What to Expect from IT in 2018

As one of the most famous head coaches in NFL history, Vince Lombardi has several quotes that can be applied to success. One particular statement to note is “If you are five minutes early, you are already ten minutes late.” As it turns out, this quote inadvertently refers to technology. The technology industry moves a mile-a-minute and businesses are always looking for ways to innovate and make significant improvements to technology.

In fact, it’s just one small way you can make a big change for your small business’ operations. Here are some of the best developments to look forward to for your business’ IT in 2018, as per some of the most notable IT professionals in the United States.

• Emerging technology is important. Of all technology observed, security (81%), mobile device management (51%), and big data (49%) are likely to play a major role in future technology development.
  
  • What this means for the small business: The threat of a hacking attack or data loss should never be underestimated. In order to commit to keeping your business secure, it is best to proactively take steps to keep threats out of your network. Considering how popular mobile solutions have become, you need to include mobile device management in your maintenance strategy.
• Network security is a focus. Businesses understand how crucial it is that their network data is properly protected. 70% say that securing this data will be their top priority in 2018.
  
  • What this means for the small business: While peer pressure isn’t usually a good thing, this statistic is the exception. When almost three-quarters of your industry contemporaries are taking steps to improve their security against cybercrime, it’s a good indication that you should as well.
• Balancing in-house and outsourced solutions. 54% of survey respondents plan to combine internal and external IT support and administration to fulfill their needs.
  
  • What this means for the small business: Some positions are simply more difficult to fill as a part of an in-house staff. For example, there just aren’t enough security experts for all the vacancies in small businesses, especially when large businesses lure candidates away with more pay, better benefits, and other perks. Furthermore, not many small businesses would likely need a full-time security resource if best practices are followed.
    
    As a result, many businesses are looking externally for their cybersecurity needs. A managed service provider can provide an outsourced team of experienced IT professionals who will communicate and work with you to meet your organizational technology needs. This allows you to preserve your budget by eliminating the need to hire and train your own internal resources.
• Increased use of a virtual environment. It is expected that using the cloud and virtualization technologies will lead to a 69% decline in utilizing installed applications on local systems.
  
  • What this means for the small business: Complicated infrastructures have no place in the digital climate of today, and relatedly, there is a need of scalability to meet the needs of your business and workforce. A virtual environment lends itself to that ability to change, and easily allows you to securely make necessary changes to your data--whether those changes are alterations to user access permissions, the addition of new user accounts, or scaling services.
• Increase in SaaS. 61% of those surveyed predict that the operating system will gradually become irrelevant as applications move more and more to the browser.
  
  • What this means for the small business: The move from self-managed applications and software to fully-managed Software as a Service will allow business users to be productive from anywhere, with their solutions maintained for them by the hosting service. This includes installing updates and applying patches as they are released.

How do you plan to leverage these technologies in your business? Whatever your plans are, i-medIT is here with the solutions and experience to help. For more information, give us a call at 630-549-6199.