Looking Back at 10 Years of Digital Transformation

A Decade of Becoming One With Technology 

The years between 2011 and 2020 can be aptly described as the decade that witnessed our personal and professional lives getting intertwined with digital technology to a degree we might never have imagined ever before. From being devices and platforms we use to almost extensions of ourselves, digital technologies are integral to how we function today. The world has become "hyper-connected", and we are increasingly being driven to live in an "always-on" environment.  

That said, here's a look at the last ten years of digital transformations that impacted us the most. 

Telecommunications

2010

• Telecommunications networks introduced 4G LTE service.
• Google Buzz and Fiber were released. 

2015 

• In December, the International Telecommunications Union approved the new G.fast standard, which became the next high-speed transmission technology over copper cabling.
• Companies like Google and AT&T announced the expansion of fiber service across US cities.
• Mobile offload traffic surpassed cellular traffic for the first time, indicating an explosion of users' online activity over both cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity.
• The prevalence of Wi-Fi homespots surged.
• For the first time, 4G traffic exceeded 3G traffic. 

By 2020

• As telecommunication networks rolled out 5G service, the 5G hype began to deliver on the promises, making living life through the internet even more seamless.
• Other tech advances such as IoT and Cloud Computing received a bigger push with 5G coming into the picture. 

Personal Technology

2010 had several significant milestones in personal technology. Some of them are:

• Apple introduced the iPad
• Amazon sold more Kindle e-books in 2010 than paper books
• Instagram launched, and Facebook introduced Facebook Messenger
• Samsung introduced the Galaxy S phone, Apple rolled out the iPhone 4, and the Android OS reached release 2.3 Gingerbread

By 2015:

• Microsoft released Windows 10.
• Dish Network created the Sling TV streaming service.
• Apple introduced the iPhone 6s, the iPad Pro, and the Apple Watch.
• Android version 6.0 (Marshmallow) was released on October 5, 2015.
• Samsung introduced Samsung Pay.
• Google introduced Android Pay for all Android-based smartphones on September 11, 2015.
• Tesla announced that on October 15, 2015, that qualifying Tesla Model S cars would be receiving the Autopilot update that allows the Tesla cars to assist the driver.

By 2020:

• Apple released the iPhone 11.
• Samsung released the Galaxy S20 and the Galaxy Z Flip.
• Google released Pixel 4.
• Google acquired Fitbit and renamed Nest to Google Nest.

Media and Entertainment Technology

2010:

• MachinimaSports became the one billionth subscriber on YouTube on October 28, 2010.
• In 2010, Apple announced that over 10 billion tracks had been downloaded from iTunes since its initial release.
• Microsoft released the Kinect for the Xbox 360 on November 4, 2010.

By 2015:

• Dish Network created the Sling TV streaming service.
• AT&T completed its acquisition of DirecTV for $49 billion on July 24, 2015.
• Sony's PlayStation Now cloud gaming service (formerly Gaikai) was launched in January 2015.
• YouTube Red (now YouTube Premium) was released on October 31, 2015, and YouTube Music was released on November 12, 2015.
• Blizzard Entertainment announced on November 2, 2015, that they purchased King Digital (makers of Candy Crush) for $5.9 billion.

By 2018:

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gets enforced across Europe (including the additional Data Protection Act 2018 in the UK), marking this as a banner year in personal information security.
• The California Consumer Privacy Act follows closely on the heels. 

By 2020:

• Rockstar introduced the Rockstar Games Launcher in 2019.

Enterprise Technology

2010:

• Cloud computing made its way into the enterprise as a development and testing environment and, as a platform for less than critical services and apps" 
• The top tech giants Google, Microsoft, and Amazon launched its cloud services.
• Morgan Stanley calls the 2010s as the "data decade" with data becoming a critical enterprise asset
• Analytics took off in the enterprise landscape

2015:

• InformationWeek predicted, "' continuous delivery' replacing [the] agile programming movement as the most sought-after skill set among cloud customers". 
• This was the first full year of operation of Intel's Internet of Things Platform, which signalled the influx of massive amounts of data flowing into the big data storehouses in the cloud.

2020:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominates the cloud computing market, with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud following as the 2nd and 3rd most used cloud services respectively. 
• Cloud-enabled enterprises will deal with security and talent as two significant concerns. Computerworld quotes Martin Henley, senior vice president of technology services at Globality as saying, "Companies will need to have a strong program in place for attracting and refreshing true engineering talent, including Gen-Z. Being able to retain acquired talent will be where organizations gain or lose a competitive edge, and the impact of this will start to be seen in 2020."

Future Digital Transformation Trends 

Having seen how the past decade has shaped up the digital transformations impacting our lives and workplaces, let's take a brief look at what the future holds. 

Faster Wi-Fi to accelerate the pace and stability of connectivity 

The growing number of connected devices demand faster, more efficient, and smarter network capabilities. With Wi-Fi 6 and 5G working in tandem to deliver faster processing and wireless connection speeds that will lead to seamless and more stable connectivity for home and workplaces. 

Analytics will become a competitive edge

Most organizations have realized that the future lies in data and that success will come from the capability to process data in real-time for actionable insights. Plus, as the amount of data to be collected, processed and turned into insights continues to rise, it will be hard to remain competitive without making use of modern analytics tools.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Language to get better at their job

With AI and machine learning algorithms getting better at data analysis and prediction, these technologies are making it possible to break down and analyze complex data sets in a fraction of the time than what it took just a couple of years ago. AI and ML are also making analytics tools more intuitive, easy to use, and dependable. Going by trends and experts' opinions, it's clear that with time, their speed and accuracy is only going to improve.   

Blockchain to go beyond cryptocurrency

In 2020 and beyond, we'll see more significant use cases of blockchain than cryptocurrency. With big players like Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, IBM, and Alibaba making a splash in this field, we're beginning to see real use cases for blockchain beyond monetary transactions and cryptocurrencies. Forbes columnist, Dan Newman believes that "2020 could be the start of the true rise of Blockchain". He also points out food safety, intellectual property and royalties, and real estate/asset management as viable areas of application for the technology. 

UX and User Privacy continue to rule

Being a top factor in driving successful digital transformation efforts, user and customer experience (UX/CX) will continue to witness more business investments. Privacy, on the other hand, is fast becoming a brand differentiator with consumer preference tipping in favour of brands that give them control over their data. As such, we'll see more companies getting serious about privacy and data security issues shortly. 

Bottom line

The digital economy is a secure and growing sector of the economy, and the demand for skills in the emerging technologies of digital transformation is also growing. The time is now to adapt your career to changing digital technology and prepare for secure jobs in the digital future. Simplilearn offers the education you need to ensure your place in this evolving landscape. Our blended learning approach and our breadth of course offerings equip you to be a top practitioner in whichever aspect of the digital economy you choose.