The word “Technology” brings about a notion of change and it is for the right reasons! Technology is primarily change. We have heard about the phrase “change is the only constant”, it is particularly true when we talk about technology.
It is no secret that the technology we were using a while ago have become ancient history as the change is at such a rapid pace. Even true looking back at the tech we used to use a couple of years ago which have now become so drastically different.
One thing that is true about the IT space is that one has to constantly keep updating and upgrading one’s skill to stay relevant. If you don’t update yourself, you are pretty much outdated.
One of the best courses of action would be doing a Data science course or getting a Python certification done. With so many in-demand tech skills like these in the market today, it can be pretty daunting to pick one up and master it.
To help alleviate this issue and to make things a little easier, we have compiled a list of all the top technology trends that you can get into this 2021.
So, let’s get right into it!
Python
We have all heard of Python at one point or the other. Its fame is largely credited to its ever-growing user-base and a vibrant active community.
We have also seen a large number of corporate and tech giants like Facebook, Google and Dropbox actively adopting Python in many of their fields.
The use of python is not only limited to Software engineers but Data Scientists, accountants, mathematicians, network engineers and a host of other professions as well.
Although Python has been around for almost 20 years it has only now risen to popularity as its high-level design, cross platform compatibility and a wide array of libraries and tools have made it mainstream.
Its ease of use, simplicity of syntax coupled with other use like its application in fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Automation and Natural language processing have made it a must learn technology for anyone aiming to learn a new language.
Data Science
“Big data” is a keyword we have all been hearing every now and then. Every organization generates a huge amount of data and are actively involved in trying to use it to their advantage to better their business prospects and ambitions.
Data Science is more of an umbrella term that is used to describe all aspects of generating, storing and analyzing the data of an organization. So, who exactly is a data scientist and what do they do?
A data scientist is one who can take huge amount of data, analyze it and make conclusions from it to further the business objectives of the organization.
It is not only in the field of IT that Data science has made a splash in, fields that are pivotal on data crunching such as banking, automotive, Finance and healthcare also hugely depend on data scientists.
The demand for data scientists and engineers has gone up nearly three-fold in the last couple of years and is only expected to go further up in the years to come with many mainstream corporates and organizations moving along this path. Getting oneself certified would be a huge advantage in your career prospects.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning:
What was considered as a controversial topic back in the day has made a positive comeback into the industry by establishing itself as a full-fledged sector?
We have seen tech giants like Google and Facebook subtly using it to filter content, Uber, and Ola to facilitate and manage their surge pricing.
We have seen a wide scale adoption primarily in the fields of Security, face recognition and biometrics and even healthcare. Artificial intelligence and machine learning go hand in hand as one enables the other.
As personal assistants like Google assistant, Siri, Cortana and Alexa have taken center stage on the way we interact with our devices and there has been a huge demand to further optimize and employ AI and machine learning on a much deeper level in them.
The invention of AI bots like Sophia has further peaked the public interest in AI. Getting trained in either ML or AI can open up a plethora of opportunities today!
Blockchain
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have been making headlines in the recent past with much of its fame credited to the booming value of bitcoins.
So, what does blockchain have to do with this? To begin with, Blockchain is the backend or the infrastructure for cryptocurrencies.
It can be considered as a proper solution for the trust issue. In other words, it is the architecture behind trustless trust which is essentially letting us trust the output without having to trust the participants within the system.
It is a trusted, shared public ledger of all the transactions taking place in the system where everyone can view it. It is an ever-growing database of all this information.
It boasts about its transparency, security and scalability. Therefore, it is only natural that banking and financial sectors too have taken to it like moth to a flame.
Even Real estate markets have started to use it to hold escrow accounts and so on. The already booming industry is only expected to grow larger in the coming years.
Internet of Things (IOT)
Nothing has ever been the same since the internet came along. It is especially true when we talk about communication as it has aided in bringing people a lot closer and a lot faster. Now IOT is the ability to use the internet to enable communication between real time systems with each other.
The aim of IOT is to primarily blur the lines and bridge the gap between the digital and physical world. We can already see the changes IOT is making to our lives in the everyday things we do.
