Trends and Predictions for The Future of IT Hardware

After working in the IT and tech space for so many years, we are fascinated by how far the IT industry has come in the past few years. At The Server Group, it is vital for us to get ahead and keep up to date with the latest trends and predictions in IT. In this blog, we've listed out some major changes in the IT hardware space that you'll be keen to know. 

It's an exciting time for the IT world, so we want to help other businesses understand the predictions and current trends of the technology industry.

The world of IT and tech is changing fast. To stay competitive and relevant, you must be ready to invest in and embrace these changes. It will take less time to adapt if your business is well-prepared. 

Artificial Intelligence

How could we start this blog without talking about AI? By now, everyone has heard of AI. It has been on the news and our social media feeds; you've probably even heard talk of it around the office. Organisations are realising the value of artificial intelligence and automation, whether in their supply chain, product development process, or operations. 

When used right, AI helps companies predict and improve business outcomes by finding patterns in untapped data (structured and unstructured). This data and insight can help businesses identify new products and markets, optimise their pricing, improve forecasting accuracy, and more! Many businesses are also using AI on their manufacturing lines and in their infrastructure. This helps to enable automation and processes in real-time. 


 
Custom IT hardware can significantly enhance AI capabilities by providing optimised computing power and specialised hardware architectures. AI algorithms often require immense computational resources to process and analyse vast amounts of data. Custom hardware, such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) or Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), can accelerate AI workloads, enabling faster training and inference times. These specialised hardware solutions enable businesses to leverage AI's predictive power to identify patterns in data, improve decision-making, automate processes, and optimise various aspects of their operations.

An excellent example of AI can be machine vision. Robots with machine vision are able to navigate shop aisles by capturing inventory data about products on the shop's shelves. They can scan a product using radio frequency identification technology. This helps them read barcodes and avoid obstacles in crowded aisles of shoppers. Another example could be autonomous virus-killing robots. These robots are being used around hospitals to disinfect surfaces to help prevent health workers and patients avoid deadly pathogens.

Cloud Infrastructure

The cloud has revolutionised how organisations store, manage, and process data. Custom IT hardware plays a vital role in cloud infrastructure by providing the underlying infrastructure and resources needed for efficient data storage and processing.

Deployments were split into two categories in the early days of cloud, private and public. However, in business today, we can have the very best of both models with a hybrid cloud environment. 

With hybrid cloud environments, where organisations utilise a combination of public and private clouds, custom hardware allows seamless migration of applications and data between different cloud service providers. It enables organisations to choose the best cloud resources based on factors like cost, service-level agreements (SLAs), location, and specific workload requirements.

Information Security

Unfortunately, IT teams today are now facing very sophisticated and intelligent cybercriminals. These hackers are attacking more layers of the hardware-software stack, and there are a growing number of potential entry points for these people to target. Therefore, it's more important than ever for IT teams to make sure their information security is up to scratch.


 
It is very important our risk management and information security strategies are up to date, including ensuring protection at every point in the network and employing both hardware and software-based security technologies.

Custom IT hardware contributes to enhancing information security measures. By integrating hardware-based security technologies, organisations can fortify their systems against sophisticated cyberattacks. Custom hardware can provide secure enclaves, cryptographic accelerators, secure boot mechanisms, and hardware-based encryption, offering robust protection for sensitive data and mitigating potential vulnerabilities across the hardware-software stack.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is where devices and sensors communicate data in real time to a network. It helps solves latency issues that are associated with the cloud as data is processed closer to its point of origin. It has joined millions of new devices to the cloud and to each other. With the incorporation of edge computing, IoT has become very smart.

Custom IT hardware plays a crucial role in IoT and edge computing by enabling efficient data processing and analysis at the edge, closer to the point of data generation. Custom hardware solutions, such as edge servers or gateway devices, provide the necessary computing power and connectivity to process and filter IoT data in real-time. This reduces latency, optimises network bandwidth, and enables intelligent decision-making at the edge, improving the overall performance and responsiveness of IoT systems.

Advanced Analytics

There is a big, exciting change happening in the world of advanced analytics! Analytics is used to simply look at historical data to better understand something. However, now, some of the most exciting opportunities in data involve predictive analytics. Essentially solving issues before they even happen! 

Custom IT hardware supports the growing field of advanced analytics, which goes beyond traditional data analysis by incorporating predictive analytics. Advanced analytics leverages custom hardware solutions to handle complex computations required for predictive modelling. These hardware solutions can efficiently process diverse data types, including images, videos, audio, and sensor data from IoT devices. 


 
By harnessing the power of advanced analytics, businesses can gain valuable insights, detect patterns, and anticipate future events, enabling them to make informed decisions and take proactive measures to address potential issues before they arise.

Custom IT hardware is instrumental in enabling the advancement and optimisation of technologies such as AI, cloud infrastructure, information security, IoT, and advanced analytics. By leveraging custom hardware solutions tailored to specific requirements, organisations can unlock the full potential of these technologies, driving innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage in the digital era.
We hope you enjoyed reading about these major trends and predictions in the IT hardware industry. If you would like to stay up to date with the latest trends and news in the IT and technology space, please visit our blog or/and subscribe to our email list.