2013: A Look Forward at What the Year Will Bring

With 2013 fast approaching, everyone is speculating about what the New Year will bring, especially when it comes to the IT industry. Here at DataDirect, we didn’t want to miss out on the forecasting fun, so we took a moment to reflect on the events of 2012 and look at what can be expected in 2013. Perhaps you saw my blog post last week that looked back on some of the major trends and developments we saw during the past year. This week we’re sharing some predictions for 2013, which promises to be another exciting and fast paced year in technology.

The Need for Speed

Hadoop and other big data systems have grown substantially over the course of 2012. This growth will continue in 2013, but with a focus on speed. Users will want faster access to their information and will expect faster results when running queries and calculations. Technologies like Impala and Hadapt are products that will play a crucial role as big data technology matures.

Diversity in the Cloud

I predict that we’ll see a continuing stream of cloud data sources popping up to house all kinds of data. Data warehouses in the cloud are going to be big, but I don’t think that these warehouses will stem the tide of data fragmentation in 2013. Providing data access capabilities for all of those cloud sources will be key, and we’ll begin to see users become overwhelmed by the need to integrate many different systems. We’ve seen this happen in the past, which gave rise to traditional data warehouses, so it’s not a new concept, just a new platform!

Fragmented Data will Rear its Ugly Head

Building on the last prediction, I expect that we’ll see fragmented data issues become more prevalent in the coming year. With a growing number of data sources becoming available, it only makes sense that our data will be housed in increasingly diverse locations. As a result, users will be taken aback with the complexity that will begin as they try to gather useful insights from their fragmented data. In turn, the technology that addresses this issue will need to evolve.

Security will be End-to-End

It’s a dangerous world out there, and addressing security issues will be a major priority in the year to come. Currently, security vulnerabilities occur when data is decrypted in transit from one source to the next. To address this vulnerability, end-to-end encryption will become the necessary standard, meaning that information will be encrypted at the source and won’t be decrypted until it reaches its final destination.

Where’s my Data?

Geo-location will continue to be a big focus going into next year. Enterprises and Governments as well as some end users will ask more questions about where their data is kept, and cloud providers will become increasingly more accountable for knowing exactly where data is housed, rather than simply explaining that it is “on the server.” Cloud based platforms must offer the capabilities demanded by the enterprise in order to encourage wider-spread adoption in the coming year.

And there you have it! Five thoughts on what we can expect in 2013. If you have additional thoughts or comments on any of the above, feel free to leave a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!