Technological breakthrow - 6

 

Quantum Computing Is Beginning to Take Shape — Here Are Three Recent Breakthroughs 

Breakthroughs are advancing quantum computing. (Image Credit: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock) 

Quantum computing breaktrhroughs including new hardware, smarter algorithms, and clearer signs of “quantum advantage,” bring once-theoretical machines closer to real-world use

Written byCody Cottier

Quantum computing, though somewhat overshadowed by AI of late, may be nearing its own day in the sun. Just a few years ago, many researchers agreed that quantum computers would not become genuinely useful for decades. That timeline is steadily shrinking, raising the possibility of real-world applications — like quantum encryption and drug discovery — in the relatively near future.

“The last couple of years have been very, very exciting,” Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, told Discover.

Between hardware improvements, efficiency gains, and demonstrations of so-called “quantum advantage” over classical computers, quantum computers are progressing rapidly. Here are three of the latest breakthroughs.

1. Quantum Computers Are Becoming More Stable

The field has been plagued from day one by the fact that quantum computers are inherently unstable. In contrast to classical computers, which process information using binary bits (that is, 1s and 0s), quantum computers rely on qubits, which leverage the bizarre principles of quantum mechanics for more powerful processing.

Qubits can exist in a state of superposition, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), representing both 1 and 0 simultaneously. That allows them to perform computations that exceed the capacity of classical computers. But these states are fragile — temperature swings, electromagnetic fields, and vibrations can all cause qubits to slip back into classical behavior, or decohere.

Decoherence leads to computational errors, so error correction is the central challenge of quantum computing. The problem is that the process of error correction itself involves lots of qubits performing lots of operations, which introduces yet more opportunity for errors.

“As long as your error rate is too high,” Aaronson said, “all your attempts to error-correct just make things worse.”

In late 2024, however, researchers at Google reversed that trend. Their Willow chip, a 105-qubit superconducting quantum processor, demonstrated that, given the right error-correction techniques, quantum computers become more, rather than less accurate, as the number of qubits increases.

Most importantly, the system crossed a critical threshold, according to a study in Nature, correcting errors faster than new ones were introduced, paving the way for what’s known as fault-tolerant quantum computing. “At that point,” Aaronson told Discover, “you should be able to stabilize a qubit indefinitely.”

More recently, other hardware platforms have begun to show promise. Quantinuum, a Colorado-based company, has developed trapped-ion devices, which use electrically charged atoms suspended in electromagnetic fields as qubits, according to a 2025 arXiv paper. These systems are much slower than superconducting chips like Google’s, but they boast far higher accuracy. Meanwhile, Aaronson added, a Boston-based company called QuEra has yielded similarly “amazing results” with its neutral-atom approach, which uses lasers to trap and manipulate arrays of atoms as qubits.

These diverse hardware strategies are all improving in tandem, increasing the odds that at least one will achieve large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing.

“It’s surprising to me that you still have these very, very different architectures with complementary strengths and weaknesses,” Aaronson said to Discover. “We don't know yet which of them will be the best or the least expensive way to scale up.”

2. Outperforming Classical Computers

The ultimate goal for quantum computing, of course, is to solve problems beyond the reach of classical computers. Google claimed to have done so for the first time in 2019, but the task had no practical application, and subsequent work showed that it could, in fact, be performed by a classical computer.

Various research teams have since staked their own claim to so-called “quantum advantage” or “quantum supremacy,” and these pronouncements are typically met with skepticism. Impressive though the calculations may be, how can we be sure someone won’t once again find a way to replicate them classically?

Nevertheless, Aaronson points to a recent demonstration of quantum advantage that, to his mind, offers real-world applications that couldn’t easily be had without quantum computing.

“At the very least,” he added, “you have to work very hard to get comparable results classically.”

In November 2025, Quantinuum reported in arXiv that it had used its trapped-ion devices to simulate the Fermi-Hubbard model, a foundational problem in physics. The simulation involved numbers that would be near impossible to calculate classically in a reasonable timeframe, but which could help scientists develop advanced materials like room-temperature superconductors — “arguably the greatest challenge in condensed matter physics,” as one group of researchers put it.

