Looking back on Technology in 2021

With 2021 coming to a close, we thought we would look back a couple of the biggest and most profound developments in the tech industry, as well as a few contributing factors that had maybe slipped under the radar. Throughout 2021, we have seen an incredibly drastic rate of change (which adheres quite respectably to Moore’s Law) as exponentially more businesses get to grips with appropriating cloud models, as deriving the delivery of data from the cloud to our personal devices becomes more integral to our daily lives. Furthermore, after the huge and unexpected disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, many companies have aimed to get back on course and, most importantly, build more flexibly for the future.

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Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has essentially become the backbone of the data-driven and app-based tech ecosystem, which has been fundamental in helping organisations manage such change. But in particular, while it has been noticed that the larger cloud providers such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon have been focusing on tailoring their services to provide an all-in-one package, there has been a call and demand in the tech industry for their infrastructure to support more multi-cloud access, platforms and capabilities. The premise being that if the majority of large-scale cloud service providers allow for cross-platform data sharing and computing, the user experience would be far more seamless across a broad range of services. Now an argument could made that this would likely go against many of the company’s long-term business models (as there would be a need to outdo their professional rivals) but there are certainly pros and cons to large cloud companies collaborating (more minds focused on the same goal) and further establishing their own cloud capacity and capabilities (some healthy competition could help induce innovation).

Artificial Intelligence

Naturally the sophistication and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown in leaps and bounds in 2021, with one of the key areas being in the handling and categorisation of big data. The day-to-day output of AI at work in our own lives can primarily be seen in the types of products and services advertised to each of us individually, as well as the feed of information and content targeted towards us on social media alongside anywhere else online. This is achieved by the concise and methodical compartmentalisation of accumulated data (gathered by sources such as our own daily online browsing, purchases, habits etc.) on different markets and trends. Hence why the feed of information our receive from online sources are tailored towards you.

These are just a brief look into how some key areas in technology and computing have grown over 2021, becoming far more intricate and polished than many would have imagined 5+ years ago. Which in turn provides and exciting and optimistic look ahead to what could happen in 2022 and further down the line.

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