Trying to keep up with the rapid rate of progress in today’s tech world is about as difficult as racing a Porsche 911 Turbo on a bicycle with one wheel. As we try to navigate our way through the exhaust fume-heavy slipstream of technological advancements it’s sometimes not easy to take note of ideas which are not only worthy of our attention but demand it. Why? Because so many amazing services, products and tech solutions are being churned out almost on a daily basis — some good, some great and some…not so great. But when fresh new tech is released among a sea of commonplace ideas, some people take notice because they can see a glimpse into the future. They can see that with this new piece of tech, our world will take great strides.
So what are the latest pieces of tech out there which hold hopes of progressing our 4th industrial/technological revolution even further? Well, we can’t say for certain because our crystal ball is currently in the repair shop, but we can certainly show you 3 pieces of tech which we believe all tech leaders should watch closely: cloud computing and microservices forming the ‘next architecture’, maturation of blockchain technology, and progress in the ‘big three’ languages — Python, Java and JavaScript.
Note: We obtained most of our insight from leading IT and tech eLearning giants O’Reilly who released data regarding the most popular search terms and topics used on their platform to get an indication of where focus is shifting in the tech world. It includes topics which are searched and others which are actively engaged with.
The Next Architecture
The growing trend in interest for developers and tech nerds over the world is that of cloud topics, microservices, orchestration and container-related terms (Docker and Kubernetes). This is significant as it points towards a larger trend of how today’s businesses code, plan, test and deploy applications. O’Reilly dubs this pivot as ‘The Next Architecture’. It allows fast and flexible deployment with rapid adaptation and scaling to unpredictable resource requirements which organisations clearly feel the need to improve in order to stay ahead.
- Microservices: Through decomposition, businesses benefit from breaking down large complex data and activities into smaller, more easily manageable pieces. They can be used as standalone services which can be developed independently and can also be added together to create a complex system.
- Cloud computing: Businesses need the flexibility to innovate on a global scale. Microservices assist the trend toward cloud computing due to its ability for rapid service management and support of dynamic, adaptable applications. ‘Cloud migration’ has become a popular search term in 2019.
- Containers: A simple way to achieve compatibility for decomposition and cloud computing, Docker makes deployment automation of microservices easier.
- Orchestration: Orchestration tools like Kubernetes help with the tracking and management of microservices running on containers. They have thorough and robust specifications and automation which allow for smooth and rapid orchestration.
Blockchain maturation
O’Reilly saw a 66% increase in blockchain topics and terms from 2017 and 2018s numbers which shows just how much businesses are setting their sights on this new tech. Blockchain tech will only grow in prominence and importance in years to come as the tech gets much needed fine tuning and finessing. But it is clear the direction the world is headed into, and so it is important to invest, investigate and explore now before you miss the boat.
The 3 languages
Python, Java and JavaScript continued their dominance in 2019 as the most popular and important coding languages in tech. With the acceleration in advancements in machine learning (most notably in computer vision and natural language processing), Python is a prominent fixture in ML libraries and is therefore crucial to its success. Java interfaces are used in big data tools such as Spark and Kafka, which shows how ML’s progress is boosting the popularity of Python and Java. Although JavaScript searches plateaued in 2019 compared to previous years, according to O’Reilly, its prominence in web frameworks and libraries still make it incredibly important.
Get ready for the new decade…
There you have it — the 3 most important tech trends to keep an eye on in the coming years. The existing framework of these well-established technologies form the groundwork for tomorrow’s innovations to flourish. The continued development of the ‘next architecture, blockchain technology and the 3 coding languages will prove to be major players in the next giant leap for our technological revolution — who knows where they will lead us?
