Cloud Technology Improvements

As one of the rare subsets of the software industry that actually flourished during the pandemic, Cloud-based technologies have cemented themselves as an integral part of almost all workflows. COVID 19 gave us insight into using Cloud for downscaling as well as upscaling as the demand for services dropped dramatically. A good example of this would be industries like tourism where they had to uphold and maintain very expensive data centers even though the demand for the industry fell to almost zero.

Analyst Forrester has predicted that the Cloud infrastructure market would grow to an amazing 120 Billion dollars in 2021. This paired with a 35% growth rate indicates a high demand for Cloud-native engineers as well.

AWS Will Have Stiffer Competition

Amazon Web Services leads the charge in public Cloud vendors with an amazing 32% market share. However, the competition is quickly closing in on Jeff Bezos’s behemoth. Microsoft saw a 48% annual growth with their cloud offering with a 19% market share. Google trails behind with a still-impressive 7% market share but hot on its heels is Alibaba with a 6% market share.

Experts believe that Amazon and Google will keep the first and second spots respectively but Alibaba will overtake Google for the third spot. The multi-cloud initiative will also gain more momentum in 2021. Even though Amazon was reluctant to join the initiative at the beginning, it has had to give in as its competitors saw incredible results by joining.

Python and JavaScript Hold Their Own

The programming language terrain has also seen a major shift in recent years. Heavyweight, clunky programming languages are being replaced by easier to use, more developer-friendly languages like Python and JavaScript. With thousands of newer developers entering the market rapidly, the demand for these languages will exponentially increase as well.

Python leads the charge in data science while JavaScript upholds its crown as the best language for web development. Older languages like Java and C++ are feeling the pressure but their demise is still far away. The many software types that these languages account for still necessitate their existence. Their creators recognize the shift to easier to understand languages however and are constantly sending out updates to improve the functionality and usefulness.

Quantum Computing for the Win

Every industry has breakthrough technologies that quite literally revolutionize the field and for the software industry, quantum computing seems to be heading in that direction. According to experts in the field, it has the potential to impact every sector.

Quantum computing promises to be miles ahead of even our most advanced supercomputers. The possibilities it will unlock are quite literally next level as we aren’t even aware of them. While we still have some years to go for this technology to hit the mainstream, 2021 will make significant strides.

In 2020 Honeywell claimed to have created the world’s most powerful quantum computer beating out Google. Just a few weeks ago, scientists from a university in China demonstrated how Quantum Computing could beat our most advanced supercomputer at particular tasks like Gaussian Boson Sampling. These are just some of the developments taking place in the field and with our brightest minds working around the clock to make the impossible a reality, 2021 will bring awe-inspiring Quantum computing breakthroughs.

Artificial Intelligence Gets Smarter

You knew it was coming. If quantum computing is the revolution of the future, Artificial intelligence (AI) is the revolution of today. 2020 saw many permutations of advanced AI become a reality and 2021 seems to continue that trend.

Natural language processing saw incredible breakthroughs with GPT-3. The OpenAI created software creates human-like text made possible through Deep Learning. It literally made headlines when this article was written entirely using GPT-3! This could mean that small articles or even programs can be managed entirely by AI.

Other advancements in 2021 will include a shift towards ethical AI and explainable AI and we may even see laws posed by governments to regulate the technology and to prevent its misuse.

Blockchain Improvements

Another disruptive technology making waves in the industry is Blockchain. The potential is incredible and although Cryptocurrency may have tarnished its reputation, the possibilities are still exciting.

Many people capitalized on the popularity of Bitcoin and created elaborate scams to cheat people looking to get rich quick. Governments have even started cracking down on such schemes to protect the general public.

This created a lot of animosity and mistrust in the Blockchain technology for obvious reasons. However, Blockchain offers far more than just digital currency transfers. Companies will start to use the technology to store records, manage supply chains, and ironically even prevent frauds. Experts forecast that Blockchain will be used more as a smart contract mechanism in 2021. To further cement its importance, China has even added Blockchain in its 50 trillion “New Infrastructure” plan.

We hope this article gave you better insight into the future of the software industry in 2021 and beyond.

Financing your Next Software Upgrade

If you’re interested in learning more about financing your next software upgrade through a third-party vendor, be sure to contact Dimension Funding to get a head start on your approval process.