“We're actually getting reasonable candidates for verifiable quantum supremacy that we can do on current devices,” Aaronson told Discover. “As they scale up the devices, they're going to be able to do more and more interesting simulations.”

3. Efficient Error Correction

Current quantum computers are limited to, at most, thousands of qubits. Researchers have long estimated that fully error-corrected devices would require millions, a daunting figure that would push full-fledged quantum supremacy far into the future. But based on a paper published last month, which Aaronson called a “bombshell,” those estimates were far too high.

The new arXiv paper, led by researchers at Caltech and the California-based startup Oratomic, outlined a scheme for fault-tolerant quantum computing that could reduce the required number of qubits by as much as two orders of magnitude compared to earlier estimates, down to just 10,000. That would dramatically accelerate the timeline to commercial viability.

In other words, quantum supremacy could be closer than previously thought. But that prospect comes with potential pitfalls.

Also in recent weeks, researchers at Google described a more efficient implementation of Shor’s algorithm — the famous quantum procedure for factoring large numbers — that would require far fewer qubits to break elliptic curve encryption, a widely used cryptographic system. To avoid giving would-be attackers an instruction manual, the team published its results in the form of a “zero-knowledge proof,” proving the feasibility of the approach without revealing details.

The implications are sobering for platforms that use this kind of public-key encryption, including Bitcoin signatures.

“When you put together the Google thing with the Caltech thing, […] Bitcoin could be vulnerable to a quantum computer with only about 25,000 or 30,000 [qubits],” Aaronson told Discover. “A year ago, the best estimate would have been in the millions.” He added that Google’s findings provide a strong incentive to upgrade to quantum-resistant encryption.

None of these breakthroughs means that quantum computing will transform the world — for better or worse — tomorrow. Error rates remain high, processors must be scaled up, and many proposed applications are rather speculative. But taken together, they mark a shift. After several tantalizing decades, Aaronson added, quantum computers are beginning to perform “like the theory said [they] would 30 years ago.”

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

• This article references information from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): Quantum Computing Explained
• This article references information from a study published in Nature: Quantum error correction below the surface code threshold
• This article references information from a study published in arXiv: Helios: A 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer
• This article references information from a study published in arXiv: Superconducting pairing correlations on a trapped-ion quantum computer
• This article references information from a study published in arXiv: Shor's algorithm is possible with as few as 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits
• This article references information from a study published in SciRate: Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations

https://tinyurl.com/5exvjk52

The evolution of Mercedes-Benz from 1885 to 2025 is mind-blowing

 

Technological breakthrow - 5

 

Electric plasma jet engines: The future of air travel, or impossible dream?

Seventy hours of continuous operation without burning a single drop of fuel sounds impossible — yet engineers have now demonstrated exactly that. The test replaces traditional combustion with superheated plasma to generate thrust.

Instead of igniting fuel, the system uses electrically energized plasma to accelerate airflow. This removes combustion entirely, eliminating emissions tied to burning hydrocarbons.

If scaled, the implications could be massive for aviation and aerospace. Aircraft endurance could increase dramatically, while maintenance demands tied to combustion systems may drop.

The concept is especially promising for long-endurance drones, high-altitude platforms, and specialized aircraft where efficiency matters more than raw speed.

While commercial passenger use is still far off, this experiment signals a potential shift in how propulsion is defined. Aviation’s future may rely less on fuel — and more on physics.

The article:

The concept of a system of propulsion that runs on electricity and air is very attractive in today’s increasingly green-thinking world. Gone would be the messy fossil fuels and noisy exhaust of conventional jet engines. Carbon-neutral commercial flight on a large scale would finally be a real possibility. Recently, the concept of the electric plasma jet engine has sparked the imaginations of aerospace innovators and environmentalists alike. However, there are some very significant problems to overcome, if this type of propulsion is to make practical inroads into the current air-travel market.

Let’s go over the basics of the electric plasma jet engine and examine some of the challenges faced by its proponents.

Plasma-based propulsion systems have already seen some success… in space

First, we must point out that the concept of harnessing the properties of plasma (a natural state of matter along with solid, liquid, and gas), has already proven successful in several experimental and practical forms. Ion thrusters, plasma propulsion engines, helicon plasma thrusters, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, pulsed inductive thrusters, electrodeless plasma thrusters, and the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) are several variations of plasma engine/thruster technology in various stages of development to propel satellites and/or spacecraft. The European Space Agency, Iranian Space Agency, Australian National University, Busek, and Ad Astra Rocket Company have all developed plasma propulsion systems for space.

