The Top 5 Hottest Tech Trends for 2016

Last year was dominated by mobile technologies, everything “aaS”, and the data breach. In fact, security dominated a sizeable portion of 2015 tech news stories, including government spying, the rise of the hactivist, and the struggle to secure business systems in the new environment of mobile and the cloud. What does this year hold? Here are the top trends to watch.

1. New Security Strategies, Architectures, and Methods Emerge to Stop Cyber Attacks

Expect security to be a major source of buzz and headlines again, only this time there should be more talk about the “good guys”. Security specialists have all but abandoned the concept of perimeter security and antivirus/antimalware software. The new era of cybersecurity utilizes data analytics to establish baselines for normal network activity and integrated detection methods to find threats and alert administrators in time to stop the intrusion and gather forensic evidence in hopes of prosecuting the attack. Look for multiple layers of monitoring to comprise the business security environment, including monitoring at the network, device, user, and database levels.

2. Big Data Forced to Prove Its ROI

Big data has been adopted, given a bedroom, and sent to the best schools. Now it’s time to prove its worth or face cuts within the organization if it can’t make the grade. Even with primarily free open source tools, the price of big data initiatives can climb steeply and quickly. With a shaky world economy, look for organizations to demand an ROI for their big data efforts.

3. The IoT Begins a Consolidation Process

The IoT generated no small amount of buzz in 2015, but like big data, it’s no longer the new kid on the block. It’s now time for organizations to get a handle on what devices are practical and useful for their business purposes, learn how to manage all that data it produces, and begin to combine the data from multiple IoT devices to develop a cohesive, consolidated picture of the people and things the IoT is there to monitor and learn about.

4. The Dark Web Grows & Matures

On the darker side of things, the Dark Web is growing. The Dark Web is often cited as a cesspool of organized crime, the exchange of hacking tools and illegal goods and services, and other nefarious activities. While that element is most definitely a factor in the growth of the Dark Web, a completely benign group of people is also driving its growth and proliferation. A growing number of people are turning to the Dark Web to escape the prying eyes of Big Brother, and it’s now home to surprisingly non-scary things like legitimate news sites and a robust network of scientific and medical researchers. Both the good elements and the bad will continue to drive the growth and maturity of the Dark Web as 2016 unfolds.

5. 3D Printing Takes on New Challenges

How many years have tech magazines predicted that 3D printing would break out and go mainstream? 5? 10? More? It did finally happen in 2015 as decent-quality 3D printers priced under $1,000 produced cool stuff like clothing and questionable things like guns. Now that forward-thinking companies like Tesla and SpaceX are using 3D printers to crank out car and rocket parts, it’s time to introduce more materials into the mix to produce products like biological (think prosthetics) and foodstuffs.

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