Integrating the latest market technologies, adapting new development methods to meet the customer requirements and enhancing the customer experience are some of the most important aspects where enterprises choose to focus to boost their business growth.
When every year brings along with it a new set of software development technologies, sticking to any one technology trend is no longer an option for the enterprises. Not to mention that dealing with the trending software development technologies can make you a leader in the industry which would give you an edge over your competition.
We researched and found out the software development industry trends that might dominate the year 2021.
Know The Enterprise Software Development Trends 2021
Believe it or not, the year 2021 has brought the latest and best of the approaches and technologies for software development, all because of last year’s pandemic. Covid-19 has urged business and technology leaders all around the world to reevaluate their systems and processes to make them flexible with challenging situations while increasing the quality of outcomes at the same time.
2021 will be the year that will give a boost to the rise of futuristic technologies from AI to progressive web development. It is the best time to adopt these technologies and be an early bird to corner maximum benefits.
The top trends for enterprise software development are as follows:
Artificial Intelligence
At least 50 % of the enterprise companies and businesses have adopted AI to automate at least one function of their organization. AI can enable you to host and process large chunks of business data that allows you to offer an enhanced customer experience.
Due to the rise in computer vision applications, public spaces are easily monitored using data sensors and cameras. If the apps are enabled with artificial neural networks then it can also be used to monitor social distancing in the time of pandemic and other emergencies.
Enterprises can also find their potential customers by combining predictive analytics with computational power. And to find out the customer preferences, businesses can easily get access to the sales data of thousands of customers with the help of AI algorithms.
And now that the current pandemic of Covid-19 has increased the remote working for the companies, customer support centers can make great use of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), and automated speech recognition (ASR). The upcoming time will also see that robots are taking more participation in various aspects of business like finance, manufacturing, KPO, marketing, and many more automated business processes.
Big Data
Experts are predicting that the big data market will reach approximately 250 billion US dollars by the year 2025. Its global growth has already been noticeable. So sooner or later the enterprises need to start using big data and it is very beneficial too. Big data will soon become an integral part of the modern business process soon enough.
Augmented analytics is a part of big data that integrates the existing BL toolkits with futuristic technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning tools and frameworks. This combined system will decrease the considerable amount of time necessary for the preparation and cleaning. The users, if they want, will also get the day-to-day insights from the tool which would save a lot of time for data scientists.
A method called in-memory computation can speed up the analytics process. The flaring advantage of this method is its real-time processing. And it is 100 times faster than any other existing solutions. The reason behind it is that the data flow of all the processes is stored in RAM. This will help the enterprises to speed up the decision-making process while making an informed decision.
Progressive Web Applications
Gone are the days when people would wait eagerly for an app to be downloaded and to use it. Now, in this modern age, everyone prefers a quick fix. And progressive web applications can offer it. PWAs are lighter than any conventional apps and can download faster than them.
PWAs offer a user experience similar to any native application with an option of notification sending. These web apps can also be operated offline. With such benefits for the users, PWAs are noticing a record-break increase in the user engagement to 137%. The users’ app is updated automatically every time they visit it. Moreover, they don’t even have to face any updating issues regarding the functionalities of the progressive web apps.
Not only from the user’s point of view, but these apps are also beneficial from the development point of view too. These applications are very cost-effective in terms of development. It is time-saving too as there is no need to develop various versions of the app for different devices and platforms. Hence, with similar results to the native apps, PWAs cost three to four times lower than them.
Human Augmentation
As time progresses, it is becoming more and more evident that the augmentation technology trend holds a promising future. Since this technology integrates with the human body, it is not surprising that augmentation is also considered the extended version of humans.
Enterprise software development has to keep an eye on all trends and forms of augmentations which are named virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. These trends are sure to be at their peak in the year 2021. The pandemic and remote working have just boosted it all. Let us have a quick look at each type of augmentation.
Virtual Reality (VR)
If you have noticed the exponential growth of the video and gaming industry, you would come to know that much of their growth is thanks to virtual reality technology. It has proved a boon for them. VR has the most advanced computerized visions that offer its users a captivating experience and first-person perspective. Many enterprises have already started using VR technologies to overcome a diverse range of challenges and issues in their part of the business.
VR is no longer a monopoly of the video and gaming industry domains but has now found a wide range of utility for other industries including education and training sectors. Schools and colleges have started paving ways for VR technology while the story among the corporate houses is no different. And the recent pandemic of covid-19 has just accelerated the use of VR technology trends. The biggest advantage of using this technology is that it is all about user-centrism.
