2020 was a challenging year for hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but for many, it would have been an infinitely worse one but for the power of technology.
This enabled large elements of the workforce to work form home, helped people keep in touch with family, friends and loved one, and provided entertainment to relieve the loneliness and stress of lockdown.
For example, online casinos have boomed during the pandemic, thanks to a range of innovative technological innovations. For those interested in exploring more the free spins casinos listed here all have benefited from the investments they made in technology before anybody knew the term Covid-19.
And 2021 will be no different, with technology expected to integrate more deeply than even into the fabric of human life.
Canvassing a sample of experts, here are just a few predictions for tech in 2021.
Increased Digitisation
Thew global pandemic made working from home the new norm, whilst, at the same time, it forced many businesses, many of which would needed have seen the need before, to develop an online presence in order to survive. The result was a proliferation of apps and a soar in the number of online payments.
This trend is set to continue, even if vaccine roll-out programmes allow for some sort of return to normal life by the end of the year. The digital genie is well and truly out of the bottle now, and cannot eb forced back into it again.
Deeper Integration of Cloud Services
Cloud Services such as the hosting of Zoom calls or the sharing on online documents helped make working from home a viable option for many last year. Industry experts though are predicting that such services will become more deeply integrated with the IT infrastructure of companies, promising new business models, greater human interactive experiences, improved efficiencies, and lower costs.
5G Roll-Out
5G is beginning to be rolled-out globally, although its possibilities have yet to be fully explored. Nevertheless, more devices will become connected to it, which poses its own challenges That is because. If the content generated from mobile devices needs to be stored it will have to cross through multiple networks, potentially leading to bottlenecks.
One way to address this problem is through the use of edge technologies such as Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) which essentially bring the content closer to the user.
Cybersecurity
Whilst many will head back to their offices once the pandemic is over, that will take time to happen, and, for others, now they have discovered the benefits of working remotely, they will eb reluctant to return to the old ways of doing things.
That means that companies will not even need to invest in more and better devices for their employees, but they will need to pay greater heed to online security. The threat posed to business operations by cyber criminals will need to become far more top of mind for company executives.
Blockchain expansion
Whilst once thought only as the technology behind Bitcoin, the concept of blockchain as a peer-to-peer distributed ledger system capable of supporting transactions of any kind is starting to have application well beyond the remit of digital currencies.
More and more industries are likely to adopt its precepts in 2021 as it becomes better understood and its potential begins to be realised.
