Seven key tech trends for 2023

2023 will be a year where the only thing we can all be certain about is uncertainty. And we can expect more than the world has seen in years. Move over VUCA (volatile, unstable, challenging and ambiguous), we are entering a new, BANI era, with an economic environment that’s brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible. Conditions today aren’t just unstable; they are chaotic and completely unpredictable. Any ambiguity present has escalated and in many industry sectors, the landscape is completely incomprehensible.

This macro environment will create an IT landscape in which we are anticipating seven core tech trends to emerge in 2023, ranging from cybersecurity, hybrid cloud and consolidation, to resource utilisation, guaranteed SLAs and green IT. This article explores each one in turn, offering a glimpse into what’s in store over the next 12 months.

#1: Cybersecurity will surge in 2023 in a new wave to safeguard enterprises

Cybersecurity is paramount across all areas of an enterprise IT infrastructure, including enterprise storage, servers, and networking applications. Cybersecurity continues to be a huge trend because many enterprises have not yet filled all their gaps on the security front and the pace of cyberattacks continues to increase exponentially. Global laws around cybersecurity are changing rapidly, so we will see the implications of tighter measures and more stringent reporting requirements in 2023. This trend is focused on what is being done to ensure security, addressing attack vectors perpetrated by criminals and other entities. Cybersecurity is not just about crime; it's an overarching vehicle for everything from crime to attacks. It's a critical factor across everything to do with data-driven enterprise infrastructure.

Security must be built into every enterprise storage platform to ensure true cyber storage resilience. This will enable enterprises, managed service providers, cloud hosting providers and managed hosting providers to safeguard against ransomware, malware and other cyberattacks. Storage solutions need the ability to deliver rapid recovery based on immutable snapshots of an enterprise’s data, ensuring that data is intact and uncompromised. If this is in place, it will eliminate the need to pay the “ransom” and removes the power of cyber criminals to wreak havoc on organisations. Savvy customers should look for vendors offering guaranteed cyber storage resilience service level agreements (SLA) around both immutability and cyber recovery times.

#2: Hybrid cloud will attract more interest among enterprises than the public cloud alone

Hybrid cloud, which is the combination of on-premises private clouds and public clouds (off-premises), is expected to continue to grow in popularity in 2023. What has happened is many companies are realising that having highly transactional workloads which are fully migrated to the cloud require the ultimate in cyber security and this presents many issues.  For example, either the applications do not get the SLAs from the public cloud providers they need in terms of availability, performance, security, or reliability, or it is much more expensive to go completely to the public cloud. 

When a company is doing large numbers of transactions, the networking fees alone skyrocket when an enterprise tries to go fully to the public cloud – without having any on-prem private cloud. Due to serious concerns about cost, performance, security and availability, many companies have realised they cannot move everything to the public cloud. Certain workloads, such as highly transactional workloads, should remain on-prem in an enterprise’s private cloud. The best practice that has emerged over the past few years − and is expected to continue in 2023 − is to determine workload by workload which is better, so enterprises need to have both on-prem private clouds and access to public clouds.

Look for vendors offering state-of-the-art on-prem solutions for both primary and secondary storage. Providers should also have in place partnerships with public cloud providers, such as AWS Outposts, to make the on-ramp from the private cloud to the public cloud seamless and smooth.

#3: An intense focus on IT costs will drive enterprises to make changes to their storage in 2023

Costs, costs, costs…in the data centre! Due to the tough global financial conditions, 2023 will see an even more intense focus on IT costs, particularly in enterprise infrastructure. The question for IT managers is: “Can I sweat the asset?” It’s a matter of determining whether keeping the IT asset, such as a storage array or server or networking gear, longer would hurt the business or not. Can the organisation live with it longer to cut capital expenditures, no matter what the infrastructure is? In the storage world, you could sweat the assets if you want to, but it is usually a false economy. Instead, by consolidating multiple storage arrays − just as IT teams consolidate existing servers with more powerful servers – you can dramatically reduce CAPEX, OPEX, and IT operational resources in significant ways.

Through consolidating dozens of storage arrays into only a few advanced systems, cost conscious organisations can achieve a positive ROI and long-term savings. At the same time. storage capacity, retrieval speeds and cyber storage resilience can be improved. For even greater economy look for vendors offering flexible consumption models, including FLX (Storage-as-a-Service) and Elastic Pricing (Capacity on Demand), to manage costs most efficiently.