In 2011, NASA partnered with Busek to launch the first hall effect thruster, a type of ion thruster that was the TacSat-2 satellite’s main propulsion system once in orbit. The company has since launched several hall effect thrusters that they say could deliver “a small payload in low Earth orbit… to low lunar orbit. This incredible amount of range is unachievable for any chemical propulsion system in the same weight class.”

So, plasma-based propulsion methods such as ion thrusters have shown practical (though limited) use in space, where there is no gravity and no air resistance to overcome, and cumulative (if small) amounts of thrust can produce significant velocity over time. However, developing an electric-plasma jet engine that produces enough thrust in Earth’s atmosphere to potentially replace today’s jet engines is a much loftier goal.

How does an electric plasma jet engine work?

Rather than harnessing the attraction of differently charged ions, the concept behind the electric plasma jet engine involves superheated plasma and magnetrons (like in a microwave). In 2020, Professor Jau Tang of the Institute of Technological Sciences at Wuhan University in China announced his team’s invention of a magnetron-accelerated plasma jet design.

Tang’s design ionizes compressed air by running it past electrodes, then forces it along a specially designed quartz tube. This produces a low-temperature plasma. The tube containing this plasma intersects with a wave guide, which is essentially a pipe containing magnetron-generated microwaves. The wave guide narrows at the point where it intersects with the quartz tube, and the microwaves in the narrowed portion are at their greatest intensity. The focused microwaves excite charged particles in the plasma, forcing them to oscillate wildly and generating a release of energy, including producing heat of 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees F). This, in turn, creates thrust along the quartz tube which acts as a rudimentary jet nozzle to direct the thrust.

Tang’s experiments showed a 1-kilogram steel ball being momentarily lifted off of the 24 mm diameter tube by the expanding gases and plasma. Tang hopes his design, after further refinement, may be used to power drones, before eventually being scaled up enough to power manned aircraft.

This all sounds exciting and media outlets ate up the story at the time. However, as with many potential technological breakthroughs in their early stages, the theoretical possibilities don’t line up with current realities or technological limitations.

Power and size limitations of electric plasma-jet engines

Analysis of Tang’s experiments show that his engine produced around 28 newtons of thrust per kilowatt (kW) of power consumed. (Another source says 10 newtons of thrust at 400 watts.) Researchers have postulated that if the technology is scaled up, the amount of thrust could be comparable to conventional jet engines.

“Ay,” as the Bard wrote, “There’s the rub.” One source says that based on the original 1 kg ball being lifted off a 24 mm tube, to reach the required airflow to compete with today’s jet engines, the electric-plasma jet engine would need to be scaled up by a factor of 15,000. And of course, with increased scale comes increased weight and size, which are not conducive to efficient air travel.

An even larger problem (literally) is the issue of how to achieve the required electrical power supply on a moving/flying craft without a connection to the local power grid. As noted, Tang’s experimental engine produced around 28 newtons of thrust. By comparison, the Airbus A320’s CFM56-5B engine produces between 98,000 and 147,000 newtons of thrust, and the aircraft requires two engines to achieve its performance goals. One analysis showed that, assuming the same thrust requirements, an electric/plasma jet engine (if one could even be scaled appropriately to become airborne) would require about 7,800 kW of power. This equates to 570 complete Tesla-sized battery power units for a single hour of flight. The current A320 can theoretically only accommodate 130 of these power units as its total payload. And that, of course, wouldn’t leave any surplus for, say… passengers and luggage, not to mention Diet Dr. Pepper and salted peanuts.

In short, there is currently no existing battery technology with the effective power-to-weight ratio to get such a large propulsion unit off the ground. Jet fuel contains far more energy than batteries can manage at the same weight (up to 43 times more). Weight is always the primary problem to overcome in any flying craft, and current battery technology can’t support the power needs of even a single theoretically upscaled electric plasma jet engine, let alone a pair of them. Detractors also point out that getting that much electrical power from the onboard power source to the engines is another problem that is currently insurmountable, requiring the use of superconducting materials that don’t exist yet.

