Patrick Hubbard, head geek and technical product marketing director at SolarWinds, recently discussed key themes that will emerge on the IT front in 2017. Smarter use of container technologies, a greater emphasis on security, and the continued shifting of IT roles, he says are some of the key trends that will take hold in the year ahead.
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Container technologies will be used more appropriately
Containers from the likes of Google, Docker, CoreOS, and Joyent will continue to be a key area of discussion in the cloud computing space, explained Hubbard. However, the broader industry awareness has led to a wave of rapid adoption without a fundamental understanding of the differences between containers and virtual machines. Hubbard predicts that in 2017, IT departments at large will finally come to a greater understanding of the fundamentals of container technology and how it can realistically and appropriately be used for IT operations alongside virtual infrastructure. “It’s gone from being a buzzword to something that is actually a thing,” Hubbard said. “We talked about cloud like this and now it’s a tool in our arsenal, and I think containers by the end of the year will be there,” he said. “For some workflows that enterprises have relied on virtualization for, you’ll start to see them meaningfully shipping workload into containers next year.”
Data breaches are on the rise and in 2017 security will get more attention
Hubbard predicts that in 2017, there will be exponential increases in both the volume and visibility of data breaches, particularly for large corporations. “We feel it can’t get any worse and every year there’s a prediction it will be bad. Every year, we far exceed the awfulness that was anticipated.” In 2017, more companies will also begin to appreciate the volume and severity of these attacks on data. To combat them, expect to see a new crop of information security firms enter the marketplace to provide guidance on penetration testing and other security expertise, Hubbard said. Automation will also have a part to play and will ultimately aid in making corporate data breaches even more commonplace in 2017, he predicted.
More emphasis on infrastructure for data protection
“I wouldn’t call the DDOS [distributed denial of service] attacks as being security issue but they certainly are an availability issue caused by attack on primary resources such as DNSs [domain name systems],” Hubbard said. “In 2017, we will start to see discussions around better producing infrastructure for security that we haven’t previously done anything about, a way to authenticate or make it easier to deny DDOS attacks on core services like DNS.”
The need to pick up new IT skills will become critical
The ability to quickly learn new IT concepts and skills will be more important than being an expert in any one technology. Specifically, these skillsets will be crucial to the rise of the machines and to DevOps.
The rise of DevOps
“As result of tech changing, as well as the expectations of business on IT, you will hear a lot more about DevOps,” Hubbard said.
Hybrid IT will come into focus
IT professionals must start thinking about management in a hybrid context. In practice, this will take shape with IT and business leaders will decide on specific solutions as they implement hybrid IT, according to Hubbard.