10 Future Technology Predictions to Watch in 2019

Says who? “Driven by data privacy regulations like the European Union’s GDPR and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the role of backup software will fundamentally change. Instead of using backup to retain data, it will begin to be used for rapid recovery for the most recent copy of data only.” – George Crump, president of Storage Switzerland, an IT analyst firm focused on storage and virtualization

How likely is this? Fairly likely, but it will take time

Why? The “battle” in 2019 is over how to implement a data management process that adheres to these regulations. IT planners need to decide which application to choose, which type of storage system to store the data on and where that storage system should be (on-premises or in the cloud).

Says who? “Hybrid storage solutions that encompass data stored both on-premises and in the public cloud with support for block, file, and object storage will gain in popularity. These solutions also will include transparent policy or automated tiering across different types of SSD, SCM and PMEM and even some HDDs to support legacy, software- defined virtual and container-based workloads.” -- Greg Schulz, founder of StorageIO, a storage consultancy

How likely is this? Likely

Why? Hybrid is the “home run” for data infrastructures because IT can adapt the technology to their needs instead of working for the technology.

Says who? “The popularity of NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory express) M.2 SSDs in the consumer sector, and the significant performance gains provided by NVMe U.2 drives, have motivated enterprise and cloud customers to adopt NVMe technology as their primary storage media. We expect that NVMe SSDs will represent most drives shipped in the enterprise in 2019.” -- Michael Heumann, lead analyst for G2M Research

How likely is this? Very

Why? NVMe is faster than flash storage, reduces latency, includes end-to-end encryption and requires less power than traditional systems. It also has better scalability and far higher IOPs than traditional systems. It’s ideal for real-time workloads.

Says who? “Corporations grappled with data exposure in 2018 and this will continue throughout 2019. While headlines were often focused on malware and APTs, Digital Shadows research has shown time and again that corporations are frequently are unaware of the level of unintentional exposure caused by their own employees, third parties and contractors.” – Rafael Amado, senior strategy and research analyst with cybersecurity vendor Digital Shadows.

How likely is this? Very

Why? The list of major corporations hit with data breaches in 2018 was significant, including MyHeritage, T-Mobile, SunTrust, Hudson Bay and, most recently, Marriott International, which saw a hack expose the personal data of more than 500 million guests. There have been major breaches in going back to 2017, 2016 and farther, so there’s no reason to believe that corporations next year will be spared. In addition, ShieldX CEO Ratinder Ahuja believes the ongoing migration of applications and data to the cloud will result in even more breaches.

Says who? “Data science platforms that support machine learning will become the mainstay of cyber security systems.” – Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra, which makes automated threat management solutions.

How likely is this? Very

Why? IDC says spending on AI and machine learning will grow from $12 billion in 2017 to $57.6 billion in 2021 and some of that will feed an arms race in cybersecurity. Established security vendors and startups – like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Vectra and Cylance – are leveraging AI software to churn through massive amounts of data to detect and defend against cyberthreats. Meanwhile, cybercriminals are using AI tools to improve evasion techniques and to plan and automate their attacks.

Says who? “Regulatory frameworks will continue to drive security maturation for companies. Specifically, the European GDPR will force companies to take a complete inventory of data they control or process, as well as map out their complete Internet presence.” – Greg Reber, partner at Moss Adams, a consulting and wealth management firm

How likely is this? Pretty likely

Why? There is a growing focus among consumers and governments on user privacy and data security. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in 2018 and California enacted its own privacy law that will go into effect in 2020. More recently, Congress brought Google CEO Sundar Pichai in for a hearing about privacy (though in some ways it highlighted U.S. many lawmakers’ woeful grasp of technology). Scandals at Facebook and elsewhere will make sure this focus on privacy doesn’t disappear, though Steve Durbin, managing director of the Information Security Forum, says the pace of innovation will make it difficult for national and regional regulators and legislators to keep up with all the developments.

Says who? Samsung announced this fall that a folding smartphone will appear in the first half of 2019, and it’s not the only maker looking in this direction. LG is also rumored to be working on a foldable unit for delivery next year.

“A foldable phone can benefit business users and processes by arming mobile employees with a pocketable device that can be converted into a larger screen for productivity,” says vice president of client devices research at IDC Bryan Ma, “in theory, at least.”