#4: Resource utilisation and hiring will focus on value-add IT work, delegating routine tasks to self-managing technologies

Enterprises will carefully, and cautiously, examine their IT resource utilization and hiring in 2023, asking questions such as: “Can I hire people to do the jobs? What jobs do they do? How do I get enough IT people to do their functions?” Hiring priorities will focus on IT jobs that add value through human intervention to improve business outcomes. This means storage needs to be easy to manage and deliver a set-it-and-forget-it experience. In 2023 and beyond, storage will need to take care of itself and any technology that enables this function will be critical. The implications of having self-managing storage with autonomous automation include: refocus L&D budgets onto higher-level tasks, increased cost-efficiency, reduced risk of mistakes, and more flexibility in hiring in a job market with high competition for IT talent.

By switching to software defined storage technologies and storage systems that leverage software storage defined capabilities that utilise autonomous automation, the systems can automatically learn as new applications and servers are added. These intelligent platforms quickly learn about the applications and workloads and automatically configure to optimise performance, reliability, and availability for new applications. There is no need for performance tuning, which reduces the burden on companies to find more qualified professionals and train them. Instead, companies can focus their recruitment on other IT tasks requiring more specialised knowledge and ingenuity. 

#5: Green IT will add a new dimension to data centres and reduce their environmental impact 

The shift for data centres to go green is accelerating around the world. Data centres use enormous amounts of power and they require high levels of cooling, affecting the carbon footprint. The drive to reduce their environmental effects will expand significantly in 2023, especially as the explosive growth in data continues exponentially.

Technology systems, such as storage arrays, will need to be consolidated and expanded with larger capacity, yet with smaller footprints compared to legacy systems. IT managers will be proactively making moves to reduce energy usage, cooling, rack space, and floor space. It starts with consolidation and planning for a future of fewer storage arrays, which translates into less to recycle. Not only will it lower costs, but the environmental impact will be measurably better.

Organisations can make rapid progress in their attempts to go green in the data centre by consolidating storage arrays and purpose-built backup appliances (PBBA). Switching to large-capacity storage systems and PBBAs puts more data into smaller data centre footprints, freeing up rack space and floor space whilst reducing energy consumption. When companies use fewer storage arrays, they use less power and less cooling, resulting in both a green impact and substantial cost savings in CAPEX and OPEX, as well as a reduction in IT operational needs. In addition, having fewer storage systems translates into recycling fewer systems in the future, which is another benefit of a green initiative. It means recycling a lower amount of material and at a lower cost. In short, Green IT not only helps the global environment, but also reduces each customers’ CAPEX, OPEX, and manpower needs. Green IT equals cost savings.

#6: Demand for excellent customer experience will disrupt legacy storage implementations

Enterprises and service providers/hosting providers will expect a higher level of pro-active customer experience in 2023, both in terms of service & support and technical user experience. IT buyers will want “easier, faster and better” as the defining attributes of enterprise technology solutions in the new year. Easier, faster, better translate into time savings and cost savings. What usually takes 2 hours, they now want in 10 minutes, which provides an improved customer experience. IT buyers also expect higher levels of service & support, obtaining answers immediately from qualified professionals, with a preference for a “white glove service.”

Vendors need to be offering an outstanding level of service, with first-rate technical advisors, top-notch service and support, with solutions that are easy to deploy and that utilise autonomous automation. This means the storage platform can manage itself, getting smarter and better every minute of every day.

#7: Everything As a Service defines the new reality

There is no denying that “as a service” is of massive significance to IT leaders everywhere, with software-as-a-service, storage-as-a-service, networking-as-a-service to name just a few options. Importantly, this trend features flexible consumption models to provide ultimate adaptability – just what cash strapped enterprises will be looking for in 2023. The ‘as-a-service’ model offers the ability to pay as you go, for exactly what they need, with the flexibility to scale as and when required. In 2023, we can expect expanded adoption of ‘as-a-service’ offerings to make more enterprises much more adaptable and better able to manage costs and resources efficiently. This also includes storage-as-a-service, which promises to transform the way companies deploy and use storage in a world of escalating data usage.

2023 is shaping up to be a year of more uncertainty than the world has seen in years. To prepare for managing higher levels of risk, enterprises will collectively go to the next level of demanding guaranteed SLAs in IT infrastructure. Buyers should look for rock-solid guarantees on availability, cyber recovery and performance - and be prepared to walk away if vendors don't offer fully backed enterprise storage solutions.