Hybrid Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Evolving Security Needs: Predictions for 2024
January 12, 2024
Over the last year, we’ve seen just how important IT and mainframe modernization projects have been for navigating everything from economic uncertainty and heightened industry competition to improved operational efficiency. More and more businesses are recognizing just how much of an impact new technologies can have on the future of their organizations.
So, what’s in store for 2024?
From hybrid cloud to the explosion of AI to increasingly complex cybersecurity threats, this year will be nothing short of transformative. To get a sense of what we can expect, we caught up with some of Rocket Software’s leadership to see what their enterprise technology predictions are for 2024. Here are their takeaways:
We’ll Continue to See Companies Adopt Hybrid Cloud as Gen AI Matures
Phil Buckellew, President, Infrastructure Modernization: As we enter the new year, Phil fully expects to see more businesses significantly increase both their spending and overall strategic focus on hybrid cloud projects. Driven partly by the desire to avoid the complications that come with needing to rewrite or refactor core business applications, the move to a hybrid cloud approach will make it easier to modernize without sacrificing efficiency or causing serious disruption along the way. More companies will decide to push for hybrid now and wait while generative AI matures, which could make rewriting and refactoring apps much more cost-effective in the future.
Cyberattacks Are Growing More Complex, Making Proper Security Practices More Important than Ever
Cynthia Overby, Director Security, Customer Solutions Engineering: As technology advances and evolves, hackers are becoming much more sophisticated in their approach to attacking IT infrastructure. As a result, the attacks facing many businesses are quickly becoming far more targeted at some of the weakest points in an organization. Now, hackers and bad actors are putting their efforts into very specific pieces of infrastructure, particularly where critically sensitive data can be found. Moving forward, effective security will require organizations to build out a business-specific approach to managing cybersecurity, leaving behind the more generic solutions of the past. These new strategies will need to be customized based on their data sharing, cloud strategy, mainframe infrastructure, and overall risk appetite.
The Rise of AI Will Drive a Need for Deeper Tech Capabilities to Support its Use
Puneet Kohli, President of Application Modernization: Across organizations, leadership and the C-suite are increasingly invested in the potential for artificial intelligence to help scale their businesses. As that mindset and the momentum generated from AI continue to take hold, we’ll begin to see the technology stacks within these businesses scale and evolve along with that AI. We’ll see things like NoSQL databases, data management, and data security all start to become key disruptors in the industry moving forward. Likewise, the addition of AI will also play an important role in improving security as threats continue to evolve. As businesses embrace AI, so too will bad actors, and new threats from AI-enabled attacks and ML/LLM based models will create a trend towards enhanced security postures and remediations.
Artificial Intelligence is Redefining the Way We Think About Unstructured Data
Michael Curry, President of Data Modernization: Among the benefits that come with AI, the technology has proven highly effective at taking in unstructured data and generating meaningful insights. AI plays a crucial role in dealing with unstructured data, utilizing algorithms to pull insights and turn disparate data into actionable information. The transformative power of these AI tools manifests in their ability to comprehend and summarize information deeply, presenting concise yet comprehensive overviews for the user. That means even the most complex data, like HR, contract, or policy information, can be broken down and understood by business users without needing the expertise of any particular team.
With a new year well underway, new technologies and strategic approaches are poised to reshape the way nearly every business operates. Learn more about how Rocket Software solutions can help businesses hit the ground running this year and drive modernization without disruption.
