advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

2019 is the year disruptive technologies begin to scale

If 2018’s ICT landscape was defined by one thing, it was the rise of disruptive technologies, with them beginning to take shape across a myriad industries.

What will happen in 2019 then?

According to HP Africa’s MD, David Rozzio, it’s the year when disruptive technologies will begin to scale.

“Disruptions from the last few years will become embedded and have a fundamental impact on different industries; for instance, 3D printing and VR, which came to the fore in 2018, will become more widely used by both industry and consumers,” says Rozzio.

“Technology will maintain its momentum and continue to impact and benefit industries far and wide outside its immediate sphere. Key aspects of everyday life and business will be revolutionized in the year to come,” he adds.

More specifically Rozzio views disruptive technologies have a profound affect on four areas of ICT in particular – the workplace, manufacturing, sustainability and security.

The workplace

Starting with the workplace the MD sees a far greater blending of an employee’s work and personal lives, into something he terms “One Life.”

He notes that as more people choose to work from home, there will be a greater need for the devices they use to be compelling from a design perspective, as well as feature the computing power needed to perform required business tasks.

“This means devices like home printers need to be high-functioning enough to support business needs, while integrating into their surroundings,” Rozzio adds.

This will result in offerings like HP’s Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) becoming more ubiquitous.

Manufacturing

In terms of the manufacturing sector, it is 3D print that poses the most exciting opportunity, according to Rozzio.

Driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution in particular, Rozzio foresees more 3D printing solutions making their way into the commercial sector in the coming year.

“We are already seeing more uses for 3D printing in the automotive, transport, industrial, medical and consumer markets. 3D printing, along with analytics and virtual technology, will continue to impact industry and manufacturing by shortening production processes and supply chains,” says the MD.

Sustainability

While 3D printing poses a solution for businesses wanting to reduce their productions times, it could also benefit them in terms of increasing their level of sustainability, Rozzio believes.

“3D printing will also increase the sustainability of many industries, by allowing flexible, on-location and on-demand production and lower emissions during the production process,” he says.

“Businesses are increasingly factoring sustainability into deals, and we expect sustainability initiatives to move from being a differentiatior in business tenders to be an expectation. More and more businesses are also looking for efficiencies and moving to a more circular and low-carbon model – last year HP saw a 38% year-on-year increase in deals where sustainability was a requirement – and we expect that to continue growing in 2019,” Rozzio points out.

Security 

The last area that Rozzio highlights is security, and in this regard it is ensuring the security of an organisation’s data that will most pertinent.

This is driven primarily by the fact that employees wish to have greater flexibility in their work life, as mentioned earlier, which will in turn bring up questions around endpoint security.

“Expectations around endpoint security are particularly high, as unprotected printers and laptops can act as trojan horses,” Rozzio concludes.

With cybercrime forecast to be amount to $6 trillion in 2019, it’s clear that ensuring your organisation’s ecosystem is secure will become vitally important.

 

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement