Late last year, I was part of a working group that aimed to come up with the top tech trends in data protection for 2022 and beyond. Being a Technologist, part of my job is looking forward at emerging trends in technology and seeing how they fit into current day operations and what enhancements, if any, they offer by way of making things better for issues faced by the tech industry. Given my role at Veeam, I tend to look at these exercises from a data protection point of view, however given my broad interests in all aspects of technology, what we came up with for the 2022 edition was not limited to data protection.

Looking Back to go Forward

During 2020 and 2021, there was a shift in focus to improving remote working capabilities, access to cloud infrastructure and securing data. Over the next year, however, I believe businesses will desire more control of their data, with a greater focus on the ability to facilitate portability and more seamless responses to the changing demands of the future. Although hybrid and multi-cloud models are not new, the freedom they provide will continue to make it even more of a reality moving forward.

With 2022 well and truly here and promising to enable accelerated growth in the data protection industry, you might be wondering what’s next. Here’s is my top trends to look out for and more importantly… start planning for as we move into an exciting phase of technological advancement… which will result in data becoming magnitudes more critical and valuable than it already is!

Kubernetes will help grow edge computing

• Half of all enterprise-generated data will be created and processed beyond centralised cloud data centres via edge computing over the next year. Kubernetes allows organisations to efficiently run containers at the edge in a way that enables development teams to move with greater agility and speed by maximising resources. Ultimately, cloud and edge will work alongside one another, with workloads and applications at the edge being those that have low latency, high bandwidth, and strict privacy requirements. As the flow of data between cloud and edge devices expands, Kubernetes will offer this shared paradigm, allowing internal policies to be projected across the geographical time and space. In 2022, Kubernetes will become the computing standard from data centre and public cloud, all the way to the edge.

The evolution of Blockchain

• As more companies begin to understand the true value of blockchain, we will start seeing substantial investments in blockchain technology and start to leverage decentralized Web3 applications throughout enterprises. As trust around blockchain evolves over the next 12 months and beyond, the total value of deals across blockchain technology companies will increase significantly. In 2019, we saw investments in blockchain increase to a total market value to $523.8m. Though decentralized data could pose some challenges by way of compliance and protection, the very natural of that means that it will further enable cross-border workforces and a growing tech savvy middle class that will continue to make emerging regions a hotbed for technologies like blockchain and will provide a firm foundation for its uptake in 2022.

More sophisticated supply chain cyber-threats

• Over the next twelve months, additional supply chain compromises will likely come to light, major vulnerabilities will continue to emerge, and the world will experience more cyber incidents due to the increase of sophistication of ransomware and malware attacks. As the number and severity of data breaches continues to increase, many large institutions have initiated rigorous security measures to protect themselves directly. Due to this, hackers and cybercriminals have had to seek new ways to gain access through more advanced mechanisms. The threat from supply chain compromises remains high – it is difficult for both vendors and their customers to protect their networks against well-resourced and innovative actors with the ability to compromise widely used software products. Organisations will have to upgrade their data protection protocols and communicate with other industry-leaders to combat the spread of complex attackers.

Data portability

• In 2022, there will be a significant focus on the ability for users or owners of a given dataset to easily duplicate this information across different software applications, platforms, services, and storage environments. With the rise of working-from-home due to COVID-19, this concept has been somewhat suppressed. However, as employees return to office workspaces, data portability will again take centre stage. Reducing the friction of data movement and enabling cloud acceleration are among the top benefits. The panacea is to allow any user to experience flawless services across cloud environments, and in turn help the data economy thrive.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) takes centre stage

• The global platform as a service market size was valued at $44 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $319 billion by 2030. Platform as service (PaaS) providers are leveraging technology to enhance their agility, capability, meet the changing demands for 24/7 availability, increase deployment speed, and reduce IT costs. In 2022 more enterprises and smaller organizations alike will require more scalable infrastructure through Platform as a Service (PaaS) services in order to handle the appropriate desire for applications with superior speed and flexibility. It is expected that many businesses will outsource applications and data protection services to third-parties such as Veeam to establish more comprehensive cross-team collaboration and ensure all data is protected.

Democratisation of Artificial Intelligence Through Cloud Computing

• In 2022, there will be a continued focus on democratising data in the cloud and the power dynamic between the public and private clouds is likely to somewhat balance out. Traditionally, investing in AI requires top technical skill, computing power, and a massive amount of capital. However, with AI offered via cloud services, companies are able to implement and benefit from the technology without making a large upfront investment. Cloud services are democratising AI, making it accessible to organisations who struggle with the high barrier to entry. The combination of AI and cloud services will provide a cost-effective solution to the expensive on-site hardware and is a reliable alternative to traditional setups. AI will help the cloud to manage data, as well as provide real-time insights into information across the entire ecosystem.