Proponents of the electric plasma-jet engine claim that it would utilize no fossil fuels, but this is similar to all arguments in favor of electric vehicle use, in that it assumes a clean/renewable source of electric power. Today, only 20% percent of electricity generated in the US is considered clean or renewable. The remainder still comes from burning fossil fuels or from nuclear reactors. Additionally, all of the fossil fuels burned by all of the world’s airliners only account for around 13% of carbon emissions generated annually. So it could be argued that there are larger and easier “green” targets to hit than pie-in-the-sky visions of electric/plasma jet-powered air travel.

In attempting to solve the electric power requirement problem, some bolder researchers point out that there are now conventional nuclear fission reactors small enough that they could theoretically be placed on a large passenger aircraft and generate enough electrical power to drive future upscaled electric/plasma engines. Whether or not passengers and governments will tolerate nuclear-powered commercial flight is a question for the future, but we’re betting it will be a hard sell. Stationary nuclear reactors are enough of a problem already, and society isn’t going to want to deal with the effects of any crashes of nuclear-powered airliners. 

Another sci-fi-type solution might be to use high-powered lasers or directed-energy generators to beam power to an airborne vehicle. This is theoretically doable with highly accurate tracking and navigation technology, but the amount of power that would need to be sent along the beam to sustain a flying airliner is currently not even in the realm of possibility.

Furthermore, all of this (admittedly fun) speculation assumes that Professor Tang’s claims of newtons of thrust per kW are accurate. Steven Barrett, MIT professor of aerospace engineering and designer of the first ion-powered aircraft that flies without any moving parts, was very skeptical of the Wuhan group’s claims of thrust to begin with. Barrett tweeted, “it’s flawed on both the physics and the measurements. They’ve built a pressure cooker with heating from microwaves, with a valve that rattles when the air in the tube is heated enough, then interpreted the transient air escaping as sustained thrust.”

Them’s fightin’ words, but regardless, Tang’s hopes of an electric-plasma jet powered drone haven’t yet come to fruition, and we’ve seen no further progress on any attempts to scale up an electric plasma jet engine.

So, as all-electric flight continues to evolve in some limited markets (eVTOL, air taxis, and even regional jet routes by 2030), it seems unlikely that there will be enough global interest in electric-plasma jet engine development to spur the kind of advancements necessary to make it a reality. At least for the time being.

–By Jeff Davis, Intergalactic Scribe

Sources:

https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LEW-TOPS-34

https://www.nasa.gov/general/the-potential-for-ambient-plasma-wave-propulsion/

https://www.busek.com/hall-thrusters

https://www.designboom.com/design/mit-engineers-built-an-airplane-that-flies-without-any-moving-parts-03-12-2022/

https://youtu.be/hiXuHjyxW14?si=ewZr7PYMkDrYJI3C

https://youtu.be/SFGoimjxxjk?si=BOV7tsA59LMiU3VH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_propulsion_engine

https://tinyurl.com/2t53ywwv

The Quantum Decade

 

Find out how you can be quantum-ready—and how this bleeding-edge technology can help you and your business thrive the moment quantum computers come of age. Because that moment is closer than you think.

For decades, quantum computing has been viewed as a futuristic technology: it would change everything, if it ever moved from the fantastical to the practical. Even in recent years, despite billions of dollars in research investment and extensive media coverage, the field is sometimes dismissed by real-life decision makers as too arcane, a far-off, far-out pursuit for academics and theorists. As we enter the Quantum Decade—the decade when enterprises begin to see business value from quantum computing—that perspective is quickly becoming an anachronism.

Insights

• Priorities of a post-pandemic world. As entire industries face greater uncertainty, business models are becoming more sensitive to and dependent on new technologies. Quantum computing is poised to expand the scope and complexity of business problems we can solve.
• The future of computing. The integration of quantum computing, AI, and classical computing into hybrid multicloud workflows will drive the most significant computing revolution in 60 years. Quantum-powered workflows will radically reshape how enterprises work.
• The discovery-driven enterprise. Enterprises will evolve from analyzing data to discovering new ways to solve problems. When combined with hyper-automation and open integration, this will ultimately lead to new business models.

