News

 

With a New Year just around the corner, Viatel Technology Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Eilish O’Connor is looking ahead at what we can expect from tech for 2024. Below, she outlines her top 5 tech trends for 2024:

 

1.The Security Challenge

2. Increasing Regulatory Changes

3. Cloud Architecture

4. Invest in Low Code/NoCode

5. AI for all

 

Eilish O’Connor, CTO.

1. The Security Challenge

Increasing attacks are just one of the security challenges persistently facing organisations. Ransomware and data breaches are more likely to hit the headlines but contributing to sleepless nights are:

• Cyber security skills shortage: While Experis Ireland reports that 83% of Irish businesses expect to grow their cyber security team within the next 12 months, 90% of cybersecurity leaders say that the skills gap has affected their ability to implement cyber security strategy. (Read more on this here.)
• Evolving Regulatory Environments: Due to the growth in the digitisation of our processes, those who are obliged to adhere to compliance requirements must keep pace as the landscape continues to rapidly evolve.
• Data sprawl including Generative AI: In a world where data is king, ensuring that it has the expertise, storage, resources, and skillset to be managed correctly brings with it its own challenges.

 

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What Can We Do to Minimise These Challenges?

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• Adopt the “attacker’s view” to assess the effectiveness of key security controls.
• Increase the frequency of your validation testing to ensure consistency.
• Score the effectiveness of existing controls across multiple attack vectors.
• Assess SOC readiness and employee and partner behaviour to evaluate control effectiveness.
• Reduce complexity with Security Platform & Vendor Consolidation: According to Gartner, 60% of SME’s report to have improved their overall risk posture following a security vendor consolidation.

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The Importance of a Cyber- Security Culture

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Establishing a cyber-security culture is also critical to the success of your security strategy. You can learn more about how to do this in your organisation using the guidance of our cyber experts, here.

 

 

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2. Increasing Regulatory Changes

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nAs cyber-attacks become more complex, EU regulations around cyber-security continue to increase. However, this is not an EU-specific trend. China and the US are just two jurisdictions with rapidly expanding regulatory frameworks. NIS2 is aiming to build a high common level of cybersecurity across the European Union.

 

Changes Arising from NIS2

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NIS2 will apply to a wider pool of entities than currently covered by the NIS Directive. This includes new sectors whilst broadening the criteria for the conclusion of entities and categorised as essential or important. These sectors are then divided into two groups, “Sectors of High Criticality” and “Other Critical Sectors”.

 

One example of a ‘High Criticality’ sector is Banking and Financial Market Infrastructure. Financial institutions also fall under the regulations of The Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA), which introduces targeted rules on:

• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) risk management
• CT–related incident management, classification and reporting
• Digital operational resilience testing
• Managing of ICT third-party risk (including the introduction of an oversight framework for critical ICT third-party service providers)

 

Enforcement of these regulations must be prioritised for organisations to avoid the risk of penalty. The importance of having a trusted partner who understands how critical these regulatory changes are to your organisation has never been more crucial. If you would like to learn more about NIS2 click here and DORA, click here.

 

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3. Cloud Architecture

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‘Cloud’ is a catch all term but it encompasses public cloud, private cloud, M365, Power Apps, AI, Copilot and so much more. On-prem storage solutions continue to be surpassed by the flexibility and reliability of cloud solutions and this is something we will continue to see grow in 2024. However, ensuring your organisation has a partner with the range and experience to architect the correct cloud mix to guarantee cost optimisation is essential.

 

Leveraging the knowledge of an experienced cloud migration vendor is key to ensuring that your migration is as seamless as possible. The change from legacy solutions to the cloud is a big jump for any business, regardless of size or scale. Laying the groundwork for its success is as important as the actual deployment, having a team on hand who has a roadmap in place to secure, patch and deploy. The long- term cost savings, scalability and most importantly, built-in security features that cloud offers are a no- brainer for many organisations who are considering making the move.

 

At Viatel, we have worked with many of customers to help them on their cloud migration journey, one of which is St. Francis Credit Union. Learn more about the project and its success, here.

 

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4. Invest in Low Code No Code

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While low code, no code technologies are nothing new, we have witnessed its rise in popularity over the past few years. Increased pressure on operational performance, a widening of skills gaps and external economic factors have all contributed to this rise. As Tools like Microsoft Power Apps are now providing organisations with a cost-effective solution to their application and automation requirements. However, 2024 will see an extended era of growth for low code, no code as organisations continue to bridge the gap between operational improvements and talent acquisition.

 

At Viatel, we are expanding on our mission to equip your team with the skills to develop your organisation. If you would like to learn more about our low code application offering, ‘Automate in 10 Days’, you can learn more, here.

 

 

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5. AI for All

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Over the past 12 months, the landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown exponentially. AI has played a huge role in evolving the way we work. For 2024, we are expecting a surge in the use of AI. While it continues to have its place in our organisations, it has begged the question of how our teams are using it and how vulnerable our data is by using these tools. In the months ahead, we will see a trend in ‘making AI work for us’, leaning into the complexity of these tools to ensure that we are getting the best from them and using them to our advantage to establish an improved infrastructure and governance AI can help us to provide.

 

At Viatel, we know how important it is to keep your data secure, all while leveragag the benefits of AI tools such as ChatGPT. We created vAI, for Microsoft Teams, a secure Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool designed to keep privacy conscious organisations agile and at the forefront of technological change. Built on Microsoft Azure, vAI is the perfect example of a secure, private and compliant AI tool that allows your team to excel without comprimising on data protection. Learn more about vAI, here.

 

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Get in Touch

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As we look ahead, we are more conscious than ever about security challenges, regulatory changes and investment considerations like Cloud, Low Code, No Code Technologies and AI. Understanding your business needs and how best to invest can be challenging. Viatel Technology Group are proud to work with thousands of customers on their journey. If you would like to leverage the knowledge of Viatel’s experienced team for your 2024 planning, contact us at hello@viatel.com.

 

Wishing you all the best for the year ahead.