Crypto and Blockchain
These technologies will continue to come into the mainstream, with major growth following Web3, although many platforms may consolidate as things continue. It's possible that the Central Bank of a country with a large economy will issue digital currency, or a major e-commerce company will start accepting cryptocurrencies.
Grade assigned to crypto and blockchain predictions at the end of 2022: D
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity will continue to be a major area of both innovation and investment. As Enterprises undergo digital transformation, more of their assets become targets for criminals. As a result, better technology will be needed to fight them.
As prevention solutions have proliferated, the focus of the market will likely move rapidly towards detection and remediation/resolution. CSO’s will ask for more automation as they seek to identify and resolve attacks.
The final point on this is that the world will awaken to potential Quantum technology encroaching upon the traditional 128-bit RSA Security paradigm that the industry is based on.
Grade assigned to cybersecurity predictions at the end of 2022: B
Data
As Data moves closer to the application, more focus will be on finding ways to close and secure this increasingly important attack vector. With the growth in usage of data platforms (data lakes, data Warehouses, lake warehouses, and all the accompanying tooling involved), a new generation of Data security products is emerging, with an accompanying IT/Platform budget to help secure those. While Generation 1 (database security) and Generation 2 (protection of data-in-motion/transition-at-rest via enclaves/encryption) disappointed as far as it goes for standalone startups, Generation 3 will have a large cohort of standalone startups, of which a new security incumbent will emerge.
Grade assigned to data predictions at the end of 2022: B-
Hybrid Work
As the year progresses, with no end to the pandemic in sight, many more organizations will give up their plans to return to the office completely. In addition to those that have already done so, companies of all sizes will opt to invest in more robust enterprise tools to keep their remote teams working efficiently across multiple geographies and time zones. Most, however, will settle on the hybrid work model. Employees will be allowed to choose what work style fits them best and work either from home or from the office several times per week.
The industry will move towards solutions that are most effective for efficient collaboration which will likely be a combination of enterprise AR/VR tools with traditional collaboration tools (email/Zoom/Slack) and so on.
Grade assigned to hybrid work predictions at the end of 2022: A-
Identity
Much had been said about identity being the new perimeter. Protecting the organization is now about the users and services (SaaS, third-party, and cloud) an organization consumes.
That said, organizations still struggle with identity responsibility and vary in implementation. Sometimes contradicting decisions and approaches are selected at a departmental, developer, IT, and security level. The leading identity platforms, Okta and Microsoft AD, have yet to solve the inherent risk in using varying platforms and have a bias towards creating solutions that migrate towards their ecosystem. Identity would need the tools to enable access and permission grants to cater to stakeholders (developers, IT, Security), reducing risks and helping mitigate and respond to identity security events.
Grade assigned to identity predictions at the end of 2022: B+
Metaverse
The Metaverse will start taking shape as new devices, new use cases, and new applications are created. Apple will enter the market, Meta (Facebook) will introduce new products, Google and Microsoft will race to catch up. Companies such as Roblox and Disney will start staking their claims as well as other platforms such as Zoom and Teams.
Grade assigned to metaverse predictions at the end of 2022: B
Service-Mesh and Application Networking
Service-Mesh will continue to be hard to implement and, in some cases, not the best implementation (as the centralized API gateway approach still exists). However, it's also becoming apparent that Istio will not be the winner-takes-all in a Service Mesh world (Consul on the rise) and that multi-mesh is becoming a requirement. Moreover, tools like sidecarless Cilium for ServiceMesh can help make the most out of Mesh.
Grade assigned to service-mesh & application networking predictions at the end of 2022: B+
Quantum Computing
The hardware and software infrastructure that allows Quantum Computing to solve real problems at scale does not exist yet. We believe the space will continue to progress in 2022, with top VCs starting to make bigger bets by the end of the year. We expect to hear some rumblings about potential use cases (cyber security mentioned above, protein synthesis, and super optimal speed for financial applications).
Grade assigned to quantum computing predictions at the end of 2022: B
We're looking forward to all of the exciting developments and opportunities that 2022 has in store.
