Trends Identified

Cloud to the Edge
Edge computing describes a computing topology in which information processing and content collection and delivery are placed closer to the sources and sinks of this information. Edge computing draws from the concepts of mesh networking and distributed processing. It tries to keep the traffic and processing local, with the goal being to reduce traffic and latency. As such, the notion of edge content delivery has existed for many years. The "where to process the data" pendulum has swung between highly centralized approaches (such as a mainframe or a centralized cloud service) and more decentralized approaches (such as PCs and mobile devices). Connectivity and latency challenges, bandwidth constraints and greater functionality embedded at the edge favor distributed deployment models. The advantages of processing power and low costs of operating at hyperscale, coupled with the complexity of managing and coordinating thousands of geographically separated endpoints, favor the centralized model.
2017
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018
Gartner
Conversational Platforms
Conversational platforms will drive the next big paradigm shift in how humans interact with the digital world. They will shift the model from technology-literate people to people-literate technology. The burden of translating intent will move from the user to the computer. The system takes a question or command from the user in natural language. It responds by executing a function, presenting content or asking for additional input.
2017
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018
Gartner
Immersive Experience
While conversational platforms are changing the way in which people interact with the digital world, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) are changing the way in which people perceive the digital world. This combined shift in perception and interaction models leads to the future immersive user experience.
2017
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018
Gartner
Blockchain
Blockchain is evolving from a digital currency infrastructure into a platform for digital transformation. Blockchain and other distributed-ledger technologies provide trust in untrusted environments, eliminating the need for a trusted central authority.
2017
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018
Gartner
Event-Driven Model
Business is always sensing, and ready to exploit, new digital business moments (see "Business Events, Business Moments and Event Thinking in Digital Business" (/doc/code/338380?ref=ddisp) ). This is central to digital business. Business events reflect the discovery of notable states or state changes, such as the completion of a purchase order. Some business events, or combinations of events, constitute business moments — detected situations that call for specific business actions. The most significant business moments have implications for multiple parties (for example, separate applications, lines of business or partners).
2017
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018
Gartner
Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust
The intelligent digital mesh and related digital technology platforms and application architectures create an ever-more-complex world for security. 20 The continuing evolution of the "hacker industry" and its use of increasingly sophisticated tools — including the same advanced technologies available to enterprises — significantly raise the threat potential. Relying on perimeter defense and static rule-based security is inadequate and outdated. This is especially so as organizations exploit more mobile devices, cloud-based services, and open APIs for customers and partners to create business ecosystems.
2017
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018
Gartner
AI for Molecular Design - Machine-learning algorithms are speeding up the search for novel drugs and materials
Want to design a new material for solar energy, a drug to fight cancer or a compound that stops a virus from attacking a crop? First, you must tackle two challenges: finding the right chemical structure for the substance and determining which chemical reactions will link up the right atoms into the desired molecules or combinations of molecules. Traditionally answers have come from sophisticated guesswork aided by serendipity. The process is extremely time-consuming and involves many failed attempts. A synthesis plan, for instance, can have hundreds of individual steps, many of which will produce undesired side reactions or by-products or simply not work at all. Now, though, artificial intelligence is starting to increase the efficiency of both design and synthesis, making the enterprise faster, easier and cheaper while reducing chemical waste. In AI, machine-learning algorithms analyze all known past experiments that have attempted to discover and synthesize the substances of interest—those that worked and, importantly, those that failed. Based on the patterns they discern, the algorithms predict the structures of potentially useful new molecules and possible ways of manufacturing them. No single machine-learning tool can do all this at the push of a button, but AI technologies are moving rapidly into the real-world design of drug molecules and materials.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
AI That Can Argue and Instruct - New algorithms will enable personal devices to learn any topic well enough to debate it
Today’s digital assistants can sometimes fool you into believing they are human, but vastly more capable digital helpers are on their way. Behind the scenes, Siri, Alexa and their ilk use sophisticated speech-recognition software to figure out what you are requesting and how to provide it, and they generate natural-sounding speech to deliver scripted answers matched to your questions. Such systems must first be “trained”—exposed to many, many examples of the kinds of requests humans are likely to make—and the appropriate responses must be written by humans and organized into highly structured data formats.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American
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
Lab-Grown Meat - Meat produced without killing animals is heading to your dinner table
Imagine biting into a juicy beef burger that was produced without killing animals. Meat grown in a laboratory from cultured cells is turning that vision into a reality. Several start-ups are developing lab-grown beef, pork, poultry and seafood—among them Mosa Meat, Memphis Meats, SuperMeat and Finless Foods. And the field is attracting millions in funding. In 2017, for instance, Memphis Meats took in $17 million from sources that included Bill Gates and agricultural company Cargill.
2018
Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2018
Scientific American