Trends Identified
Social sciences and humanities
Innovation in the service sector (75% of the EU economy) and social innovation are largely dependent from findings in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). SSH also allow understanding the changing multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious European societies faced by issues like inequalities, including gender inequalities, and ageing of population. SSH as such and SSH integrated in interdisciplinary research (e.g. on health, climate change and food) play a key role in long-term EU growth and quality of life. 50% of tertiary graduate students in Europe are coming from social sciences and humanities.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Innovation in the cloud is prolific
Innovation in cloud product offerings has been prolific as cloud providers compete to gain market share. Two significant advances over the past year are the integration of time series databases and the introduction of parallel streaming in milliseconds, giving companies a comprehensive view of activity like never before. Specifically, Apache Spark is a fast, in-memory data processing engine with development APIs to allow data workers to efficiently execute streaming, machine learning or SQL workloads that require fast, iterative access to datasets. Apache Kafka is a community distributed streaming platform capable of handling trillions of events per day. Both technologies are available in the cloud, and will be foundational for next generation surveillance, risk management and generally keeping up with the high-speed information on trading and clearing systems. It is notable that the cloud providers are embracing and supporting open source alternatives in addition to the enterprise software and proprietary solutions that are available currently. Importantly, customers are benefitting in terms of better availability and cost effectiveness of product. Some cloud providers have conceived of products that extend their offering to the customer’s premises. Other offerings allow large customers with many accounts the ability to give their employees autonomy while still maintaining control. Regulatory compliance is a key consideration for companies, and concerns about data residency are driving some global players toward a true multi-cloud offering. One implication of GDPR, for example, is that companies may not be willing to cross borders with their products and data if a cloud provider has not built out in Europe and in the company’s region. In many firms, the multi-cloud strategy is still taking shape, and the fear of traditional vendor lock-in is ever present. That said, open source foundational technologies as well as emerging ones such as Apache Kafka may be adopted across all major cloud providers. For now, firms appear to be adopting the leading cloud provider in their region plus a second one, but the right cloud strategy is a matter of perspective. For technology providers, having a multi-cloud strategy is important for product distribution and customer reach. Many financial firms, however, are still operating in a hybrid cloud mode, focusing on connecting to one cloud provider as well as their own data centers. Nasdaq will continue to monitor progress in this area.
2019
NASDAQ DECODES: TECH TRENDS 2019 -The technology trends that are driving the world of markets forward
Nasdaq
Infrastructure in transition
Infrastructure comes in many forms: transportation, buildings, services and communications technology, among others. There is a high probability that infrastructure of every kind will be influenced by the technologies explored in this foresight study.
2013
Metascan 3 emerging technologies
Canada, Policy Horizons Canada
Architecture Will Shift from Server-centric to Service-centric
Information technology is evolving from a world that is server-centric to one that is service-centric. Companies are quickly moving away from monolithic systems that were wedded to one or more servers toward finer-grained, reusable services distributed inside and outside the enterprise. The evolution is being driven by the ongoing maturation of supporting tools, frameworks, and methodologies. There is still much to be done to decouple infrastructure, systems, applications, and business processes from one another. This shift has major repercussions for all levels of the enterprise architecture stack, from infrastructure to applications. Decoupling will enable components to operate independently while making software architectures reconfigurable during run time to adapt to various environments and design objectives, which will increase the flexibility of application deployment and maintenance. Although dynamic reconfiguration is not a new concept in academia, advances in cloud technology at all layers of the stack create a burning platform for such architecture.
2011
Accenture Technology Vision 2011
Accenture
Enabling technology
Information and communications technology (ICT) has transformed society over the last 30 years. A new wave of technological advances is now creating novel opportunities, while testing governments’ ability to harness their benefits and provide prudent oversight.
2014
Future State 2030: The global megatrends shaping governments
KPMG
Enabling information and communication technologies
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) will continue to have a significant impact both in developing and developed countries. Like other technologies the rate of change will continue to increase and new ICTs will surely make a major difference to the functioning of societies over the next twenty years. There will be new ways of communicating and social networking – with implications for science and the production and maintenance of the scientific record.
2011
ICSU Foresight Analysis
International Council for Science (ICSU)
$100 Rollable Tablet PC
Information and communication devices are likely to be developed rapidly for the next 10 years, but digital divide also seems to continue. As a solution, high performance portable computer should appear at low price, which offers sufficient performance and portability rather than the distribution type low price PC. The demand for the low price computer with improved portability will increase which will likely be the upgrade version of current tablet PCs like iPad and Galaxy Tab.
2011
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2011
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Follow the Crowd
Influencers were everywhere in 2018, but are they about to be usurped?
2018
Most contagious report 2018
Contagious
The Tragedy of the Commons in Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing only works when the communications are authentic – from the perspective of the audience. When influencers are offered a load of cash to pimp the latest product or service, the audience is usually tolerant for a while. But when an influencer veers towards shill too often, credibility loss and audience erosion are sure to follow. We know this because we’ve seen it before – with celebrities. Will.i.am isn’t a particularly valuable partner for brands these days (in our opinion), because everyone knows he’s for sale. And yet, some agencies and lots of brands are happy to stump up to established and emerging digital influencers and expect that the influencer will become a spokesperson for the brand. Over time, this threatens to disrupt the opportunity for everyone as audiences question the credibility not just of individual influencers, but of the whole medium.
2018
Key digital trends for 2018
Ogilvy
Is the influencers marketing boom sustainable?
Influencer marketing has become the industry’s hot go-to strategy – just take a look at the host of celebrities on your social media feeds encouraging you to visit this hotel and try that beauty product. Many brands have invested heavily, attracted by the opportunity to amplify their content and organically build new relationships. But is this buzzworthy trend all that it’s cracked up to be and, importantly, is it set to be a sustainable strategy for brands?
2018
Trends 18
GlobalWebIndex