Trends Identified

New technologies and principles to develop the component base
Maintaining the rate of growth in the ICT sector globally requires continuous increases in the performance of computer technology. At present, the technological process to manufacture Information and Communication Technology semi-finished products and materials reached the atomic level, which is where the Pauli exclusion principle, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and other fundamental positions in quantum physics limiting the potential to control elementary particles come into play. So as to avoid a collapse of ICT markets caused by a slowdown in the development of the hardware component, which would result in negative effects for the entire global economy, there needs to be timely industrial development of new technologies and principles to develop the component base. The research priorities in this context should be focused on the areas of nanotechnology (electronics based on graphene, fullerene, etc.), photonics and memrister technologies.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
The next generation distributed grid
Making distributed energy possible at scale will revolutionise the useability of (and market for) renewables, increase energy efficiency, and disrupt traditional carbon intensive power grids.
2017
Innovation for the Earth - Harnessing technological breakthroughs for people and the planet
PWC
Climate change
Man’s relation to earth is complex. Earth and nature determine the fate of mankind, but in turn mankind determines the fate of earth (nature) through technological advances and the extraction of natural resources, for instance, through large-scale deforestation, leading to less biodiversity and, consequently, desertification and erosion of the soil. Or through dumping plastic in the ocean (the infamous plastic soup). Ever since the seventies of the 20th century there has been a global debate on the limits of growth. Will tomorrow’s population be so large that it will exhaust the earth? Experts believe that climate change (through the greenhouse effect and global warming) will render specific regions on earth uninhabitable [Knox and Marston, 2011]. Weather conditions may become more unstable and more extreme. This will, for instance, increase the risk of large hurricanes and disastrous floods. Extreme heat and lack of water may turn specific parts of the world into deserts. Cities lying on the coast may disappear into the ocean.
2014
Horizon scan 2050
Netherlands, The Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends (STT)
Digital Identities
Managing identity in an increasingly digital world The digital expression of identity grows increasingly complex every day. Not so long ago, an employee’s entire digital presence belonged almost exclusively to the employer, a practice that culminated in the mainframe ID. As enterprise technology expanded to include new tools and platforms, the number of digital identities grew. Today, many workers must manage a dozen or more user names and passwords across different roles on different systems to do their jobs.
2012
Tech Trends 2012-Elevate IT for digital business
Deloitte
Blockchain projects produce early results
Many financial institutions and blockchain/ distributed ledger technology labs have been working on proof of concept (PoC) and pilot projects, and some are starting to produce early results. A goal of this work is for parties to form consortia and set up commercial networks on shared infrastructure based on the blockchain. Multiple blockchain technologies are now emerging with different implementations and consensus algorithms. As certain projects may require interoperability between these different implementations, Nasdaq recently completed a PoC with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) demonstrating cross-blockchain settlement. This indicates that blockchain can provide a supporting role in the next generation CSD and the transfer of digital asset ownership. The emergence of different types of tokens is another trend. Some link directly to a fiat currency, while others are tokenized assets. In response, regulators worldwide are trying to build a legal framework for payment, security and utility tokens. Going forward, blockchain will likely be used as a solution for managing new types of financial and non-financial assets in markets everywhere – potentially including real estate, insurance and loyalty points. The token ecosystem will support the entire life cycle of the asset – from issuance and price discovery to execution and settlement, and perhaps corporate actions. Payments will either be done on the same network, via a link to an external payment network such as T2S or Swift, or via a utility settlement coin. Yet, some important questions remain unanswered. Who will take on the custodial aspects of dematerialized physical assets and digitized tokens on a blockchain, and manage know your customer and anti-money laundering compliance? The traditional custodians could assume that role, but disrupters could appear in markets that do not have custodians. Another question is who will be the arbitrator if and when a smart contract goes wrong? The smart contract hype cycle has nearly peaked, and the trough is about to begin. Technologists need to think about where smart contracts make sense and whether the programming languages should be Turing complete so they can run any program given enough time and memory. In the next few years, expect to see the major cloud providers supply the infrastructure for blockchain, and blockchain software companies consolidate as funding becomes more difficult.
2019
NASDAQ DECODES: TECH TRENDS 2019 -The technology trends that are driving the world of markets forward
Nasdaq
Economic experiments
Many growth policy tools have reached their limits. Central banks and governments in the developed world responded to the financial crisis by slashing interest rates , creating innovative facilities to try to keep the credit of lowing, and in some cases bailing out financial and nonfinancial players. Different mixes of austerity and structural reforms also were tried. When these proved insufficient to restart growth, leaders around the world turned to new, sometimes overlapping policy experiments, in search of a more effective solution.
2017
The global forces inspiring a new narrative of progress
McKinsey
Right-speed IT - Living between black and white
Many IT organizations are progressing beyond the traditional single-speed delivery models that work well for high-torque enterprise operations but not for high-speed innovation. While some do have needs at both ends of the speed spectrum, they often find that bridging the gap between the two is difficult. A growing number of CIOs are building capabilities that link the two edge points or operate along the continuum, with targeted investments in process, technology, and talent to reengineer the business of IT, enabling delivery at the right speed for the business.
2016
Tech trends 2016 - innovating in the digital era
Deloitte
Going, going, ... gone?
Many of the world’s natural habitats, plant species and animal species are in decline or at risk of extinction. The actions taken by human beings in the coming decades will set the scene for global biodiversity over coming millennia. The going, going ...gone? megatrend explores the perilous situation of the world’s ecological habitats and biodiversity. This megatrend also captures the issue of greenhouse
gas emissions and climate change. Much in the natural world, that humans value and depend upon, is at
risk of being lost forever. However, there is a positive story and a potentially bright future. The megatrend is purposefully posed as a question. Whilst the state
of biodiversity is in decline and the pressure is rising so too is the human response.
2012
Our future world - globla megatrends that will change the way we live
Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Everything-as-a-service - Modernizing the core through a services lens
Many organizations are reorienting their business capabilities and approaching business products, offerings, and processes as a collection of services that can be used both inside and outside organizational boundaries. But doing so means IT may need to revitalize legacy core assets by upgrading to the latest ERP platforms or refactoring aging custom code. Though sometimes-daunting undertakings, these and other legacy remediation efforts can help achieve short-term efficiency gains and cost savings, while laying the foundation for broader strategic shifts.
2017
Tech trends 2017 - the kinetic enterprise
Deloitte
Implantable Drug-Making Cells - Releasing drugs directly into patients’ bodies as they are needed is fast becoming feasible
Many people with diabetes prick their fingers several times a day to measure blood sugar levels and decide on the insulin doses they need. Implants of pancreatic cells that normally make insulin in the body— so-called islet cells—can render this cumbersome process unnecessary. Likewise, cellular implants could transform treatment of other disorders, including cancer, heart failure, hemophilia, glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease. But cellular implants have a major drawback: recipients must take immunosuppressants indefinitely to prevent rejection by the immune system. Such drugs can lead to serious side effects, including an increased risk of infection or malignancies.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American