It has taken center stage in the fields of home automation, wearables, connected cars, retail outlets and even in healthcare and its associated fields.
The future of IOT and connected devices seem bright as the adoption rate of these devices are skyrocketing. IOT will definitely bring a macro shift in the way we see and experience work and life.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
What exactly is AR and VR? They’ve been in the market for a while but have not seen any traction like it has in the recent.
We have seen VR primarily for gaming, although it has been taking strides in developing simulators for the US Navy and Flight simulators to train new pilots.
Augmented reality on the other hand is pretty similar except for the fact that it augments our reality with that of the application. One popular area we have seen this is in the infamous game, Pokémon Go!
Both of these coupled together has great potential as it can be used to train professionals including doctors on critical tasks. It is one area where the need for software developers are on par with the need for hardware engineers.
Some of the major players in this market are Google and Oculus with a lot more startups and individuals taking an interest and diving into it. The market though in its infancy is projected to grow at a drastic pace in the coming years.
You can start experimenting on VR with the opensource WEBVR framework and other commercial grade ones like Unity and UNREAL Engine.
Cloud Computing
Louis Columbus, a contributor for Forbes stated” 78% of small businesses within the U.S. are expected to be using the cloud by 2020”. Cloud has been all the rage as more and more organizations are giving up local repositories and are migrating to the cloud.
Cloud has way more benefits in terms of storage and processing speeds with a minimal downtime that is pretty much music to the ears for any organization. This drastic and large shift onto the cloud has greatly increased the need for Cloud Developers and architects alike.
The cloud has helped migrate applications that typically run on a local system to the cloud that tends to reduce the stress on the local system while also providing a remote data center and a cost effective alternative.
With tools like Amazon’s AWS, Window’s Azure and Google’s own G Cloud offering cost effective solutions it is predicted to be a booming trend in the foreseeable future. Getting certified in the Cloud can indeed be a worthwhile investment.
Cyber Security
Cyber Security has never been more important than it is today. As more and more of the world gets digitized and more information finds its way online there has risen a very serious need to protect this information.
This is exactly what a cyber security expert does. The growing number of leaks and hacks on vital and critical systems have increased the demand for trained cyber security professionals.
Cyber security although considered as a highly challenging job, reaps a lot of perks and professional growth especially in government and intelligence organizations. Getting trained in tools such as OpenVAS, Snort and OpenSSH to name a few would drive you towards a promising career in Cyber Security.
RPA
Robotic process automation or RPA in short is a technology that aims to automate mundane and repeated tasks. Tasks that tend to be repetitive and rule based can easily be automated with the help of simple programming.
This is fundamentally done to mimic human tasks such as logging in, analyzing, processing and then logging out. It is basically an overlay on the existing infrastructure thus preventing any disruption to the system.
As bots can do the work all year round, this frees up a lot of the precious time and manpower that can be used to perform more critical tasks.
The features such as faster processing, high error avoidance and a 24×7 work time has pushed RPA into the spotlight. Trends have noted a steady increase in the demand for RPA engineers and developers since the early 2000’s and is not expected to slow down.
DevOps
As the words state it is the practice of developers and the operations team working hand in hand. This technique helps provide much more frequent and stable rollouts.
This is fundamentally what DevOps is. These engineers are involved in all parts of the software development which gives them an unprecedented advantage over the others as they are aware of the system as a whole.
Some common tools that have been employed with a high success rate are GIT, Jenkins, and Docker. They have a proven track record of providing faster releases and fewer failures and thereby yielding greater productivity.
With technology constantly changing and there being a rise in the availability of quality training you are one step away from being certified and hitting a bright professional career with one of these technologies!
Author Bio: Vaishnavi Agrawal loves pursuing excellence through writing and has a passion for technology. She has successfully managed and runs personal technology magazines and websites. She currently writes for intellipaat.com, a global training company that provides e-learning and professional certification training.
She is based out of Bangalore and has an experience of 5 years in the field of content writing and blogging. Her work has been published on various sites related to Data Science, Hadoop, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Project Management, Cloud Computing, IT, SAP and more.
