Let us look at some of these essential IT investments for 2022.

Cloud-Native Managed Service

According to GlobalData forecasting, the global cloud computing market will reach $616 billion by the end of 2022, which is 13% more than 2021. Cloud-managed services will be a vital IT investment for businesses this year.

With this need of redesigning to become cloud-centric, even data center security will become essential. Thus, GlobalData expects cyber security investments to rise, particularly the SAAS (security-as-a-service) to stop cyberattacks.

Successful organizations will safeguard their applications and data to make work easy for their remote workers. They can use these cloud-native applications to keep the operation running even when there is a higher risk of downtime.

Data and Analytics

According to Global Big Data and Business Analytics, the market is projected to reach $684.12 billion by 2030, which was valued at only $198.08 billion in 2020. It results in a CAGR of 13.5% from 2021 to 2030. The data volume is increasing every day with new technologies and devices.

Data analysis helps organizations by identifying the requirements of the client, their social behavior, and buying habits. A technically sound data and analytics team enables organizations to efficiently forecast, plan, and make decisions wisely.

With so much data accumulated by the companies, there is always a threat of hacking and data breaches. This technology helps companies identify threats, while trend analysis and regression algorithms help recognize suspicious irregularities and/or activities.

Employee Experience

Companies often try new things to increase the productivity and retention rate of their employees. They often use Employee Experience software to achieve this goal.

Employee Experience software helps managers and employees determine exactly how they feel. It offers support and encouragement to co-workers, provides them feedback as they develop, coaches new hires, and conducts surveys. It makes employees feel valued and allows the management to enforce and use the feedback or suggestions.

Moreover, software like this helps with employee retention. People often want to leave their jobs because of a lack of recognition of their performance, poor relationships at work, or missing skills for business goals. Employee Experience software helps employees feel connected to their teams and leaders as they receive the proper assessment and understand what’s expected.

Customer Experience

In 2021, customer experience became the key brand differentiator overtaking both products and prices. Customers now hold more decision-making power. Thus, in 2022, it should be a priority for all organizations to make them feel powerful.

According to a study conducted by Watermark Consulting in 2015, companies that invest in customer experience achieve higher profits and growth. A good customer experience also lengthens their relationship with such companies.

This technology also lets the team function better by providing feedback to the employees. The team can work on changing strategies to make a customer happy if the feedback is not good. On the contrary, good feedback can make them feel motivated.

Security

According to cyber security statistics, by 2023, the number of DDoS attacks will rise to $15.4 million.

Cyber security, therefore, evolved quickly from being just an IT issue to a business problem. Thus, investing in the right kind of IT support products, cyber security advisory services, and cyber security training has become necessary. Cyber security secures businesses from many security risks, like adware, spyware, and ransomware.

These investments save money for businesses exponentially in the long run. When a network undergoes a cyberattack, it affects its work cycle and daily sales. Sometimes, in the case of a ransomware attack, the organization might also have to pay an enormous amount to intruders to get their data back. By making the network secure, organizations can avoid all these losses.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence lets systems automatically analyze and enhance experiences without being explicitly programmed. It has proved helpful for most sectors, like robots, enterprise, education, defense, automobile, etc.

AI can help solve the labor shortage problem by reaching job seekers from a more diverse field. It can study people’s behavior, social media feeds, and previous jobs to determine if they fit in a given role.

This technology also helps automate work, increasing the production rate and allowing reduced lead times, improved product quality, superior safety, and more efficient use of raw materials. AI can also take care of performing any recurring tasks that are monotonous and draining for employees. It is especially helpful for the sales, marketing, and HR departments of the business, leading to quick execution of the business processes without needing any manual effort.

Key Takeaways

The pandemic has created a notable impact on the IT industry. It will continue to reflect in 2022. IT budgets are expected to increase, and tech vendors will serve IT buyers better by understanding their goals and needs as companies navigate these changes. These investments allow businesses to achieve success milestones easily by offering better products or services.