We are in the last quarter of 2017 and we could definitely say it's been an eventful year for IT industry. We have witnessed companies going digital and taking data-driven business decisions. But every good comes with bad, 2017 will also be remembered as the year of high profile breaches and malicious attacks- the era of smart Hackers, polymorphic threats and unique malware variants.

With a strong understanding of the Indian IT market dynamics, Gurpreet Singh, Managing Director at Arrow PC Network has listed top four trends that will drive the IT industry in the upcoming year - 2018

King of IT industry is and will be - "Data" (Focus on Data-Driven Business)                                                                       

For the past few years, becoming more data-driven has been a key focus for many businesses in India. In 2018, we're going to yet again see another increase in the volume, velocity, and variety of data. Data was and is an essential ingredient in business success across all functional areas. To turn the companies' insights into enhanced performance and greater productivity, one must aware of how to use data in decision making. Data-driven decisions provide a great way to engage customers in a timelier, relevant fashion and transforming overall relationship by fulfilling their ever-evolving demands.

Generating new ways to secure valuable asset - "Data" (Focus on Artificial Intelligence)

Today, data is overflowing and security skill sets are scarce. The industry will continue to look for new kinds of skills in the upcoming year as cyber security evolves in areas such as data classes and data governance. Today security experts have not given much of their attention towards data security and is avoided the fact that in the next three to five years, enterprises will generate more data than they ever have before. Being adaptive in nature and equipping self with new skills will be the key to the next phase of cyber security. Undoubtedly, the rapid changes in cyber security will definitely require new types of skill sets in data science and analytics.  The increase in information will make artificial security intelligence crucial for enterprises in 2018.

Increase in the adoption of Digital Workspaces

Keeping the 2017 trend alive, we will see that in upcoming year also employees will not be limited to just "usual workday" and a cubicle in an office.  Complete digital workspaces will continue to be an integral part of organizations that want to accommodate mobile workers, drive competitive edge and provide better customer service. Basically, going digital will help in faster response to customers and vendors, better use of "downtime," and responsiveness outside of business hours. Companies do understand that for IT, empowering customers with a true digital workspace solution means equipping their employees with a portable, always available environment consisting of their desktop, personalized with all of their apps and their data.

Adding business value with Software-Defined Everything (SDE)

Why SDE?

With digital innovation and engagement, the IT arena is moving towards a software-defined future. But, to get a complete alignment across all aspects of the software-defined data center, storage or networking, it is going to take a while to mature.

We are in the digital era where business, people and process all are driven by information. Data can be stored anywhere, in any system across the organization. Storing is easy, but accessing the data at the time of need has given birth to the concept of SDE for seamless computing and management across the globe.

In 2018 companies will keep moving towards software-defined everything as the benefits are compelling. The main characteristics of software-defined include greater automation, faster provisioning of IT resources, decreased hardware costs, faster implementation, and more efficient use of storage, networking and computing.