How likely is this? Somewhat likely

Why? Ma cautions that app developers may be late to the party, reducing a folding phone’s usefulness. Cost is also a concern -- pricing rumors on Samsung’s phone range anywhere from $1,700 to $2,000.

Says who? Manufacturers are racing to be the first to deliver a 5G compatible phone next year. AT&T and Verizon are expected to sell 5G phones in the first half of 2019, while Sprint is expected to release a 5G phone from LG at some point next year. And T-Mobile is looking more toward 2020, when it expects to launch its 5G network.

How likely is this? Not very likely

Why? A handful of devices will appear but they’ll be far ahead of the networks. Next year major carriers will offer 5G but only in parts of select cities around the U.S. Meanwhile, 4G speeds will increase, and we’ll likely see 5G icons appear on some phones in 2020, when Apple will reportedly get into the mix with a 5G iPhone.

That said, 5G isn’t all hype: Android and iOS smartphone sales have been on the decline, but IDC expects the technology to help return the market back to positive growth. And Verizon just bought out more than 10,000 workers as it prepares to make major capital investments in its 5G network.

Says who? Apple hasn’t offered a headphone jack since the iPhone 7, and you won’t find one on a Google Pixel phone either. Now it looks like Samsung may join in removing the audio port on its new models.

How likely is this? Likely

Why? It seems likely that Samsung’s flagship phones will be entirely free of the audio port next year, in part because Samsung’s latest model, the midrange A8s, was announced and it’s followed Apple and Google’s lead by removing the jack.

If Samsung does offer a headphone jack in the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 next year, they’ll likely be the last models to have them. And we’ll all be tossing old headphones into the recycle bin or hunting around for USB-C dongles for next year’s conference calls.

Says who? When Amazon launches something, it is usually a good indication of where the market is headed. In November at AWS re:Invent, it announced Outposts, a fully-managed compute and storage racks built with hardware designed by AWS, set for launch in the second half of 2019. Many customers were intrigued by the pitch, which should worry hardware vendors (aside from VMware, who is partnered on the offering), according to analyst firm Oppenheimer.

How likely is this? Very likely

Why? Research shows that hybrid cloud will continue to explode in the enterprise, with a recent survey by Nutanix finding 91 percent of enterprises consider hybrid cloud the ideal IT model, but only 18 percent use that model today. With this much growth potential, expect the offerings in this area from all major cloud providers to mature in 2019.

Says who? Microsoft and Slack. Microsoft's Teams is now trying to gain mind- and market share from Slack, which has a five-year head start. As Slack CTO Cal Henderson said at Business Insider's IGNITION conference in New York, "It's huge validation when a huge competitor like Microsoft enters the same space and builds a similar product. They're saying, this is a product space that will continue and be important and enter into the next decade."

How likely is this? Given the way Microsoft's been positioning Teams — as a workspace hub, capturing everything from conversations to collaborative creation and editing — and their pre-existing market positioning with Sharepoint, they've got a hold in the enterprise that Slack will be working against. Microsoft says 200,000 organizations are now using Teams, and since Microsoft Teams comes as a standard part of the Office 365 productivity suite for business, the company has access to a huge market.

On the other end: Slack was first to market and has been shaping the user experience. Why? The buzzword of "unitasking" is being to take hold in collaboration and productivity circles, and when combined with the increased emphasis on productivity metrics, the collaboration tool that can provide the enterprise with a way to streamline task flows while improving communications is the one that will thrive.

Says who? Microsoft and Slack. Microsoft's Teams is now trying to gain mind- and market share from Slack, which has a five-year head start. As Slack CTO Cal Henderson said at Business Insider's IGNITION conference in New York, "It's huge validation when a huge competitor like Microsoft enters the same space and builds a similar product. They're saying, this is a product space that will continue and be important and enter into the next decade."

How likely is this? Given the way Microsoft's been positioning Teams — as a workspace hub, capturing everything from conversations to collaborative creation and editing — and their pre-existing market positioning with Sharepoint, they've got a hold in the enterprise that Slack will be working against. Microsoft says 200,000 organizations are now using Teams, and since Microsoft Teams comes as a standard part of the Office 365 productivity suite for business, the company has access to a huge market.

On the other end: Slack was first to market and has been shaping the user experience. Why? The buzzword of "unitasking" is being to take hold in collaboration and productivity circles, and when combined with the increased emphasis on productivity metrics, the collaboration tool that can provide the enterprise with a way to streamline task flows while improving communications is the one that will thrive.