2016's Hot Enterprise Technology Trends

1. Machine Learning

Machine learning comes to the fore.

With Amazon releasing its machine learning (ML) service earlier this year (and with other companies rushing in to take advantage of the machine learning API landscape), ML technology is set to explode in 2016.

Why? Just as all of the major cloud companies (Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, etc.) provide analytics as a service, so do these companies provide machine learning APIs in the cloud. These APIs allow everyday developers (read: developers without much background in machine-learning technologies) to "build smart, data-driven applications that can not only analyze what's happening in real time or what happened in the past, but also predict what's going to happen in the future."

The end result of the 'Rise of Machine Learning' will mean that companies will have access to better, faster and more comprehensive data that — when combined with IoT capabilities — will lead to everything from better security applications to more accurate systems for medical diagnoses.

2. New Media Technologies

You might have heard about this little thing called content marketing — of course you have, and a big reason why is because it's an effective (and typically cheaper) method of marketing that has sort of become the rival to more traditional marketing tactics. What you may or may not know, though, is that creating a content marketing department is essentially the same as creating a media brand — when done the right way at least.

Being that the success or failure of any type of marketing program depends on being able to retrieve and implement relevant data, it makes sense then that new media technologies spending is set to really help grow (or break) inbound marketing programs across the board in 2016. Take for example Marriott, which has now adopted a full-blown media company to help grow its business.

With content marketing technology startups such as Contently, Percolate, and others drawing in big-time investment (Contently has raised over $12M in funding through five rounds and Percolate has raised close to $75M through four rounds) and with total investment in content marketing technology (through Sept 2015) in the billions already, 2016 looks to be a big year in terms of companies adopting more advanced media strategies to help promote their businesses, and grow their bottom lines.

3. Internet of Things

Competition in the IoT space gets fierce.

There really hasn't been a sexier topic of discussion and debate in 2015 than the Internet of Things. Where's it going, what's it doing, and what has it already done for enterprises/the general public?

Here's a snapshot of what we already know:

Gartner predicts that around 6.4 billion "things" will be connected to the Internet by 2016 (an estimate that's up 30 percent from 2015) and that projection grows to 20.8 billion by 2020. That's a lot of endpoints to connect and make secure, and with adoption happening this quickly, one thing that's for certain is that we're all hurtling extremely quickly toward the "age of IoT."

We've simply never seen anything within the enterprise space grow to scale as quickly as the IoT has thus far. And it's because of the lightning pace of adoption that security and implementation will become essential to the further success of how we integrate the IoT into our daily business lives. Whether that comes in better analytic capacities, industrial advances (such as making machines working more efficiently), or in wearable technology that lets us know the state of our personal health — the race to see how far we can take the IoT in 2016 has already begun.

4. Adaptive Security Advancements

It's already common knowledge that many CIOs — whether in the tech space or otherwise — list security as their top priority. And it's no wonder when you consider that large companies like Sony and Staples have been hit by major cyber attacks within the last two years.

To that end, Gartner predicts that adaptive security will be a big trend in 2016. As the Internet of Things (IoT) gains shape, more companies will acquire predictive security tools that allow them to take a more proactive approach when it comes to safeguarding their end-to-end business processes.