Because quantum computing is coming of age, and leaders who do not understand and adapt to the Quantum Decade could find themselves a step—or more accurately, years—behind. Over the next few years, we foresee a profound computing revolution that could significantly disrupt established business models and redefine entire industries.

Historically, crises have been the impetus for both new technologies and their widespread adoption. World War I ushered in factory processes that are still in place today. The Cold War accelerated the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), a predecessor to the internet, in the late 1960s. And now COVID-19 has driven an increased need for agility, resiliency, and accelerated digital maturity. We anticipate quantum computing—in combination with existing advanced technologies—will dramatically impact how science and business evolve. By accelerating the discovery of solutions to big global challenges, quantum computing could unleash positive disruptions significantly more abrupt than technology waves of the past decades.

Understanding the exponential power of quantum computing

Classical computer bits can store information as either a 0 or 1. That the physical world maintains a fixed structure is in keeping with classical mechanics. But as scientists were able to explore subatomic matter, they began to see more probabilistic states: that matter took on many possible features in different conditions. The field of quantum physics emerged to explore and understand that phenomena.

The power of quantum computing rests on two cornerstones of quantum mechanics: interference and entanglement. The principle of interference allows a quantum computer to cancel unwanted solutions and enhance correct solutions. Entanglement means the combined state of the qubits contains more information than the qubits do independently. Together, these two principles have no classical analogy and modeling them on a classical computer would require exponential resources. For example, as the table below describes, representing the complexity of a 100-qubit quantum computer would require more classical bits than there are atoms on the planet Earth.

To the nth degree: The power of exponential

The building blocks of quantum computing are already emerging. Quantum computing systems are running on the cloud at an unprecedented scale, compilers and algorithms are rapidly advancing, communities of quantum-proficient talent are on the rise, and leading hardware and software providers are publishing technology roadmaps. The technology's applicability is no longer a theory but a reality to be understood, strategized about, and planned for. And good news: the steps you should take to prepare for future quantum adoption will begin to benefit your business now.

Quantum computing will not replace classical computing, it will extend and complement it. But even for the problems that quantum computers can solve better, we will still need classical computers. Because data input and output will continue to be classical, quantum computers and quantum programs will require a combination of classical and quantum processing.

The steps you should take to prepare for future quantum adoption will begin to benefit your business now.

It is precisely the advances in traditional classical computing, plus advances in AI, that are driving the most important revolution in computing since Moore’s Law almost 60 years ago. Quantum computing completes a trinity of technologies: the intersection of classical bits, qubits, and AI “neurons.” The synergies created by this triad—not quantum computing alone—are driving the future of computing.

The most exciting computing revolution in 60 years: Three major technologies converge

The IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) has been deeply engaged in conducting more than a dozen industry- and practice-based studies on quantum computing. We’ve elevated that research here with new insights gleaned from interviews with more than 50 experts, including IBM quantum computing researchers as well as clients, partners, and academics. This report on the Quantum Decade provides executives with strategies to prepare for the upcoming business transformation from quantum computing. It identifies the most important factors, themes, and actions to take at this significant inflection point.

The path to Quantum Advantage

What makes this the Quantum Decade? What will the quantum-powered world look like? And what can and should farsighted leaders and organizations do now to educate and position themselves effectively? The key learnings revolve around three phases of organizational evolution.

Phase 1: Awareness

According to the IBV’s 2021 CEO study, 89% of the more than 3,000 chief executives surveyed did not cite quantum computing as a key technology for delivering business results over the next two to three years. For the short term, that’s understandable. But quantum computing with 1,000 qubits is projected to be available as early as 2023—just a few years away. Given the technology’s disruptive potential this decade, CEOs should start mobilizing resources to grasp early learnings and start the journey to quantum now. CEOs who ignore quantum’s potential are taking a substantial risk, as the consequences will be much greater than missing the AI opportunity a decade ago.

Phase 1 of the quantum computing playbook requires broad recognition that the landscape is changing. The primary shift is a computing paradigm that’s evolving from an age of analytics (looking back at established data and learning from it) to an age of discovery (looking forward and creating more accurate models for simulation, forecasting, and optimization). There’s real potential for uncovering solutions that were previously impossible.

