Enterprises must adopt technology, but must do so wisely. Source: Shutterstock

Enterprises must adopt technology, but must do so wisely. Source: Shutterstock

WEF encourages businesses of all sizes to embrace new-age technologies

TECHNOLOGIES such as big data, cloud computing, and 5G are reshaping enterprises and economies. This is our new reality, and businesses of all sizes need to accept and embrace this fact.

According to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), by 2025, the market for cloud computing is projected to be at US$623 billion.

With more than 50 percent of the world’s population now online — projected to grow to 70 percent by the end of the next decade, businesses not only need to go digital but have an incentive to do so at an accelerated pace.

Here are three of the most common technologies that are being adopted to date:

# 1 | Big data

The proliferation of the internet of things has made it easy to access data at any moment of time. It is the fuel that  powers the new industrial revolution and is invaluable when it comes to providing great business insights.

However, organizations must be cautious with big data. Much of it is highly sensitive and might include personal identification details or confidential client lists — which can result in data breaches and compromise both individuals and companies.

Data threats today are plentiful. Just the data brokering market-aggregating, copying, and selling data for commercial purposes-alone is worth approximately US$200 billion a year.

Thus, enterprises looking to pursue data at scale must ensure that there are security measures in place that can form a solid perimeter around company assets. Systems should be continuously monitored through continuous vulnerability assessments, without any delay in rectifying problems.

# 2 | 5G

5G is arguably the most promising tech that will be rolled out this year. It provides a high-speed digital infrastructure, reduces latency, and offers great bandwidth capacity.

With countries such as China and Singapore rolling out 5G commercially, it is prudent for enterprises to think about making the leap to 5G.

The main challenge with adopting 5G in the Asia Pacific region, however, is twofold.

Firstly, there is still a heavy reliance on legacy systems, and a reluctance to change. It is estimated that public and private sectors spend up to 80 percent of their budget maintaining inefficient legacy systems.

Also, not all countries possess the required 5G infrastructure, and many lack the digital maturity required to fully adopt 5G. However, businesses must be prepared for it when the technology makes a debut.

# 3 | Cloud computing

Using the cloud to host information can help a company reduce operational costs: the need for expensive on-site data centers is reduced, and the cloud, being scalable, allows for more agility than ever before.

However, the more information that is stored on the cloud, the higher will be the security risks.

As mentioned, breaches are disastrous as they open companies up to lawsuits in the aftermath of a cyberattack — especially with data privacy laws such as Singapore’s PDPA and Europe’s GDPR reflecting the needs of the modern era.

Organizations, therefore, must move to the cloud — but cautiously. Being slow to migrate to the cloud can stir just as much trouble as migrating without planning for security and privacy of data.