To answer the question, we have pulled technology experts from across the industry together to provide valuable insight into what they think 2018 holds.
“A major topic that will continue throughout 2018 will be the enforcement of GDPR.” Neil Stobart, Global Technical Director at Cloudian, goes on to say, “I think it will get to the middle of the year before organisations actually understand what the new rules really mean to them and start to update their policies and processes in accordance with them - we are likely to see a number of high-profile fines for non-compliance before the message really gets across. Due to the US Patriot Act, US-owned public cloud providers are legally bound to provide access to private data they hold on request from US Govt law and intelligence agencies, which directly contravenes GDPR, so I think that when people do start to make changes, organisations that process and store EU individual’s personal data must consider moving from their US public cloud providers to European based cloud providers in order to comply with the new legislation."
Nigel Williams, Senior Director Marketing at Commvault, also expects GDPR to be a hot topic in 2018 explaining that, “As businesses have a ravenous appetite for insight and are compelled by GDPR to manage the privacy of personal data, along with the rising tide of cyber-attacks, 2018 will see organisations start to accelerate the development of data management and data science competencies to support growth and transformation strategies. Nigel thinks “It will also be the year when the majority of IT staff come to the realisation that solving business problems via machine learning and data, rather than coding logic in software, is the best route to solving the toughest business problems.”
But Bob Davis, CMO at Plutora, shares a different view, explaining his thoughts that, "In 2018, we will continue to hear a lot about companies taking on this journey called ‘digital transformation.' The part that we are going to have to start grappling with is that there is no metric for knowing when we get there – when a company is digitally transformed. The reality is that it is a process, with phases and gates – just like software development itself. A parallel that is extremely relevant.”
Bob goes on to suggest that, “In fact, Digital transformation in 2017, and looking ahead to 2018, is all about software. The ‘bigger, better, faster, cheaper’ notion of the 90s, largely focused around hardware, is gone. Hardware is commoditised, disposable and simply an access point to software. The focus is squarely on software and unlimited data storage to push us forward. Now the pressure is on the companies building software to continue to lead the way and push us forward.”
Chris Colotti, Field CTO at Tintri, instead discusses how the need for Disaster Recovery plans will be a priority for organisations in the New Year explaining that, “By now most companies are aware of the need for DR, but the topic of how best to implement these DR plans will be big for 2018. While 2017 saw natural disasters as a huge cause of data loss in the US, human error remained a cautionary area for businesses in the UK, and therefore DR strategies should be top of mind in the New Year. Organisations that have previously struggled to find a solution that can protect data both on-premises and in the public cloud, as well as allowing them to scale, should prioritise the research and implementation of such solutions in 2018 to ensure data is continuously protected.”
Ken Hosac, VP IoT Strategy & Business Development at Cradlepoint, shares his thoughts on IoT explaining that, "2018 will see organisations being smarter about how they secure their IoT devices. Global surveys show increasing enterprise IoT adoption, but with the spread of vicious botnets such as Reaper and Mirai, businesses know that deploying IoT devices on an existing network is dangerous. It creates cross-contamination, expands the attack surface and exposes corporate networks to new vulnerabilities. Ken explains, “This is a serious threat that will need to be mitigated in 2018. One way of addressing the issue is by deploying Software-defined Perimeter technology. This enables businesses to control access and isolate IoT devices from each other. Significantly, it means existing networks can be shielded from potential attackers. In 2018, we will see more organisations addressing IoT security issues with Software-defined Perimeter technology, supporting the continued development of the global IoT ecosystem.”
Tom Harwood, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder at Aeriandi, discusses the future for financial institutions and “Regulatory Tech – or RegTech as it’s more commonly known – a term created by the Financial Conduct Authority. It’s a sub-set of FinTech. As the regulatory focus on data, reporting and oversight continues to increase, RegTech is evolving as an area specifically geared towards the compliance, security and regulation aspects of FinTech. Essentially it’s about developing technology that can help financial firms to better comply with regulations.”
Tom is also concerned with GDPR for 2018 explaining that, “RegTech is already helping address compliance challenges in the voice space. Just imagine how much personal data is held within call recordings. These are ubiquitous; many companies across a range of sectors store call data. With GDPR offering customers new rights to access, view and delete this data, how can companies ensure they can offer this capability? How will they even know what data they hold? A technology approach to the problem is the only way many organisations will be able to address these challenges effectively.
As financial institutions continue to face ever-increasing regulations, accompanied by spiralling costs and complexity, they become even more receptive to innovative companies that can offer technology-based solutions. And that’s why, for me, RegTech will be a winner in 2018.”
It is clear that, as the New Year draws close, there is a lot to be expected from the technology industry in 2018. GDPR is likely to be the big topic as organisations begin to realise what it means for them and scramble to meet the regulations. And as machine-learning technologies become more advanced we are likely to see it being applied to more real-world operations throughout the year.
Judging from the comments from these industry experts, there are a number of things to watch out for and no doubt we will all look forward to finding out what’s in store next year.
