The pandemic has driven countless changes in consumer behaviour, forcing many organisations to evolve rapidly in order to remain relevant and competitive. When determining how best to evolve, organisations have invariably turned to their data.
Over the last year, it has become apparent that models and analysis based on vast amounts of historical data are no longer relevant, and much of the data is now obsolete, causing many ML and AI models designed for pre-pandemic conditions to fail. This has triggered a shift to analytics that require significantly less data and are therefore more robust when confronted with volatility and uncertainty. As organisations continually refine and adapt their business strategy, there has also been an acceleration in the adoption of agile development.
Information and cyber security have dominated headlines in recent months, compelling organisations to re-evaluate how their data is stored and processed. Many have elected a hybrid approach, whereby some, typically less sensitive, information is held on one of the three main cloud providers, and personal and/or sensitive data is kept on-premises. Increasingly, cloud providers are catering for this, offering solutions that combine the convenience and extensive features of public cloud whilst enabling companies to retain custody of their data.
Security concerns have also put a spotlight on edge computing, as eliminating the need to share data with a third party adds an extra layer of privacy. In recent years, edge computing has seen steady adoption in fields like predictive maintenance and the monitoring of remote assets, but this has significantly accelerated in 2021 as companies strive to perfect autonomous driving and other industries start to recognise the potential benefits.
