For those at the forefront of innovation it is an incredibly exciting place to be, but what trends are we likely to see coming to the fore in 2016? Below are six predictions relating to security, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) that will have a major impact on the technology landscape.

1. The death of the password is rapidly approaching. New and more serious data breaches among well known consumer brands will continue to erode faith in perimeter and credential-based security approaches.

The security approach where you only evaluate risk when someone’s at your door is becoming less workable. When you can continuously analyse someone’s authenticity while already in the system, then you can provide a high security environment while still offering ease of use to the end user. Especially with the IoT bringing billions of new devices, services and apps online, the ability to continuously monitor and authenticate users while they’re in your house will become a real business advantage.

2. Chip to cloud (or device to cloud) security protection will be the new normal

As technology advances, the security data chain continues to grow, presenting an increasing number of opportunities for hackers. With most data chains spanning the full spectrum of chip, device, network and cloud (plus all stages in between), many organisations are starting to realise a piecemeal approach to protection simply isn’t effective. This is spurring the adoption of more ‘chip to cloud’ strategies. In this model, all objects with online capabilities are secured the moment they come online, meaning their identity is authenticated immediately. In doing so, it eliminates any window hackers have to hijack the identity of unsecured objects.

3. New technologies and standards that enable consumer privacy and security will become a competitive differentiator

Users want to take advantage of services that will simplify their lives – but not at the cost of compromising their privacy and safety. User Managed Access (UMA) makes this possible.  Those that embrace it early will be able to build a far stronger relationship with customers built on trust and mutual benefit.

4. The evolving IoT will change the way we interact with the world

To date, the majority of popular IoT applications are ‘nice to have’ rather than business critical. This is about to change. Central to this is the increasingly intertwined relationship between people, ‘things’ and apps, meaning things like medical devices, thermostats, security cameras and cars are able to receive a constant stream of personalised information straight to their device. Securing these systems will be critical to public safety, and digital identity will be the critical security layer as smart cities get built out. 

5. Tagging data at source will multiply the value of big data exponentially

Most businesses are still struggling to extract any value from the data they gather. This is typically because they are looking at the data in isolation. In order to make sense of big data, it must be examined within the context it was collected.  Tagging data at the point of collection with additional contextual information multiplies the value that can be extracted from it. Factors such as where and when the data was collected or who/what it was collected from are central to understanding data more effectively. Consent, context, identity and security data points will all boost the value of big data exponentially.

6. The fight to become the ‘Amazon of the IoT’ will intensify

As the IoT’s vast potential becomes more apparent, we will start to see a growing number of organisations fighting to establish themselves as the go-to provider of IoT solutions, or the Amazon of the IoT. This will spur the rise of the IoT mega-platform; vast one-stop-shop Platform-as-a-Service solutions. The battle will likely play out across both the consumer and enterprise spaces and many of the usual suspects are already coming to the fore. Apple, Google and Intel are all vying for control of our homes, while Microsoft, IBM and Oracle are fighting over our businesses, but the scene could be set for a disruptive innovator to come in and take everyone by surprise. After all, no one had heard of Amazon 20 years ago.

ABOUT LASSE ANDRESEN//

Lasse Andresen is CTO at ForgeRock