Phase 2: Readiness 

Enterprises cannot use quantum computing to solve big problems yet. But quantum computing has shattered timelines and exceeded expectations at every phase of development. It’s not too soon for organizational leaders to explore how the advent of this new technology could alter plans and expectations. Phase 2 involves investigating big questions: How could your business model be disrupted and reshaped? How could quantum computing supercharge your current AI and classical computing workflows? What is the quantum computing “killer app” for your industry? How can you deepen your organization’s quantum computing capabilities, either internally or through ecosystems? Now is the time to experiment and iterate with scenario planning. Find or nurture talent who is fluent in quantum computing and capable of educating internal stakeholders about the possibilities, and partner for “deep tech” quantum computing resources.

But just as important is another critical question: What does your organization need to establish now to apply quantum computing when it’s production-ready? Indeed, laying the foundation for quantum computing also means upping your classical computing game. Enhanced proficiencies in data, AI, and cloud are necessary to provide the required fertile ground for quantum computing. Accelerating your digital transformation in the context of quantum computing readiness will provide a pragmatic path forward while delivering significant benefits now. After all, quantum computing doesn’t vanquish classical computing. The trinity of quantum computing, classical computing, and AI form a progressive, iterative partnership in which they’re more powerful together than separately.

Phase 3: Advantage

Phase 3, Quantum Advantage, occurs when a computing task of interest to business or science can be performed more efficiently, more cost effectively, or with better quality using quantum computers. This is the point where quantum computers plus classical systems can do significantly better than classical systems alone. As hardware, software, and algorithmic advancements in quantum computing coalesce, enabling significant performance improvement over classical computing, new opportunities for advantage will emerge across industries. But prioritizing the right use cases—those that can truly transform an organization or an industry—is critical to attaining business value from quantum.

Getting to Quantum Advantage will not happen overnight. But while that advantage may progress over months and years, it can still trigger exponential achievements in usage and learning. From exploring the creation of new materials to personalized medical treatments to radical shifts in business models across the economy, change is coming. Organizations that enhance their classical computing capabilities and aggressively explore the potential for industry transformation will be best positioned to seize Quantum Advantage.

Key Takeaways

• Tackling the world’s problems. From discovering new drugs to managing financial risk to re-engineering supply chains, there is an urgency to accelerate solutions to increasingly complex societal, macroeconomic, and environmental problems on a global scale.
• The 1,000-qubit milestone. Quantum computing hardware is on a trajectory to scale from 127 qubits in 2021 to 1,000 qubits by 2023 to practical quantum computing, characterized by systems executing error-corrected circuits and widespread adoption, by 2030. Cloud-based open-source development environments will make using quantum computers “frictionless.”
• The hybrid multicloud future. Many quantum programs involve interactions between classical and quantum hardware. But these interactions introduce latencies, or delays, which must be reduced to optimize capacity. This makes hybrid multiclouds the most viable future for quantum computing.
• The power of ecosystems. Quantum computing ecosystems—with opportunities for collaborative innovation and open-source development—are fast becoming fertile grounds for training users to apply quantum computing to real problems.

Download the full report to learn how you can guide your organization to Quantum Advantage.

https://ibm.co/2URvrDe

Top Ten Technology Trends For 2021

 

Figure — Technology Trends for 2021

This article summarizes the top ten technology trends common across the reports of companies like Gartner, Forrester, Bain, and Deloitte.

by 

Ankur Kumar

Based on reports published by research companies like Gartner, Forrester, Bain, Deloitte, there are numerous technology trends predicted for 2021. This article summarizes the top ten technology trendscommon across their reports.

#10 — Zero Trust Security and Privacy Computation

• Security has always been a key focus area for enterprises and the advancement towards zero-trust principle (never trust and always verify) will continue to be the trend in coming years. 
• Gartner has predicted focus on privacy computation platforms, which can be categorized into three areas:
  • Platform providing a secure environment for processing or analyzing sensitive and Personal Identifiable Information (PII) data
  • Platform providing processing and analytics in a decentralized manner
  • Platform providing encryption and algorithms before analysis or processing (e.g. Homomorphic encryption)

#9 — Remote and Digital Workspace Technologies

• Gartner defined it as "Anywhere Operations", which has been a key trend particularly during the times like COVID-19 pandemic. Technologies focusing on the following areas will rise:
  • Collaboration and productivity
  • Secure remote access
  • Cloud and edge infrastructure
  • Quantification of digital experience
• Forrester predicts continued movement towards hyperlocal business operations. It enables organizations to expand to new geographies supported by technology.

