Go forth and conquer: New technologies shaping IT in 2023

One of the IT sector’s great strengths is its ability to embrace innovation and new services. As we enter the new year, this trait will be called upon -- with IT departments under more strain than ever. 

A combination of sky-high expectations for digital services from users and customers, as well as skilled professionals like software developers in short supply, means IT teams are feeling the pressure. To continue to meet soaring demand, while streamlining workloads, IT teams are exploring new technologies and working methods. 

Serving up serverless 

Serverless computing is certainly gaining momentum. This cloud computing execution model is structured so that the cloud provider allocates machine resources on demand, taking care of the servers on behalf of their customers. 

A major benefit of serverless is that it can free up developers to focus on innovation, rather than complex, tedious and time-consuming backend management tasks. This is because developers of serverless applications are not concerned with capacity planning, configuration, management, maintenance, fault tolerance or scaling the backend resources.

Both backend admin tasks and innovation will be cheaper as a result -- making the process more efficient for the entire organisation.

Of course, less time spent on backend management is hardly a cause for complaint. Yet it’s possible that trying to mitigate backend admin work only scratches the surface for departments that are under strain.

Therefore, IT teams also need to explore other trends, starting with edge computing.

The edge of experience 

One way in which this expectation will be met is through improved edge computing solutions. 

An edge computing approach brings enterprise applications closer to data sources such as IoT devices or local edge servers. Comprising database, computing and networking technologies, edge devices can be any computing device: these could be phones, tablets, point-of-sales terminals, autonomous vehicles, security cameras or anything else -- the distinction is that the compute, memory, and data are physically located at the edge. 

One of the greatest benefits of edge computing is reduced latency. Edge computing removes the need to move data from devices’ endpoints to the cloud and back again. As a result, edge devices can function near-instantaneously, greatly benefiting the industries and organizations that use them. Edge computing also has the unique benefit of being more reliable and minimizing bandwidth usage.

Edge computing is now accelerating due to easier access and broader availability of pay-as-you-go edge solutions from cloud service providers. According to Gartner, there will be a 75 percent increase in edge computing and processing by 2025.

This access means enterprises’ digital systems are guaranteed to be faster, more reliable and use less bandwidth than they were only three years ago. 

Throughout 2023, more companies will adopt edge computing for operational reasons to ensure businesses stay up, running and fast in all locations. The pressure for seamless digital experiences means apps must work whenever and wherever -- edge computing can guarantee this.

Networks’ new frontiers

The growth of serverless and the acceleration of edge computing are all well and good. But neither would be possible without flexible, reliable and global network infrastructure. 

In 2023, we will increasingly see new levels of access to networking infrastructure, connecting a previously unconnected world. Locations that have never been covered by networking will soon have high-speed networking all the time, from sea to shore, as the demand for seamless digital experiences intensifies. 

We will see spikes in data usage in new environments in the next few years: on cruise ships, airlines and places like Antarctica and Everest, where network connectivity has previously been unthinkable.

Driving much of this coverage will be new "celestial" networks that bring consumers constant access to experiences and information with no interruptions. These might be high-capacity satellites offering hundreds of gigabits of bandwidth to the areas they cover, or constellations of numerous smaller satellites in low-earth orbit. 

IT fights back

Given the current challenges that are facing the IT industry, it would be easy to be pessimistic about 2023. But sometimes, adversity breeds innovation. 

2023 represents a brave new world of opportunity for enterprises that are able to operate more reliably, with greater speed and increased creativity. This time next year, things may well look very bright -- celestial, even.  

Photo Credit: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

Wayne Carter is VP Engineering at Couchbase.