Emerging Technologies

We are in the 4^th Industrial Revolution (4^th IR). Just as has been discussed on this blog before this continues to create the need for change. There are multiple technologies that are, and will contribute to the 4^th IR. I am actively tracking 17 of them at this time. That being said, biotechnology is one of those technologies and it will play a transformative roll in the 4^th IR and the information that is generated is where a substantial amount of value rests. Currently the top countries in terms of spending in biotechnology are the United States followed by Japan, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Denmark. It should be noted that China continues to increase its investment in biotechnology research and development. With all the potential that biotechnology is showing, we will continue to see increased investment by both the public and private sectors around the globe. All that means more biotech projects and that means assignment for PMs.

INSIGHT: There appears to be a considerable amount of public concern about some of the areas of biotechnology and the potential impact it could have on society. One recent conversation highlights this concern. Think about the implications of integrating 3D printing and genetic engineering (creating human cells). The combination of genetic engineering and 3D printing has brought public concern of the creation of replacement human parts. That is something to think about for sure.

Bioinformatics – it alone is estimated at growing at a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to over $18 billion USD by 2025. Again, with that amount of growth, a number of bioinformatics programs and projects will need managed.

CAUTION: Analysis requires increased care as some place the biotechnology data under the umbrella term – Big Data while others break it out separately. Either way, some of that information is regulated!

Like all emerging technologies, Bioinformatics is in the basic and applied research stages and begun to enter the commercialization stage. Its robust growth brings with it the ever-nagging problem of finding properly skilled resources to write the software, analyze the data, build the products that support the acquisition of the data and so much more. A quick search of one job board find nearly 3,500 bioinformatic jobs listed. Another technology where subject matter experts are in short supply.

Technology is continuously in motion and that Is indeed the case when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) or as some have called it, the Internet of Everything!  There is good reason for their massaging the title.  A recent study suggested that this year, 2020, the global IoT market value is projected to reach over $915 billion USD. Yes, just shy of a trillion $$$. With a double-digit compound annual growth rate, the IoT market is projected to reach $1.9 trillion in 2028. That is a huge amount of money.

When you think about all the work involved in the design, development, marketing, sales, installation, integration, and service involved in the global IoT market today, and in the next few years there is an abundance of work involving IoT.  Now we must add to that work, all the efforts to add security to protect all those IoT devices and the data they produce.  There are projections that the global use of IoT devices will likely top 40 billion units worldwide and all those devices will be generating nearly 80 zettabytes (or 80 times 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data in 2025.  Since we are talking about data, we must consider last week’s blog about the collection, storage and analysis of all that data, as well as the effort to take actions based on the results of that data analysis.

Here are a few weird IoT devises that I thought might be good or at least humorous to mention to illustrate just how broad of a range the devices have.  First and perhaps my favorite is a ‘Touch-screen Wine Bottle.’ When activated, it provides a wide range of information about the contents of that bottle. Think about applying that to pharmaceuticals! Secondly, is a ‘Dog Alert’ that contacts your smartwatch/smartphone and tells you your dog is barking.  Once alerted, you can go to your home-cams and look inside your home and see what is going on and talk to your dog if you would like.  One individual told me they were working to determine if the dog’s bark suggested if the dog was happy or upset. So here is the third of my top three.  An IoT toilet, plays music, has a soft light, opens when you approach the toilet, has a heated seat and you ASK it to flush. Ok, now one has to wonder, what data that collects, where it goes and in the United States if that is covered by HIPAA regulations.

I am wondering what is next? What are the hot areas of IoT applications in our specific domain(s) or our domains of interest? As we all move into the connected future of the world, innovation and creativity is the limiting factor in the products and services around the IoT explosion and all the data they produce and how that will be used.

Today, an organization’s data assets are in continuous motion. It has been that way for decades with no end in sight.  The size of their data asset inventory is increasing as is their volume and value! As data increases in importance and value, it has caught the attention of many organizations. Some seek to maximize this asset and have appointed a Chief Data Officer (CDO) who is charged with that task.

INSIGHT: The IDC’s study titled, “The Digital Universe in 2020” estimated that in 2020, there will be an estimated 40 trillion gigabytes of data on that equals 40 zettabytes of data.

It is interesting to see metrics like in 2020, data is expected to grow at a rate of 1.7 megabytes per second for every person. Web users are expected to generate a whopping 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each and every day!  It is no wonder that industry analysts believe that the big data analytics market will grow around 20%, another double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR), topping $100 billion in 2023 by one estimate. One of the hotter areas is the combination of big data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).  Survey results published in 2019 stated that slightly over 97% of organizations are beginning to invest in the combination of big data analytics and AI. – Another example of a common theme of this blog and the vast majority of the research, analysis and briefings I am involved with as of late.

INSIGHT:  Many believe that overall cyber defenses as well as data specific security measures have added complexity and decreased visibility into the expanding world of organizational data analytics!

It is no wonder that data analyst is a hot profession now days.  Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) estimated that by 2020 data analysts will be in high demand in companies around the world.  A recent search of Jobs on LinkedIn specifically for ‘data analysts’ brought back over 33,000 results in the United States alone. Consider the amount of work collecting and storing all that data.  Now consider all the work analyzing all that data not to mention publishing the results.