How Big Data Will Shape the IT Industry in 2016

Accurately predicting how Internet trends and future technology will play out is no easy task. This year alone there has been an increase in cyber threats and hacks, new software from Windows and the introduction of smart watches, and of course, a spike in big data. As technology advances, so does its growth for possibilities.

Below are six sure-fire predictions made by analysts for 2016:

1. A Huge Decline in Legacy Vendors

As indicated by a report released by the IDC, almost a third (30 percent) of IT vendors will cease to exist by 2020. As it appears now, many legacy vendors, especially larger ones, will either have to shut down completely, downgrade or partner with another company due to sluggish growth and lost earnings.

Good examples of this trend can be seen with Dell which is rumored to buy out EMC, and HP splitting its operations in half. In a nutshell, legacy vendors as a whole are missing the mark when it comes to delivering practical solutions in the tech industrya red flag that many vendors will eventually end up being archived in exchange for private equity.

2. Appearance of More Wearables

Within the next two years, wearable health and fitness tracking devices will take the critical role workforce by storm. By 2018, it is estimated two million people will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a safety measure. This includes firefighters, law enforcement, paramedics, remote field workers, airline pilots, industrial workers, professional athletes, and even political leaders.

This expected boom in wearable tech calls for IT professionals that are adept in device discovery. Network and device discovery at this level usually calls for a more formal network device discovery platform, and IT professionals that understand how to implement it.

3. Big Data Gets Bigger

In 2016, big data will have an even greater impact on how many industries function. Diverse industries are seeing the benefit of analyzing large amounts of data from healthcare to language translation. Understandably, more and more companies are adopting big data services and customizations; they’re catching on that utilizing insights based on algorithms is a much more practical strategy to successful marketing and business expansion as opposed to trial and error. By the year 2018, analytics will be embedded in every application to enhance functionality or convenience.

4. Cloud Providers Will Diminish

In reaction to the big data explosion, many big cloud providers will be vying for the chance to host big data storage. Google, Microsoft, and AWS all provide machine learning services as well as access to a range of massive data groups that can be used for analytics. Major public cloud providers will gain momentum and strength, with Amazon, IBM SoftLayer, and Microsoft grabbing a large percentage of the business cloud services market.

Unfortunately, smaller cloud service providers just won’t be able to invest in hosting machine learning services; this will likely be the catalyst for such companies to bail out of the market altogether. The volume of options for cloud management software and general infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud services will significantly decline at the end of 2016.

5. More Business Content Generated by Machines

Technologies possessing the ability to proactively assemble and send information through automated composition engines will take a more active role. Business content such as legal documents, market reports, shareholder reports, press releases, articles and white papers will be generated more frequently by machines.

This shift in operations will increase by 20 percent in 2018, this includes machine learning in the IT sector as a whole. The initial companies predicted to expedite and implement smart machine technologies effectively will be startups and other fresh-out-the box companies.

6. Increase of Artificial Intelligence Implementation

According to esteemed analyst Daryl Plummer, the artificial intelligence (AI) trend is the result of enterprises and consumers willingly embracing the advancement of machine-driven technologies. Since the capability of applying smart technology for specific tasks dramatically improves the time, cost and energy generally contributed to recruiting, hiring, training and expansion demands associated with human labor, it’s little wonder, then, that artificial intelligence will play a larger role in a company’s infrastructure in 2016.