10 Software Trends You Should Be Watching in 2019
It’s hard to see any stopping in the rapid evolution of software that has occurred over the last decade or so. From system applications to Machine Learning, there’s been such a leap forward in the capabilities that we’ve seen come on stream in just a short while. And we will be witnessing a lot more of this in 2019.
A lot of the novelty and speed of transformation we’re seeing is being spurred on by market competition. Companies are getting ahead of their rivals by fashioning new solutions and applying existing ones in innovative ways. The fruits of these battles are falling into our laps, and we’re only happy to enjoy them as they come.
But if you are keen on staying in front of the curve with software, you should lace your creative drive with a bit of care. For all the shiny programs and products that catch our attention and dominate our discussions, there are numerous others which fail to make an impression. They often end up fading into oblivion and leaving a gaping hole in the accounts of the companies that invest in them.
This article should help you avoid the pitfall we have just described. In it, we will delve into the big growth points you might want to keep tabs on if you want to keep your technology infrastructure in sync with the times.
Things You Should Be Tracking
Here are some of the things we could see happen as we get through the year.
1. A Closer Working Relationship Between Humans and AI
While AI is great at processing huge piles of data and learning patterns, it still lacks the sense of personal warmth that us humans are able to convey and detect in our verbal cues. This is just as important to us as prompt service delivery and perfect answers to our questions.
The solution could be to combine AI’s speed and efficiency with human sensibility and interpretative abilities. There’s good reason to believe that a shift in this direction is already starting to happen.
2. Blockchain Will Resurface On Our Radar
For most of last year, the outlook for cryptocurrencies seemed bright. They were rallying, and the world was sitting up and taking notice. Blockchain, the framework which underpinned this apparent miracle, was being touted as the next big thing in modern technology. But then the cryptocurrencies nosedived, and the talk about blockchain died down somewhat.
Now, it seems that blockchain is returning to the public consciousness. Experts say that there’s a growing recognition of its application for sectors other than cryptos, a fact that could make it a mainstay of digital infrastructure in the years to come.
3. Microservices Will Become More Widely Used
More developers will choose to adopt microservices architecture in structuring their applications. What this means is that they will be building systems that are a collection of loosely connected microservices designed to take on particular tasks, instead of a single infrastructure which carries out several different operations.
With microservices, people will be able to deal with challenges arising in these systems as lone issues instead of having to probe the whole system for a problem that arises in just a part of the whole setup.
4. More Apps Will Feature Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) will become even more commonplace in 2019, with apps including AR functions as a main feature. It’s getting integrated into business’s menu of tools for enhancing user experience, a trend that will almost certainly accelerate in the months and years to come.
5. Clouds Will Get Linked Up
The need for greater collaboration across different platforms is giving rise to connected clouds. Instead of having applications that operate on individual cloud systems, we are witnessing the start of a linking up of private and public clouds to aid the outsourcing of storage, security and other requirements that today’s companies might have.
6. More Edge Computing for Emerging IoT
We will need a lot more data storage and processing happening closer to the data sources if the Internet of Things (IoT) WILL take off as we anticipate. In 2019, we should see a real move in this direction as more devices join the IoT train and expand its potential scope. The data from these devices will require far more data processing space than is available at the moment; as a result, we can expect a shift to more edge computing.
7. A Greater Convergence of Technology
As the IoT becomes the new normal, AI, ML and AR could get more interwoven, functionally speaking. Machine Learning will read patterns in human feedback from AR experiences, and a huge deal of information will be generated from this activity. This will in turn open up a wider world of opportunities for software developers and data scientists to explore.
8. Cybersecurity Bolstered by Machine Learning
We are figuring out that ML could offer us a way to predict (and prevent) cyber-attacks. If there are further improvements in the data crunching and pattern-detecting powers of ML (as we expect), it could start being used as a preventative cybersecurity tool by companies across the world in 2019.
9. Augmented Analytics Will Digest Even Bigger Data
Handling regular-sized data sets has proven hard enough for us. Interacting with and making sense of big data presents an even more complex challenge. But thanks to Augmented Analytics and Natural Language Processing (NLP), data scientists and the companies they help will be able to identify the important findings from large data sets more rapidly. It could eventually make the science of data analysis more accessible to regular people.
10. Balanced Teams Will Replace Hierarchies
Increasing specialization and the demands of a faster paced tech world is leading many teams to deemphasize management hierarchies and seek greater psychological safety for members. More attention is also being paid to conformity with social sensitivities and movements, and this is likely to inform the decisions and attitudes of developer teams and influence the work they put out in 2019 as well as in coming years.
