suit with a cloud offering only four years after Amazon: Like AWS, Windows Azure, now Microsoft Azure, is based on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. In addition, Microsoft also offers a hybrid cloud approach with the Azure cloud. A plus point here is certainly the development-side link with the SaaS tool Microsoft 365, which ensures stable use of the office and collaboration suite in the Azure cloud. A comprehensive service offering of around 200 individual products and cloud services make the Azure cloud interesting for many use cases.

The advantages of the Microsoft offering at a glance

Support for hybrid environments

In addition to pure public cloud use, Microsoft Azure was also developed for use in hybrid environments; this makes Azure cloud use interesting even for those companies that would rather not rely on cloud solutions due to the sensitivity of certain data. These include the financial sector as well as the healthcare sector, or public utilities such as municipal utilities. A hybrid landscape also opens up the advantages of flexible working with less sensitive data in the cloud for these institutions. At the same time, the separation of business-critical areas with high data protection and security requirements into the private cloud or onto their own servers ensures that the compliance requirements of the respective industries are met.

Savings in licensing through the inclusion of existing licenses

Hybrid thinking makes the Azure cloud extremely competitive. Microsoft offers customers the option of including existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses when investing in the cloud. This means that not every license has to be purchased from scratch: This results in significant savings when implementing the Azure cloud compared to re-implementing the AWS cloud. This often makes Azure the first choice for hosting Office applications as well as databases in the cloud. Azure also unfolds a high savings potential for the use of virtual machines due to the licensing model.

Regional server network for high availability and DSGVO compliance

Microsoft Azure is available worldwide in over 60 regions and more than 140 countries. The regional network setup avoids a single point of failure. This is achieved by networking at least three physically separate data centres in each region. In addition to the high availability of the servers and thus data, Microsoft also responds to the requirements of the DSGVO through regional storage.

Developer tools

Similar to AWS, Azure also offers options for application development. For example, in addition to “App Service” for the development of cloud apps for mobile and web devices, there is also “PlayFab,” a LiveOps back-end complete platform for the development and execution of live games.

Azure Marketplace for future technologies

Azure also offers future-ready solutions on its own Azure Quantum platform. Especially in the areas of quantum computing as well as in the optimization of existing solutions. This enables companies to benefit from future trends today.

Who is the Azure offering aimed at?

Especially in an office environment, Azure is mostly the better choice. This is because Azure was explicitly developed for Windows environments in combination with the MS 365 office suite and therefore supports them optimally. With the option of continuing to use already licensed products, the financial entry hurdle for the cloud introduction is also lowered.

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Choosing the Right Cloud

You have the future of your business in your hands

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AWS or Azure? The right cloud provider for your needs

It exists – but we cannot give a final answer here for which of the two you should choose. Because which cloud provider is right for you and your business depends heavily on your individual requirements. We usually recommend the Microsoft Azure cloud to our customers for office environments, as this optimally implements the requirements. Depending on compliance and data protection requirements for specific business areas, we couple this with a private cloud or on-premise areas. However, for application development as well as web-hosting, Amazon Web Services is often better suited. With the pay-per-use principle and an exact cost calculation, there is a high savings potential here for temporary development projects. But here, too, it is often advisable to install a hybrid cloud infrastructure that includes several providers and connects them through interfaces.

Due to the complexity of the design, architecture and implementation of cloud projects, careful planning of the project is the be-all and end-all for success. This is why we accompany our customers from the creation of their requirements catalogue, through consulting and the creation of the cloud architecture, to implementation and ultimately support and maintenance of the finished cloud infrastructure. This holistic approach to planning and implementation is the central element in successfully transferring your business to the cloud.

Request your personal consultation here.

Cloud or on Premises

On-premises, in the cloud or hybrid?

The first question that companies ask us when it comes to a new and restructuring of their IT landscape is which deployment model is best suited for them. Classically in their own data center on-premises, outsourced in the cloud, or rather as a hybrid model? Well – it depends: What requirements you need to meet, how much capital you want to invest, and how flexible you want to remain in scaling your licensing and business models.

We present to you the different deployment models with their advantages and disadvantages.

On-Premises

If a company relies on an installation in its own IT environment for the licensing and usage model for server-based software or computer programs, this is referred to as on-premises usage. This means that the responsibility for operating and maintaining the software lies solely with the licensee. This has the advantage that the licensee has maximum control over all data and access. On-premises is the classic deployment model, but it is becoming less important in times of cloud computing and increasing flexibility of markets and business models. Nevertheless, it can have its advantages, especially for companies that have to meet high data protection requirements.

Advantages

  • Maximum control over your data and access
  • Compliance with European data protection requirements
  • One-time costs for licensing software products
  • Independence from external service providers and licensing vendors
  • Access to applications guaranteed even without Internet
  • Deep integration into your own infrastructure

Disadvantages

  • High expenses for hardware, maintenance, and security
  • High time and technical effort for updates and backups tie up resources
  • Ongoing costs for software updates, support, and, if necessary, re-licensing
  • Lack of support after update cycles expire
  • Not flexibly scalable

Private Cloud

A private cloud can – but does not have to – be hosted in a company’s own data center. However, it differs from on-premises use in that the software is not permanently installed on the company’s own computers, but is obtained through cloud services in a rental model. Here, however, only your company must have access to the resources (servers, hardware, etc.) of the rented or self-hosted private cloud. Therefore, the private cloud combines the high security of an on-premises solution with the high scalability of a cloud solution.

Advantages

  • Individually adaptable to your company
  • Infrastructure capacities can be flexibly adapted
  • High security
  • Cloud features for high scalability

Disadvantages

  • With own hosting, administration effort comparable to on-premise use of systems
  • With third-party hosting usually more expensive than the public cloud

Public Cloud

With the public cloud, IT services are provided via the Internet. Companies can rent resources from this public cloud and run their applications on them. The cloud operator is responsible for management and maintenance. This has the advantage that companies can scale according to demand and thus operate their IT cost-efficiently. At the same time, they benefit from the security expertise of the cloud providers and do not have to worry about the security of their own systems independently.

Advantages

  • Subscription service can be adapted as needed so that licenses can be scaled at any time
  • Reduction of own hardware expenses
  • Freeing up internal resources, as maintenance, support, and security of hardware components rests with the cloud provider

Disadvantages

  • No free choice of provider, as not all enable DSGVO-compliant hosting.
  • Connection via the public Internet opens up security risks in principle
  • Accessibility or performance of cloud services can be limited by sharing the same physical machine with others

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud combines the advantages of on-premise or private cloud use and public cloud: companies decide here to run certain applications on their own computers, but outsource others to the public cloud to save costs. In this way, they have full control over sensitive data located in their own data center, while at the same time enjoying the highest scalability of public cloud use.

Advantages

  • Flexibly scalable, adaptable according to demand
  • Saves resources in maintenance and security
  • Often less expensive than a pure public cloud
  • Security for sensitive data and critical applications through the use of on-premise or private cloud structures.

Disadvantages

  • Additional effort
  • Security can only be guaranteed through clear rules

Which form of deployment you ultimately choose depends entirely on your individual needs. Our experts will be happy to advise you. Contact us here.