The Top Tech Trends for 2022

The Top Tech Trends for 2022, as predicted by our Managing Director, Steve Brehaut. 

My tech predictions for 2022 are based on the trends we have seen reaching the mainstream over the past few years. Of course, 2021 was full of surprises. I certainly hadn’t foreseen that the richest man in the world would travel to space and back just because he could, and I also wasn’t expecting another Christmas spent dodging Covid at every turn. But there were some developments, such as the progression in crypto-currency and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), cloud acceleration and the continued increase in cyber-attacks, that came as no surprise. 

We all know that the pandemic has accelerated some massive technological advancements, such as the newfound reliance on the cloud since working from home. Had homeworking not become essential, many businesses would still be using on-premise hosting, which has many drawbacks. At Resolution IT, we are a cloud-first business and have believed in this technology since the beginning. As such, there was no real ‘transition’ period for us, but the opportunity to support other local businesses with their progression onto the cloud was a welcome task. The pandemic triggered a technological shift that has sent waves throughout every industry. 

Sustainability

A key area that has been a hot topic throughout 2021, is sustainability. In particular, with the increase in digital currency and NFTs, the sustainability of running and maintaining such enormous servers has come into question. Some reports have even suggested that the CO2 released from mining of Bitcoin alone will be responsible for a 2-degree temperature rise by 2050, which is a staggering reminder that our increased transition to the ‘metaverse’ is not without consequence. 

Big companies can no longer ignore the pressing issue of protecting our planet and it’s now common to see businesses being held accountable for their disregard of the environment. I predict that in 2022, many big tech companies will have to disclose environmental impact reports and be forthcoming in their plans to offset the carbon emissions produced by the production and use of their product. In 2019 we saw Amazon face criticism from Greenpeace for vague promises to pledge net-zero carbon by 2040, without publishing a realistic plan for meeting this goal. It’s no longer enough to claim that your company ‘plan to’ reduce emissions by some distant future year – companies are going to have to start providing the evidence. As a business, we are consistently leveraging new ideas and plans to reduce and offset our own carbon emissions. Our investment in electric vehicles for our staff, becoming primarily paper-free, local conservation work and alternative transport challenges are just some of the ways we are working to support our environment – and 2022 will see our biggest sustainability drive yet.  

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more commonplace and it’s no longer an unfamiliar concept to us. At Resolution IT, we use a key endpoint protection tool that uses AI technology to take action against cyber-attacks in real-time, with higher accuracy, speed and scale than humanly possible. This is vital with the increasing occurrence of ransomware attacks. I imagine that this year, similar technology will be put in place for many of the services we run manually today. I expect sophisticated AI will soon become readily available to the everyday user. 

Passwordless Alternatives

We’ve seen a lot of development within authentication processes, from Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to fingerprint and face recognition software. Microsoft were one of the first companies to give their users the option to completely remove the password from their account, first releasing Windows Hello in 2015 which has gained significant traction over the past year or so. By allowing you to login using authentication apps, face-recognition software, verification codes sent to your phone, or a security key, the password itself becomes obsolete, negating the risk of a hacker using it to gain access to sensitive information. It will come as no surprise to me if 2022 sees a vast increase in passwordless alternatives across all our favourite apps and systems. 

I feel optimistic for the year to come at Resolution IT – I think we have all learned a lot from 2021 and the challenges we have faced have made us more resilient both as a company and a community.