With the start of the New Year, Cisco has revealed the technology trends that are expected to make a significant impact in 2022 and beyond.

Commenting on the trends and predictions, Osama Al-Zoubi, CTO, Cisco Middle East and Africa, said “Technology is always evolving and moving in exciting new directions. In a time of fast-paced digitization, we identified a range of trends and innovations our customers can expect to see over the next years.”

Prediction: Ethical, responsible, and explainable AI - from design and development to deployment - will become a top priority for organizations and governments worldwide if we are genuinely interested in an inclusive future for all

The extreme quantity of data being generated has already exceeded human scale but still needs to be processed "intelligently" and, in some cases, in near real-time. This scenario is where machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) will come into their own.  The challenge is that data has ownership, sovereignty, privacy, and compliance issues associated with it. And if the AI being used to produce instant insights has inherent biases built-in, then these insights are inherently flawed.

This leads to the need for ethical, responsible, and explainable AI. The AI needs to be transparent, so everyone using the system understands how the insights have been produced. Transparency must be present in all aspects of the AI lifecycle – its design, development, and deployment.

Prediction: Data deluge, data gravity, and the need for predictive insights will propel the Edge towards whole new application development and experience paradigms

Modern enterprises are defined by the business applications they create, connect to and use. In effect, applications, whether they are servicing end-users or are business-to-business focused or even machine-to-machine connections, will become the boundary of the enterprise.

The business interactions that happen across different types of applications will create an ever-expanding deluge of data. Every aspect of every interaction will generate additional data to provide predictive insights. With predictive insights, the data will likely gravitate to a central data store for some use cases. However, other use cases will require pre-processing of some data at the Edge, including machine learning and other capabilities.

Prediction: The future of innovation and business is tied to unlocking the power of data in an application-driven world

Beyond enabling contextual business insights to be generated from the data, teams will be able to better automate many complex actions, ultimately getting to automated self-healing. To achieve this future state, applications must be created with an automated, observable, and API (Application Programming Interface)-first mindset with seamless security embedded from development to run-time. Organizations will have the ability to identify, inspect, and manage APIs regardless of provider or source.

Prediction: Only through the delivery of predictive and seamless Internet access will the metaverse be realized, and access to technology and innovation become ubiquitous

There is no doubt that the trend for untethered connectivity and communications will continue. The sheer convenience of using devices wirelessly is obvious to everyone, whether nomadic or mobile.

This always-on internet connectivity will further help alleviate social and economic disparity through more equitable access to the modern economy, especially in non-metropolitan areas, helping create jobs for everyone. But this also means that if wireless connectivity is lost or interrupted, activities must not come to a grinding halt. The future needs ubiquitous, reliable, always-on internet connectivity at low price points.  A future that includes seamless internet services requires the heterogeneity of access – meaning AI-augmented and seamless connectivity between every cellular and Wi-Fi generation and the upcoming LEO satellite constellations and beyond.

Prediction: Quantum computing, communications, and security will power a faster, more secure future

Quantum computing and security will interconnect very differently than classical communications networks, which stream bits and bytes to provide voice and data information. Quantum technology is fundamentally based on an unexplained phenomenon in quantum physics - the entanglement between particles that enables them to share states. In the case of quantum networking, this phenomenon can be used to share or transmit information. The prospect of joining sets of smaller quantum computers together to make a very large quantum computer is enticing.

Quantum networking could enable a new type of secure connection between digital devices, making them impenetrable to hacks. As this type of fool proof security becomes achievable with quantum networking, it could lead to better fraud protection for transactions. In addition, this higher quality of secure connectivity may also be able to protect voice and data communications from any interference or snooping. All of these possibilities would re-shape the internet we know and use today.