Zebra's 2019 Insights: IoT is disrupting the enterprises

The 2018 saw another realm of technology overtaking the industry in all spheres, and for us at Zebra Technologies. Among the many new and exciting developments we have experienced at Zebra, we also came out with the fact that IoT investment is going up substantially, globally as well as in APAC region.

The year bygone has seen various significant developments and Zebra has now come out with its vision for the upcoming year and what it expects to bring out.

Below are the 3 key trends that Zebra is looking forward to -

1. Enterprises committed to embracing IoT will be the first movers in becoming fast growing, intelligent businesses

In today’s digital world where humans and technology-powered systems interact in more connected and intelligent ways, enterprises that strive to achieve future growth realize that it is critical to lead with digital innovation to keep up with the expectations of an increasingly discerning end user. Those who don’t move fast enough will be forced out of the market. Businesses have derived great value from emerging Internet of Things (IoT) strategies – serving as vehicles to fuel critical operations and drive efficiency. By 2020, there will be more than 20 billion devices connected to the IoT, according to research consultancy Gartner. Additionally, within that projection, they estimate more than 8 billion of those connected devices will be within the enterprise space – up from about 3 billion in 2017.

Emerging technologies that are developing rapidly -

· Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) is an interactive experience where the real, physical world is augmented by computer-generated information. Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated scenario that simulates real-world experiences. While most people think about AR or VR as consumer-centric technologies, both technologies will see increased usage in the enterprise space.

· 5th generation wireless systems (5G)

5G is a new wireless network technology that has immense potential to be maximized in the near future. 5G will be mission critical as more devices are connected and more data is being created and will help with mitigating latency challenges as the requirement for more compute power to process data in real-time at the edge continues to grow.

· Blockchain

Think of blockchain as a secure digital ledger. Digital information is loaded onto the ledger by trusted sources, to only then be used by trusted sources. Some early areas enterprises are focusing on to leverage blockchain is to solve problems around food safety, the fight against counterfeit goods and fraud, and smart contracts across the supply chain continuum.

2. Advanced automation driven by AI connects the physical and digital worlds in a more collaborative manner

Artificial intelligence (AI) is permeating into virtually everything in a data-rich environment, to deliver more adaptable, flexible, and autonomous systems. Enterprises are seeking to enhance their AI-powered capabilities to deliver a performance edge in a data-rich environment. This will bring more actionable intelligence to workers within their respective workflows and drive higher engagement and better experiences with customers.

3. Small Actionable Data - Integrated data solutions leverage enhanced analytics to offer real-time guidance

As the world becomes more complex and data-driven, businesses want better ways to navigate and automate these complexities without the expense of human capital. Successful enterprises of the future will rely on real-time data and insights into that data to run their businesses efficiently with a competitive edge. Enterprises have sought for years to obtain insights from “Big Data” - large amounts and volumes of data that businesses collect and store on a daily, sometimes instantaneous basis. But in 2019, priority will shift towards “small actionable data” accessible naturally within a workflow, where it is specific to a use case to solve a problem and achieve desired outcomes.