Information Technology (IT) trends distance MBA should care about

Information technology (IT) is being embraced by every industry. With digital transformation on the agenda, companies are using information technology to create strategic advantage. Obviously, every manager would have to be aware of information technology usage in his/her core domain. Hence it is important for students of distance MBA to track future trends in IT.

Gartner, the technology research firm, calls the future as intelligent digital mesh. It has three important word: intelligent, digital and mesh. Gartner says that the future devices and technologies would be intelligent (or powered by artificial intelligence). They blend physical and digital world together and more importantly all of these devices and services would be connected to each other and to people and businesses to create a mesh. Here are key technologies which will impact our future.

Augmented Data Analytics and Citizen Data Scientists

Data analytics or machine learning are rapidly being adopted by all kinds of industries. Demand for data scientist is on the rise. Availability of expert data scientist is an issue. Today, there is so much data available to analyze that the task of preparation, analysis and drawing conclusion is being automated. This is called augmented analytics.

With augmented analytics tools it is possible to create predictive models. This may not require skills of expert data scientists. Someone who builds the predictive models using these tools is called as Citizen Data Scientist, a term coined by Gartner.

By 2020, more than 40% of data science tasks will be automated – Gartner

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computers systems created to behave or take decisions like humans. Rather AI performs tasks like pattern recognition, image recognition or speech recognition faster and more accurately then humans.

Organizations are trying to incorporate use Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine learning(ML) capabilities in their software and services. The AI-powered software tools have started expanding their user based from data scientists to professional developers. We have AI infrastructure, AI frameworks and AI platforms.

The AI-powered platforms are getting designed in such a way that the developers will be able to use them easily. They would not need help of expert data scientist for embedding these AI capabilities in their products under development.

Developers can use predefined models which are delivered as a service. This enables more developers to utilize the services.

Empowered Edge Computing

Edge computing is a topology which pushes the processing power to the locations of end user. This means content collection, content processing and content delivery is placed near the source of information. Edge computing indicates that in case of Internet of Things (IoT), there would be more processing power and intelligence at the level of sensors or embedded devices. This is exactly opposite of cloud computing where data and power are centralized.
In few years, number of intelligent devices on ‘edge’ would grow more than number of cellphones. Latency and load would warrant a distributed computing mechanism with more intelligent edge devices.

Block Chain

When a money transaction is to be done between two parties, there is a trusted middleman called bank that comes into the picture. However, with blockchain no middleman is required and both the parties can transact directly. Blockchain uses its technology to create the trust element. It uses cryptography and records all the transactions in a distributed digital ledger in a chronological way. Chances of fraud are less in case of blockchain as every transaction is recorded on distributed public ledger.

Block chain is an underlying technology for Bitcoin, the crypto currency. Beyond Bitcoin, this technology has found many applications in banks, healthcare, smart contracts, property records etc.

Ethereum, Ripple, Quorum, Hyperledger Sawtooth, Hyperledger Fabric are some of the popular names using which one can build blockchain applications.

Robotic Process Automation or RPA

Robotic process automation(RPA) is an emerging technology practice to automate business processes. With RPA businesses can automate their regular repetitive processes which are based on rules. This would enable the business users to focus on more important tasks. CIOs favour this as it has promise to reduce cost of operations.

There are many popular RPA tools like Blue Prism, Inflectra Rapise, UiPath, Automation Anywhere etc.

Cyber Security

Cyber incidents is one the top risks of 2019, according to Allianz Risk Barometer report. Incidents, such as cyber crime, privacy breaches, Business Interruption (including ransom ware, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, advanced persistent threats or APT) can trigger extensive losses. This year, average insured loss from a cyber incident is now in excess of $2.3mn.

Methods of cyber threats are constantly evolving and their frequency is also increasing. So cyber security is a growing concern for all. This creates a lot of business opportunities for security products, platforms and solutions. Now-a-days AI, machine learning and big data is actively used in information security domain to build more effective threat intelligence solutions.

Data privacy and data protection are becoming very important issues. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is one of such legislation which defines a framework on how to operate on the personal data. It also defines heavy fines in case of non-compliance. With such regulations companies have to rapidly adopt to multiple international regulations. However this is welcome move for vendors in data security, privacy and risk management.

What is critical for distance MBA in Information Technology?

Information technology MBA program combines management skills with advanced technology. Many a times the students who have graduated in computer science pursue MBA in information technology. MBA program teaches them management skills which are helpful for them to climb up the ladder easily.

There are students who are from other disciplines like Commerce, Mechanical engineering etc. who can develop better understanding of information technology with distance MBA. This opens up opportunities not only in their core discipline but in IT companies too.