Deloitte: Blockchain, a Top Tech Trend in 2019

Three new technologies, namely blockchain, cognitive and digital reality, have taken up the “disruptor” mantle, each poised to become a distinct macro force in its own right, according to a new report by Deloitte.

Deloitte’s annual Tech Trends report explores the technologies that will reshape business and government in the next 18-24 months. According to the firm, over the next five years, blockchain, digital reality and cognitive will likely become as important as digital experiences, analytics and cloud are today.

The report stresses out the “profoundly disruptive” nature of blockchain which will likely transform not only business but also the way humans transact and engage. It notes that large enterprises and consortia are deploying enterprise-grade blockchain solutions and that as technical hurdles and policy limitations are being resolved, we will likely see breakthroughs in gateways, integration layers, and common standards in the next few years.

“Concerns around scalability and cost-performance of transaction processing are being addressed as proof-of-stake becomes a viable alternative to proof-of-work consensus, and enterprise tools have emerged to manage and maintain high-performance blockchain stacks,” the report reads.

“When further breakthroughs occur, expect blockchain to become even more ubiquitous. The door will be open for cross-organizational business process reengineering, an arena that encompasses massive transformation and possibilities across industries, functions and geographies.”

Blockchain technology will continue to gain boarder adoption as organizations gain deeper understanding of its transformational value. IDC projects that annual global spending on blockchain solutions will real US$9.7 billion by 2021.

The report also highlights six key trends redefining the nature of work and changing IT’s relationship with the business. These are:

• The integration of artificial intelligence into every core business process as well as products;
• The next stage in the evolution of cloud computing with technical resources completely abstracted and management tasks increasingly automated;
• Advanced networking with the development of technologies like 5G, mesh networks and edge computing;
• Intelligent interfaces combining the latest in human-centered design technologies with technologies such as computer vision, conversational voice, auditory analytics and augmented/virtual reality;
• A new generation of marketing tools and techniques focused on personalized, contextual and dynamic exchanges; and
• DevSecOps, short for development, security and operations, which strives to automate core security tasks by embedding security controls and processes into the DevOps workflow.

Deloitte’s Tech Trends 2019 report echoes predictions from Arun Ghosh, US’ blockchain leader at KPMG, who foresees that blockchain adoption will spike across numerous sectors this year, including energy and government.

“We will see a greater understanding of what blockchain is – and what it is not. Combined with more accessibility via blockchain services on public clouds, companies will move towards successful implementations and strategic projects that result in business outcomes – such as reducing reconciliations in the order to invoice process or financial services organizations combatting fraud,” Ghosh said in a statement.

Tokenization will continue to take hold in 2019 with loyalty set to emerge as one of the key areas to be the most impacted. Ghosh predicts that an increasing number of companies will tokenize loyalty rewards to drive better customer experiences.

He also anticipates the converge of blockchain with the Internet-of-Things (IoT) with blockchain helping companies overcome the limitations in device security and data assurance by providing a secure framework for communication between devices and enhance data security across IoT and 5G networks.