A truism of technology is that it’s always changing. And in the post-pandemic world, tech seems to be evolving faster than ever before. Innovations that once seemed unimaginable have become commonplace, and more are on the way.

To prove the point, here’s a look at seven key tech trends to watch for 2022. As we’ll see, these trends are changing many facets of business, ranging from the way companies operate desktop infrastructure, to how they make decisions, and beyond.

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Desktop virtualization technology – which lets desktop environments run in virtual machines instead of directly on physical PCs – has been around for decades. But it assumed newfound importance during the pandemic, when virtual desktops delivered via Desktop as a Service (DaaS) model (which allows desktops to run in the cloud) became critical for allowing businesses to maintain operations at a time when employees could not be physically present in the office.

Indeed, a Gartner forecast that the number of DaaS users will grow by 150% between 2020 and 2023. Gartner also predicts that DaaS is expected to grow at 253% between 2021 and 2024.

With hybrid work becoming the new way to work, the need for cost-effective, secure, and remote access to corporate data is going to be a long-standing one. DaaS therefore promises to remain a mainstream technology for years to come. The advantage of DaaS goes far beyond just remote working; it extends to business continuity and disaster recovery in times of need.

Decision Intelligence

For almost two decades, data has been the most valuable business currency. Technology providers like Google, Amazon, and Tesla have attributed a large amount of their success to holding the right data and centering their decisions around it.

Yet, although data-driven intelligence has been in the limelight for a while now, “decision intelligence” is a relatively new discipline that has been garnering continuous attention in the industry post-pandemic. Digital disruption has accelerated after COVID-19 and businesses now find themselves with the pressing need to gain a competitive advantage using the enormous amount of data they already possess.

Leveraging technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence, decision intelligence has the potential to be the missing link between data and enhanced decision making. Industries like financial services, healthcare, and supply chain stand to gain tremendous advantage with decision intelligence.

Virtual Reality

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) took a leap during the past two years, and it seems that this momentum will continue in 2022 as well. This technology is predicted to see more advancements in the form of lighter, smaller portable devices, eliminating the need to carry chunky ones that require separate Wi-Fi connections.

We can expect superior VR experiences in the near future. Why? Because we are right now looking at a world where the thin line between imagination and reality is fast becoming thinner. We are now looking at incredible futuristic concepts like Metaverse, a shared virtual world where users can connect and interact with each other through diverse platforms and devices.

The push towards enhancing our VR experiences, therefore, is not an if but a when.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

These technology twins have been around for a while, but they will keep evolving at a lightning pace in this decade as well. The need for advanced AI capabilities in this world is not going to slow down for the very simple reason that digital disruption is not going to slow down.

Going forward, AI trends like machine vision will receive more attention because of their business uses — from security and identity verification to factory assembly automation. Natural language processing is another key trend that’s seeing advances, enabling machines to understand human language and communicate back with us.

Machine learning models are increasingly becoming significant drivers of organizational success, as they help firms uncover patterns, disclose anomalies, make forecasts and choices, and produce insights. To transfer ML models from research to production and administration rapidly, businesses now see the need to change from personal heroism to manufactured performance. The age of artisanal AI must give way in order to harness the larger, revolutionary benefits of AI and ML.

Cybersecurity Tools

Organizations have increased their cybersecurity spending over the last two decades, and it’s easy to see why: from costly data breaches to severe malicious attacks, companies are rushing to stay up with the rising complexity and sophistication of cyber threats. According to a Norton report, in the first three months of 2022, India experienced over 18 million cyber-attacks and threats, averaging approximately 200,000 each day.

The problem is only getting worse. Zero-day threats have increased post-pandemic and organizations these days must look beyond VPNs to keep their data secure. We can expect an increased adoption of Zero Trust to enable organizations to reduce cyber-attacks and control unauthorized access to their data.

Virtualization technologies can also help enterprises defend themselves against cyberattacks.

On all of these fronts, DaaS and virtual desktops can help by allowing organizations to centralize data storage within virtual infrastructure, while simultaneously avoiding the physical security risks that come with traditional PCs.

Metaverse

Taking us by hand into the future, Metaverse is going to play a major role in revolutionizing the way we work and live. This digitally enhanced virtual world is going to be a deciding factor in all aspects of business as the decade proceeds.

Experts state that metaverse will serve as a touch point for every business, from employees, to customers, to consumers, to the entire organization. Metaverse is hailed as the next step in the evolution of the internet and if that is so, we can expect that it is going to impact every single human on the planet.

It will change the way business is conducted, how we communicate with our consumers, how consumers buy our products, how our employees get work done, and even what products and services we offer.

Blockchain

Blockchain technology is no longer just about cryptocurrency and financial speculation. Today, blockchains are being used to do everything from store data across decentralized clouds, to manage supply chains, to facilitate peer-to-peer lending, and far beyond.

Although it was easy in the past to write off blockchain as mere hype, the technology has been around for well over a decade at this point, and there is no sign that it is going anywhere anytime soon. On the contrary, while it’s a little early to call blockchain totally mature, it’s clear that it’s one of the biggest drivers of innovation in the 2020s.

Leading the Future

Businesses need to follow the evolution and advancement of these trends to gain a competitive advantage not just against their peers, but also to help them succeed in general. We are entering a new world with new rules and new expectations, and the organizations that lead the charge will define the route of this journey.

In the past, many once-prominent companies, like Kodak and Sony, realized too painfully and too slowly that refusing to ride the wave is to be crushed by it. Donning the cap of futurists, business leaders now have every reason to avoid living a similar future, and instead creating a more hopeful one for their businesses.

About Anunta:

Anunta is an industry-recognized Managed Desktop as a Service provider focused on Enterprise DaaS (Anunta Desktop360), Packaged DaaS, and Digital Workspace technology. Anunta have successfully migrated 600,000+ remote desktop users to the cloud for enhanced workforce productivity and superior end-user experience. Since its inception, Anunta has been empowering its customers globally with sustainable, secure, and scalable, managed DaaS offerings for business resiliency and workplace transformation. Anunta are Top Tier partners with all the major technology OEMs (VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix) and cloud platform providers involved in virtualization technologies, particularly desktop virtualization. Anunta have been consistently adding value to our customers by delivering excellence in design, onboarding, migration, and Day 2 packages by delivering cloud desktops across the most complex and varied use-cases.

For more information, visit https://www.anuntatech.com/

Media Contact(s):
Alok Ranjan
M: +91 9819253295
E: alok.ranjan@anuntatech.com

Ishan Sahni (Ruder Finn Asia)
M: +91 9818602075
E: sahnii@ruderfinnasia.com