#8 — Human-centered Digital Experience

• UI/UX technologies and human-centered experience design will remain the key focus area. Usage of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality to augment experience is the new trend.

Gartner defines digital experience as:

Total Experience (TX) = Multi Experience (MX) + Customer Experience (CX) + Employee Experience (EX) + User Experience (UX)

• Multi-experience development platforms (MXDP) and Low-Code Development Platforms will continue to be on the rise, which helps to build apps and products for user interaction as part of their digital journey across various touchpoints (e.g., touch, voice, and gesture).
• MXDP/Low-Code Platforms: Google's Firebase, Microsoft Power Apps, Salesforce Lightning Platform, Appian, Mendix, Amazon Honeycode, etc.

#7 — RPA and Hyperautomation

As defined on Wikipedia:

Hyperautomation is the application of advanced technologies like RPA, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and Process Mining to augment workers and automate processes in ways that are significantly more impactful that traditional automation capabilities.

• Business and IT process automation using technologies, such as AI, ML, event-driven architecture, and RPA will continue to be the key trend.
• Platforms: UIPath, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, etc.

#6 — Internet of Behaviors (IoB)

• Internet of behaviors was coined by Gote Nyman (Researcher) in 2012 as part of his research. IoB does have social and ethical implications that need to be clearly understood.
• Technologies to use digital data captured from Internet of Things (IoT) devices to change human behaviors. 
• For example, telematics data for driving behavior, social media data for trend analysis, facial recognition data for security, data from wearables for health, etc.

#5 — Intelligent Business Processes and Vendor Platforms

• The nimble organizational process to adjust as per market or environmental situation. Pandemic like COVID-19 has made it essential to put strategy and technologies available for supporting processes flexible.
• It includes quicker decision making, technology platforms supporting change, application vendors providing flexibility to provide collection of business capabilities, etc.
• Platforms such as Customer Data Platform will continue to be focus area for enterprises.

#4 — 5G 

• 5G promises 100X reduced latency and provide the technology to build novel solutions.
• Sharing data with higher data, greater transmission, and lower latency will elevate connected devices experience.

#3 — Cybersecurity

• With remote operations on the rise, cybersecurity is of utmost importance for enterprises.
• Gartner identifies Cybersecurity mesh as the technology focus area for 2021 in terms of security. Building security resilience to protect the identity of persons and things (devices) will continue to be the key trend.

Gartner's definition of cybersecurity mesh:

A cybersecurity mesh is a distributed architectural approach to scalable, flexible and reliable cybersecurity control.

#2 — Distributed Cloud

• Public Cloud Vendors recognized the need to support on-premises computing and edge computing. The continuous demand paved the wave for distributed cloud.

Gartner's definition:

Distributed Cloud the distribution of public cloud services to different physical locations, while the operation, governance, updates and evolution of the services are the responsibility of the originating public cloud provider

3 Key Characteristics of the Distributed Cloud:

1. Primarily runs services on network edge (IoT edge, 5G mobile edge cloud, global network edge cloud)
2. Extend cloud services to customer data centers  (on-premises public cloud)
3. Operation and governance (even though at remote data centers) remains responsibility of cloud providers

#1 — AI Engineering and AI for All

• AI Engineering is on top of the list with the rise of continuous business value generated by the technology. 
• Organizations will focus on increasing the maturity level of AI with operationalizing AI using DataOps, ModelOps (MLOps) and DevOps.
• AI for All has been recognized by Bain consulting, which will allow business and teams to build models quickly and trust their output.
• Usage of AI on the Edge will rise, which enables to use AI algorithms to be executed on the edge of network (closer to devices collecting data).
• Platforms: Databricks, Snowflake, Azure Machine Learning, Amazon Sagemaker, etc.

The journey will continue, and these top technology trends will continue to evolve further. Keep reading industry insights reports and align your technology strategy or roadmap as per your business proposition.

This article was originally posted on my blog site: 

https://vedcraft.com/tech-trends/top-ten-technology-trends-for-2021/