Businesses and society at large continue to turn to technology to solve some of the world's biggest challenges. For example, the healthcare industry is leveraging cloud, edge, and artificial intelligence to better monitor patients; The transportation industry is leveraging cloud, edge, and artificial intelligence to better manage transportation; The oil and gas industry is leveraging the cloud, edge, and artificial intelligence to remotely monitor assets. IT operations have evolved a lot over the past three years, with senior leaders and IT decision makers prioritizing IT transformation for business growth. A positive observation is that businesses in India are moving from whiteboards to implementation. Digital advancements continue to gain momentum against the backdrop of accelerating digitalization, and here are six key IT trends expected to transform businesses in 2023.

5G will transform IT infrastructure – Deploying 5G in India will boost IT services. Technologies such as cloud, edge, and artificial intelligence will have a significant impact across industries. Organizations moving to the cloud to effectively manage workloads will need advanced enterprise IT solutions to take advantage of new and emerging technologies. As 5G brings high-speed networks to process data faster, businesses now have the opportunity to modernize their infrastructure and experience enhanced performance to complement technological advancements such as IoT, AR/VR, experiential platforms, and more.

Increased demand for edge, artificial intelligence and IoT – 5G networks are about 10 times faster than 4G. This will increase real-time data processing, making edge computing a more viable option for businesses looking for faster insights. In the case of manufacturing, for example, 5G and edge technologies have great potential to drive "smart factories." Combined with artificial intelligence, the edge will enable autonomy in smart manufacturing processes, enabling IoT-equipped machinery to identify faults and transmit signals in a timely manner.

Increased adoption of Zero Trust – In the era of hybrid work and rapid digital transformation, traditional perimeter security will fail to protect organizations from cybercriminals who are innovative in their approach to targeting vulnerable organizations. Cybercrime is expected to cost the world an estimated $8 trillion by 2023, so protecting remote environments is critical. This is where the Zero Trust model will become more prominent – eliminating the attack surface, preventing lateral movement and reducing complexity. It also equips enterprises with AI-driven threat detection and advanced data protection controls to improve core IT and security. The rise of security-first thinking will enable enterprises to adopt a zero-trust architecture that minimizes privileges and access, and eliminates the shortcomings of traditional perimeter security approaches while securing modern cloud environments.

Businesses will benefit from as-a-service – ITDM is always looking for ways to reduce infrastructure complexity and gain ultimate flexibility. Everything as a Service (XaaS) offerings like Lenovo's TruScale enable businesses of all sizes to accelerate IT transformation with innovative, industry-leading solutions and a risk-free, surprise-free, pay-as-you-go model. As as-a-Service becomes more prominent in 2023, businesses will leverage the flexibility and scalability needed to stay competitive and manage their CapEx and OpEx. For example, during busy periods, e-commerce businesses may face downtime while managing maximum traffic. With a pay-as-you-go model, businesses can easily scale up or down to manage dynamic traffic loads during holidays or large discount sales

Sustainable computing – The energy demand for IT infrastructure drives up costs while also increasing carbon emissions. Data centers emit as much as the global aviation industry. Companies are already taking advantage of innovative cooling technologies to prevent energy consumption. Data center cooling technologies, such as warm water cooling and air-assisted liquid cooling, have become popular ways to reduce energy consumption. For more than a decade, Lenovo has been through Lenovo Neptune's™ direct water cooling technology is ahead of this trend. Neptune, currently in Phase Five, extends industry-leading data center efficiency to a wider range of servers, recycling warm water circulation to cool systems, enabling customers to reduce power consumption by up to 40 percent.

GPUs will become more prominent – GPUs are expanding from gaming only to accelerating different computing loads, maximizing the performance of graphic design, virtualization, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. GPUs equipped with deep learning and super samples can learn autonomously and begin to eliminate bottlenecks. As high-performance computing becomes increasingly prominent in managing intensive workloads, GPUs will play a vital role in scientific computing. For example, researchers utilize GPUs to visualize in high-performance computing workloads by parallelizing portions of compute-intensive code. This enables researchers, scientists, and engineers in science to virtualize big data and run simulations in a fraction of the time, enabling faster discovery.

According to NASSCOM estimates, the Indian tech sector surpassed $200 billion in FY2022. Driving this acceleration is the priority given to businesses for streamlined operations, faster time to market, and a seamless digital experience for customers. In today's hybrid environment, ITDM is adopting different technologies to improve overall efficiency and deliver value, a trend that will accelerate further in 2023.