Top strategic technology trends in 2021

Top strategic technology trends in 2021

As is our culture, at the end of the year, we publish a summary of some of the emerging software engineering trends. We draw on our knowledge, current news, and our customers' requests and perspectives to make these assumptions. In case you're wondering, by the way, here's last year's article in which we predicted a COVID-19 pandemic (just kidding, we were as surprised as you were.

Yes, although in many ways 2020 seems like a lost cause when it comes to digital transformation, software technology is more hectic than ever. That's why it's necessary to stay on top of the current trends happening in your industry, as it will allow you to make better decisions and stay ahead of the competition. So what does the post-pandemic world of software development hold in 2021

Know the latest trends in software development?

Virtual reality.

This time, virtual reality is at the forefront of the latest trends in software development. After all, Facebook's launch of the Oculus Quest 2 could mark a turning point in VR adoption, as it not only frees the user from the desktop but also offers a high-end - and at €299, truly affordable - immersive experience. Tech-savvy entrepreneurs and software developers alike immediately jumped on the idea, and, as a result, new VR applications are created every day. They offer exciting engineering, healthcare, e-commerce, education, digital marketing, and other essential business areas.

Better still, with projects like WebXR, VR is becoming more accessible. The move to remote working has even created a movement advocating virtual offices with gamification elements. So who knows, ladies and gentlemen? With all these improvements in virtual reality, we may all soon be working from virtual offices in a collaborative VR environment. This entire article is written from the comfort of a virtual café.

Virtual workspaces as a potential trend for 2021.

• Cloud trends in 2021
• Multi-cloud infrastructure.

With the recent significant disruption of AWS, enterprises would do well to consider creating a multi-cloud environment for their companies. As the name implies, this is where enterprises combine their operations with multiple cloud providers to improve the resilience of their applications and services. In this way, they can maximize each platform's benefits and mitigate the drawbacks, such as data loss or unplanned downtime. However, other advantages include not being tied to one vendor and achieving optimal performance.

Next year, Amazon will also launch Amazon ECS Anywhere, which includes on-premises data centers in addition to AWS-managed infrastructure. 

Quarks

Quarks may be the latest in a series of open source development trends, but it is poised to grow Java's very future. Created by Redhat, it is a full-stack structure for Java virtual machines that enables the development of so-called cloud-based, or "Kubernetes-enabled" applications (written in Java, Kotlin, or Scala). Besides improving boot time, runtime costs, and performance, Quarkus simplifies life for software developers by offering real-time restart feedback and providing unified configuration.

Spring Boot Loader. 

Spring Boot will also continue to be an excellent choice for the Java platform in 2021. The framework makes it easy to build standalone Spring applications, providing a flexible solution for configuring transactions with databases, Java Beans, and XML and offering batch processing and robust REST endpoint management. Best of all, Spring Boot simplifies dependency management and automatically configures applications.

Micronaut

Another framework worth keeping an eye on is Micronaut, an upcoming JVM-based juggernaut, as it may be the most desirable technology to study in 2021. By default, the structure helps the most popular cloud features - including Eureka, Kubernetes, and Netflix Ribbon - externally 

Codeless/low-code technology trends in 2021.

Who says you need developers to bring your product to market? As market leaders Google and Amazon have shown, the continued growth of low-code and no-code platforms makes software development more ubiquitous than ever. While, to some extent, low-code software still requires coding by people familiar with programming, it has become faster - and cheaper - than ever before.

On the other hand, Codeless software takes the concept of low-code to a whole new level and, depending on who you ask; the mayor will have a dramatic impact on the future of software development. But what seems will shift the program to non-programmers - or what some call 'citizen developers.' 

No-code and low-code platforms allow companies to serve customers worldwide without having to maintain their developers. In this way, companies can create websites from pre-built blocks, exchange data with CRM solutions, add online payments using Stripe, and even collect customer feedback using Google Forms or another provider. Entrepreneurs, in turn, can minimize time to market and evaluate their product or business concepts in record time.

More cross-platform frameworks

Multi-platform frameworks are becoming more common, and this couldn't come at a better time. After all, they allow companies to reuse virtually all business logic and UI across mobile, desktop, and web platforms with little effort and in one fell swoop. A great example is the Uno platform, which enables existing .NET teams to create excellent cross-platform applications. Other alternatives include Xamarin, Log4j, and Bunyan.

Rival technologies: Rust vs. C++, Flutter vs. Electron

When it comes to developing system tools, Rust is likely to share the C/C++ market significantly. Simultaneously, Flutter and Dart will continue to improve their desktop support - and thus compete with Electron for this particular market segment.

ARM chip

Microsoft's grand experiment with the Surface Pro X seems timely as more devices move to the ARM architecture, primarily due to more straightforward design, power efficiency, and application portability. Apple itself recently left Intel with their MacBook Pro's new M1 chip touting "up to 2.8x processor performance, up to 5x graphics speed [and] up to 11x faster machine learning." There will undoubtedly be growing pains, but the potential for future applications is enormous.

Deep Learning Technology Trends in 2021

Despite the conspicuous hype, there is much to be excited about in OpenAI's new GPT-3 language model. Not only does it include arguably the largest and most sophisticated neural network currently available, but it can also generate anything with a language structure - from poetry to creative fiction to attempting to write computer code. It accomplishes the latter to the impressive level of a junior developer. However, recent reports have suggested that the technology is still far from the singularity it appears to be. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI himself, has admitted that it is only a "first taste" of the future. However, the Elon Musk-founded company has been the talk of the town since it released its API last June - so we'll have to wait and see what comes of it.

Databases

Over the past year, the world has continued to witness the extraordinary expansion of data. With this remarkable growth, you usually had to invest in additional DBA services. But today, you can take the help of various AI consultants like EverSQL and Postgres.ai and save money by integrating these services into your company's development process.

On the other hand, DB vendors such as Oracle are expanding their solutions with more modern autonomous databases. Suppose you're not familiar with this term. In that case, it refers to a cloud database that - according to Oracle's website - uses machine learning to "automate database tuning, security, backups, updates and other routine management tasks traditionally performed by DBAs." 

Moreover, unlike a conventional database, a standalone database can perform these tasks without any human intervention.

NET 5

This month, Microsoft released .NET 5, a significant update to the .NET platform designed to provide developers with a unified, cross-platform experience. The platform replaces .NET Core 3.1 and .NET Framework 4.8, making their various headache-inducing variants - i.e., .NET Standard, Mono, etc. - completely obsolete. - completely obsolete. Also, .NET 5 brings C# 9, the latest version of the platform's programming language, with exciting new features. And although .NET MAUI, the long-awaited evolution of Xamarin. Unfortunately, forms have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic; life for .NET developers has already become much more comfortable

Lower app store fees and cloud infrastructure costs.

And finally, to complete the list of technology trends in 2021, the various platforms are becoming cheaper! Not only has Apple announced its App Store Small Business Program, which will lower App Store fees by 50% for all businesses earning $1 million or less per year, but the cost of cloud infrastructure should also come down. For this reason, it may be cheaper to use a cloud provider if you currently run your on-premise infrastructure. And who knows? If we're lucky, we might even end up benefiting from some exciting new developments!