See what the experts from an electronics design-and-testing think tank are placing their bets on in the near and longer term.
As the first month of 2022 fades out, DigiconAsia.net received a broad-based set of predictions and insights on industry trends that may help readers in specific industries to focus from a macro angle for work and personal edification amid pandemic uncertainty.
The following insights from Keysight executives will cover the following topics: Quantum Computing; supply chain challenges; virtual collaboration, digital transformation (DX) and IoT trends and sustainability/ESG.
Quantum computing trends
- Multiple 100-qubit quantum computers come to the Cloud
In 2022several companies will release quantum processor units (QPUs) to the Cloud with 100 or more qubits. These breakthroughs will create new challenges for device developers, including scaling (bigger quantum computers), deploying (more calibrations) and production repeatability (yield in device fabrication) of quantum devices. - Breakthroughs in two qubit gate error rates
Two-qubit gate error rates are currently a major limiting factor in quantum algorithm performance in finance, pharmaceutical and logistics applications. With QPU technologies now demonstrating improvements in two qubit gate error rates, there will be record lows in system noise in 2022 helping improve the performance of quantum processers.
Supply chains challenges
Current supply chain disruptions (shortages of semiconductor chips and raw materials, coupled with logistics constraints like crowded ports and a shortage of truck drivers) have created bottlenecks that will continue to constrain output in 2022. Supply chain resilience is now key to an firm’s ability to navigate the ongoing volatility. Organizations will increasingly divert efforts to future-proof supply chains to gain a competitive advantage. In addition, sustainable supply chains will be prioritized to mitigate the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) risk.
- Supply chains will become more agile and digitalized
Digital technologies will build new capabilities into the supply chain ecosystem. With greater automation and visibility, organizations will be more nimble and able to respond to fluctuations quickly. - The self-driving supply chain will become a reality
As cognitive automation is widely embedded, supply chains will become more intelligent. This will lead to the automation making recommendations, predicting outcomes and eventually making decisions autonomously. - Business continuity planning and risk mitigation
Rather than relying on one global provider, there will be a shift to multiple sourcing and regionalization to reduce disruption. This will be a vital determinant of supply chain resilience. - Designing for resilience
Product design will incorporate easier-to-source standardized parts, allowing organizations to respond quickly to disruptions. Maintaining safety stocks for critical components will replace the established ‘just in time’ approach to inventory. - Supply chain cyber risks will soar
With the increased reliance on technology, cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities will become a growing concern for supply chains as hackers have turned their attention to the IIoT and other critical infrastructure targets, including supply chains. Designing a resilient supply chain will require connecting the entire ecosystem and ensuring that unrelenting attacks from hackers are not successful.
Trends in virtual collaboration
In 2022, virtual collaboration will become more sophisticated, with organizations utilizing innovative technology to boost productivity. This new wave of remote collaboration will create a complex web of connected systems designed to ensure a seamless and secure experience.
- Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality technologies will support better visualization.
In product design, digital twins will create simulations of designs before building the physical product. These simulations allow remote teams to collaborate on the design, improve the overall process and reduce the time and cost required for product development. - Remote monitoring with automated systems, including robots in warehouses and delivery drones for logistics, will capture and consolidate data that remote workers can share and monitor in real-time.
DX and IoT trends
By 2027, there will be five times as many citizen developers as traditional developers in organizations:
- The accelerating pace of DX with every workflow becoming automated, streamlined and interconnected is fueling the insatiable demand for more apps. The widespread deployment of AI and ML and natural language processing (NLP) in no-code and low-code platforms enables citizen developers to perform automation. As a result of this shift, CIOs will no longer be resource-constrained and can rapidly scale their digital transformation efforts.
- The pivot to citizen developers will add to the security burden as CIOs will need real-time visibility into the network to ensure that citizen developers and users are secure, via continuous intelligent test automation.
In enterprise systems, monolithic legacy architectures will be displaced by cloud-first composable architectures:
- IT organizations will accelerate the digitalization of their firms through API-based integration of cloud-based solutions from a variety of vendors to achieve unprecedented levels of adaptability, functionality, customer experience, scalability and robustness.
- Organizations will become increasingly dependent on the performance, reliability and security of the networks of their cloud service providers, solutions providers and business partners.
- Network visibility and network digital twin solutions will need to find new ways to promote the required levels of performance, reliability and most importantly, security, across the networks of multiple sets of firms.
