These applications and data management technical trends are at the forefront of digital transformation. 

Applications and data management are at the forefront of technical innovation, providing consumers with endless amounts of information in the palm of their hands. In the coming year companies will continue to invest in expanding cloud and mobile capabilities, along with data analytics and artificial intelligence advancements. Apex’s applications and data management subject matter experts say these are some of the major trending skill areas in 2020.

More companies will migrate from traditional .NET framework to .NET Core

A popular general-purpose programming language, traditional .NET can be used to build many different types of applications. As a more modern implementation, .NET Core is an open-source, cross-platform successor to .NET. Microsoft just released the updated .NET Core 3.0 and announced the November 2020 release of .NET 5, which is also built on .NET Core. The .NET platform continues to grow in product offerings and popularity, with the clear indication that any future programs will rely on .NET Core.

Serverless computing or Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) will be more widely adopted

Serverless computing is a cloud-computing execution model where vendors receive backend services on demand. Servers are still used, but users pay only for the resources actually used rather than a set rate. Although it is still a new technology, the release of new standardization applications may help increase its adoption. As more organizations begin to use it, Serverless computing will also see improved security, testing and monitoring.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will drive demand for data scientists

Data scientists continue to be in high demand, even as automation capabilities expand. Machine learning technology will automate parts of the process, driving productivity and demand for data scientists to augment the technology. Rather than eliminate jobs, expect AI to create more jobs than it will take away, according on an InformationWeek interview with Gartner.

Foldable devices will influence mobile application development

Foldable and multi-screen phones made a comeback in 2019, with multiple leading mobile providers releasing new products. Although the phones should not require design changes for applications to work, developers are likely to explore their options in adding new features specific to foldable devices. Applications may have different views on either side of a folding screen for example, as developers will have more room to implement design elements.

Companies will continue to migrate to Office 365 (O365) on the Azure cloud

Many on premise organizations have migrated to O365 using the Azure cloud, and the trend will continue through 2020. Migrating to O365 allows for increased productivity, agile workflows, improved collaboration and reduced costs. Microsoft has released new online tools to help organizations navigate the migration process, including a SharePoint migration tool and a mover tool for cloud-to-cloud moves, indicating continued growth is expected.

More data science processes will be automated

Data-based decision making has become the standard in the modern business environment. As it stands, data scientists are still required to do a lot of manual labor before an organization can utilize the data it is collecting. In order to cut down on the added time and expense of the manual work, automated data science and machine learning tools that clean data sets, build models and engineer customized features are on the rise.

AiOps will make DevOps more efficient

Alerts and notifications, referred to as “noise” often slow down DevOps processes, distracting teams from working on resolving the actual problem. Resources are required to manually analyze and resolve each alert, including duplicates and warnings. To cut down on the distraction, artificial intelligence (AI) can automate noise reduction, directing teams directly to the root cause of the issues and streamlining their resolutions. The new process, known as AiOps, will shift technical operations from being reactive to proactive.

Mobile application development will expand into the Internet of Things (IoT)

More than 26 billion devices are expected to be connected in the IoT by 2020, according to Gartner. Devices in the IoT communicate with each other, allowing users to access data and applications not stored directly on the device. Anticipate development of mobile applications that use the IoT to operate smart devices, smart cars and even healthcare applications in the coming year.