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality has made much progress in the year 2020 and is predicted to make more in the upcoming years as well. This kind of technology is widely used in many industries like manufacturing, retail, and navigation. This widely accepted use of AR technology is the reason behind its massive success.
Year 2021 holds much potential for augmented reality technology and it will become undeniable as the social media applications like Instagram and Facebook have added AR in their ad formats and filters. When the virtual makeover is completely another dimension for the users, how can enterprise software lag behind in this trend?
Mixed Reality (MR)
MR is a significant prospect for enterprise software development. It’s a combination of both AR and VR technologies alike. It brings out the best of two human augmentations namely augmented reality and virtual reality. In the field of enterprise software development, MR uses AR to blend the digital content with the user’s real surroundings while VR is used to craft a mesmerizing experience for its users. Many industry verticals including tourism, gaming, defense, healthcare, architecture, construction, and many more are reaping the benefits of the MR technology trend.
Cloud Computing in Enterprise Software Development
Nowadays, most businesses are becoming more and more dependent on cloud computing and cloud servers for the security of their business and consumer data. In the last year, cloud computing has seen significant growth and will witness more in 2021 as it is constantly evolving. Enterprises can fulfill the changing user needs and their expectations with the help of cloud computing. This enhances the functionalities of the enterprise software of any industry.
Even when the enterprises decide to undertake digital transformation, they need to shift their data to the cloud as a mandatory method to store data. However, the increasing data transfer to the cloud platforms has resulted in the increased expectations for robust security features and new cloud technologies. Therefore, you can say that cloud computing can be said as one of the top enterprise software development trends for the year 2021.
Internet of Things
The Internet of things is the interconnectivity of the smart devices used in our everyday life with the help of the internet. It is predicted in a report from Business Insider that there will be approximately 65 billion IoT devices used across the world. This technology is already a trend that is very actively used in several industry domains. The reason behind it that it can collect a large amount of data from the sensors, process it, and then transfer them through the cloud networks.
IoT is a flawless and high-security process guaranteed with no delays and used in creating an interactive user interface experience. The IoT applications consist of predictive support on mobile platforms, smart home security, biometric cybersecurity, and so on. The usage of IoT is continuously increasing in the healthcare industry and remote work organizations.
The covid-19 pandemic has magnified the need and importance of remote and digital healthcare. People nowadays have started using wearables to regularly track their health and conduct health checkups. The IoT-enabled products are also developed for the healthcare industry such as Bluetooth-enabled hospital beds, wheelchairs, and many more.
Moreover, the healthcare professionals and patients will get benefits from the upcoming smart hardware and 5G technologies. It will allow doctors to share clinical care guidelines with patients in real-time.
Cybersecurity is Becoming a Top Priority
The threats against cybersecurity are on the rise. Now and then we hear about the malicious cyberattacks on governments, enterprises, and other businesses. No matter how much-advanced security protocols are developed, the attacks become more and more advanced.
However, the new trend of remote working has increased the risks of security breaches due to the high usage of personal devices and home networks, not to mention the poor quality of security firewalls in such things. Many things will affect the trend of cybersecurity for enterprise software development in 2021.
The covid-19 pandemic has forced the companies to transfer their businesses to the cloud. But it is advisable to check out whether your cloud services provider is prepared for any possible cyber threats. There can be a significant rise in cloud breaches as they have weak security practices which can be easily exploited by the attackers. Cybersecurity has a lot of chances to evolve in this field.
5G is the next-generation mobile connectivity and internet technology. It is new and very complex. There is no doubt that if it is developed well, it can create a huge impact on many domains like defense facilities, smart cities, smart power grids, and so on. The 5G technology is also in need of strong security standards.
The increasing number of cyberattacks has led to the rise in strong demands for cybersecurity policies. These are urged to soften the potential losses for the enterprises. Some cases in the US show that some companies have put on a safeguard by buying insurance. This market is also expected to grow higher in 2021.
A secure future of enterprise software lies in adopting a proactive approach. You must prevent attacks instead of dealing with their harmful results.
Final thoughts
Enterprise software development is an important aspect of business growth. For that, enterprises need to be on the lookout for new trends and technologies that are rising in the market. You can hire software service providers and can leverage such software development technology to dominate your industry in 2021.
If you are giving this a serious thought, you need a software development partner that can help your business to grow, evolve and innovate. The option of custom software development will help you disrupt your industry and accelerate the growth of your organization.
Get in touch with us if you want to discuss any queries or suggestions in the comments section below.