Predictions for 2021? First and foremost, we will harness one of the greatest technological achievements of our time with vaccine roll-outs to help quell the societal and economic threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed in months, rather than years, the vaccine is truly the standout innovation that will most impact 2021.
Turning our outlook to enterprise industries, however, inevitably invites us to also cast a glance back at 2020.
#1: Digital transformation accelerated
COVID-19 shone a light on organizations’ ability to cope with stress to the system. But it can reasonably be argued that organizations that were well advanced in digital transformation were better equipped to cope with the challenges the pandemic presented.
‘Flexibility’ and ‘resilience’ were the watchwords for keeping industrial processing, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and retail up and running. Healthcare, government and emergency services all broke new digital ground in how they communicated, informed, diagnosed, traced and tested.
So, in 2021, companies that lagged in their digital transformation will move fast to catch up and digitalize their operations. The more advanced will draw upon pandemic learnings to identify new priorities, fine tune and invest accordingly.
#2: Business continuity prioritized
Similarly, COVID-19 brought business continuity to the spotlight. Previously, the CIO’s priority was ensuring appropriate IT back-up systems, disaster recovery and cyber-resilience protection were in place - but now, the job got a whole lot bigger.
Throughout 2020 it became a headache for CEOs and CIOs as they devised new policy and plans on the fly. Business continuity’s emphasis in 2021 will need to accommodate a more dispersed workforce by design - managing assets that are decentralized and ensuring connectivity as well as IT security in entirely new ways.
Business continuity will also extend in scope. In some industries that will mean ensuring physical tasks in mission-critical operations such as maintenance, manufacturing and healthcare can be performed remotely, since personnel may not be allowed on site.
#3: Connectivity
And for continuity, read connectivity. Fortunately, in the decade leading up to the pandemic, investments by CSPs and cloud network providers more than adequately equipped us for dispersed working.
At the pandemic’s outset, according to our Deepfield Network Intelligence Report, many networks experienced up to 50% traffic growth in just a few weeks. That stabilized at around 20-30% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Going forward, service providers will increasingly use this kind of insight to make infrastructure decisions that create value and best deliver continuity of service. While the pandemic may ultimately prove an exception, it’s likely that it simply accelerated pre-existing content consumption, production and delivery trends. As a result, real-time, detailed network insights will prove essential.
#4: Cybersecurity - a top priority
Unsurprisingly, with more network traffic came increased DDoS attacks - up to 50% more - making enhanced cybersecurity perhaps the leading priority for 2021. With broadband now an essential service, protecting network infrastructure has become mission critical to both industry and government. In 2021, accurate, agile and cost-effective detection and automated mitigation become essential mechanisms to protect service provider infrastructures and services.
Cybersecurity is also encountering a new frontier as industrial processes come under attack. Popularized through reports of vaccine data and delivery hacking, the growing threat to industrial processes such as manufacturing, distribution, supply chain and logistics is evident.
Of course, connectivity provides a potential point of attack. With growth in private wireless deployments, ‘security by design’ becomes a priority. As CIOs invest in private wireless to accelerate digital transformation, vendors (including Nokia) need to have resolute responses and resilient systems in place.
#5: Supply chain intelligence
Vaccine and healthcare heroics apart, in 2020 the unsung hero of our industry has been the supply chain. From ensuring continued globally-integrated manufacturing and swift delivery of PPE, to filling supermarket shelves and managing immense spikes in consumer demand, supply chain and logistics have been under a microscope.
From a technology perspective, we will increasingly see enhanced layers of prediction and intelligence built into logistics systems. Intelligence will drive greater focus on IoT in the supply chain, across products, channels, warehousing and more. Every single component will incorporate intelligence and in the near-term, we will see acceleration in infrastructure to support it and meaningful deployments by industry leaders.
#6: Network edge evolution
The year 2021 will also mark the next steps in digitalization and automation - as we move inexorably toward Industry 4.0.
We’re witnessing the gradual evolution from 4G to 5G, bringing even greater reliability, lower latency and improved asset control performance. And with it, the convergence of networking and the edge. Because the network can’t do it alone from the core to the cloud, data needs to be processed locally to deliver the speed required for IoT use cases such as robotics and automation.
Connecting assets at the edge will not only deliver new levels of efficiency and productivity, but will also accelerate OT and IT convergence. Marrying these technologies is a huge step forward in advancing IIoT, enabling use cases to increase and diversify. IT/OT convergence will fast forward during 2021, as the entire ecosystem aggregates capability at the edge for high-speed interoperability, connectivity and Industry 4.0.
#7: Digital divide to narrow
As governments seek to revitalize flagging economies, we will see stimulus investment in 2021. The digital ‘New Deal’ is an opportunity that should not be under-estimated. If there is one thing that the pandemic highlighted, it is the importance of connectivity. Both business and society does better with broadband.
Drawing attention to where connectivity is lacking, the digital divide exists in too many of our communities. With government-sponsored projects to help to close this gap, cost-efficient, easy-to-use wireless broadband can be an important part of the solution.
And when we turn back to review 2021 next year, it’s possible we will conclude that - as harsh, tragic and challenging as 2020 was - it provided the catalyst for a more connected, secure and smarter way of living and doing business.
