Together with our experts, we have looked at the market and see three trends making the most impact in Belgium in 2022: Cloud goes vertical, Cyber AI: Real defense, and The tech stack goes physical.
In Cloud goes vertical, we look at how cloud is freeing organizations to focus their resources on differentiation, as cloud and software vendors offer vertical-specific solutions that modernize legacy processes and jump start innovation.
The growing implementation of smart devices and cloud technologies offers great opportunities to businesses. However, it has also introduced more complexity and security concerns. With mesh networks, large scale IoT implementation, and the introduction of 5G and 6G networks, the attack surface is far greater in 2022 than at the beginning of 2020. In Cyber AI: Real defense, we review the changing role of AI in cybersecurity.
The Tech stack goes physical considers the explosion of smart devices across all sectors—and asks what this means for the role of IT teams as the focus shifts from systems to the physical world.
While the pandemic has of course fueled this year’s trends, they are not a direct response to COVID-19 disruption: instead, we see that existing priorities have simply been underlined.
We hope these Belgium-specific reflections will inspire debate and discussion with your leadership.
How do new cloud offerings deliver a competitive advantage?
Belgian CIOs are increasingly delegating IT responsibilities that are considered as non-strategic to either a cloud provider or a cloud managed services partner, enabling the organization to focus on innovation enablers for the business.
These cloud-native development capabilities, combined with the cloud’s unprecedent data ingestion and processing capabilities, are creating a paradigm shift, as Belgian companies increasingly change their business models.
With cloud foundations in place, businesses are empowered to further standardise non-differentiating systems such as ERP. These standardised systems can then be enriched with systems of differentiation and innovation based on cloud-native technologies. A boom in the availability of increasingly industry-specific, pre-built cloud services enables businesses to innovate fast, with a lower entry cost facilitating a ‘try fast, fail fast’ approach. Over the next 18 to 24 months, we expect to see a growing number of organizations across market sectors begin exploring ways that industry clouds can help them meet unique vertical needs.
The industry cloud trend is the next leg of the cloud journey for organizations already in the cloud, one that riffs on the cloud’s original promise of sharing resources to solve problems affordably and at scale.
Where does the explosion of smart devices come from?
In buildings, access control systems, cloud security cameras, CO2 monitors, and desk utilisation systems are fast becoming the norm. Businesses in our ports increasingly rely on smart devices for the identification of oil leaks, and remote monitoring and control of towing operations. Retailers are implementing track-and-trace systems to deliver operational enhancements and cold chain monitoring to improve food safety.
Remote asset monitoring offers manufacturers an increased understanding of operational efficiency. And, connected devices are not only business critical but a matter of life and death in the public and healthcare sector, where all assets—from machines to smart watches, hospital beds to syringes—are becoming connected to enable connected healthcare.
Digital transformation is also happening within Belgian governmental organisations, where we see many proof of concepts and the start of ad-hoc innovation. However, the structural transformation of the core business to accommodate innovation, including leaner procurement processes, and a standardised structured approach for the Belgium public sector as whole, still requires further maturing.
How is the role of IT changing in 2022 and beyond?
While the uses of smart devices may differ by sector, CIOs increasingly need to manage physical technology stacks. And as physical systems become mission critical, the stakes rise. There are more and more assets to manage, no longer only behind closed doors but spread in the field, with diverse landscapes and standards. Organisations maintain control of some assets, while others are managed by a third party. Businesses need to manage the security and confidentiality risks inherent in this diversified operation.
Another challenge is the readiness of devices for industrial grade. Devices with IP67, ATEX or HACCP certifications are not readily available, and the electronic shortage last year has limited further development and customisation.
What is next for smart device regulation?
The EU is acting to strengthen security for IoT devices, with the Radio Equipment Directive setting out new requirements which manufacturers will need to comply with in the near future. Furthermore, businesses are looking to harden their IoT pipelines from edge to cloud—continuously testing and improving their infrastructure and systems to make them safer and more reliable.
It is expected that compliance and regulatory processes will transform in the coming years from manual and paper-based toward real-time, in-line asset monitoring. First as an additional or alternative flow, but over time this could become the standard.
What does the cybersecurity landscape look like in Belgium?
Security is high on everyone’s agenda. Organisations want to protect their most valuable assets—the ‘crown jewels’—from the prying eyes of competitors, from getting compromised by malicious adversaries, and from misaligning with corporate and regulatory policies.
However, despite making significant investments in security technologies, organizations in Belgium continue to struggle with security breaches due to evolving tactics. An increase in cyberattacks has led businesses to look to AI to assist with their decision-making processes. Existing technologies place AI front-and-centre, helping to triage events and suggest improvements to control surfaces, such as technology policies, firewall settings, and anti-malware configuration.
How have cyberattacks changed?
Alarmingly, cyberattackers too are realizing the power of AI. To avoid detection, they are increasingly attacking AI algorithms, installing bias, and using AI bots and AI to introduce ‘fuzziness’ into the attacks. They are also using AI to slow down their attacks, submerging them into day-to-day noise. For example, slow password guesses often go unnoticed among the many genuine instances of users entering incorrect passwords.
In Belgium, we observe advanced, determined attackers with time on their side. While many of the most visible cyberattacks, such as ransomware attacks, unfold at a high speed, truly advanced cyberattacks are not executed at the speed depicted in many primetime series.
Attackers move forward at a stealthy, slow pace to avoid detection, relying on highly methodical, tactical approaches while they close in on their main targets. To support these mechanics, attackers rely on AI for smart automation of their attack procedures, which withstand smaller changes in the infrastructure.
How can businesses fight back with AI?
While this adoption of AI by cyberattackers increases the challenge for defenders, the outlook is positive.Cybersecurity teams succeed in detecting cyberattacks at earlier stages thanks to AI-driven decision support systems, and are able to apply smarter defence technology to actively adjust cyber security measures based on the behaviours observed in both users and attackers.
Cyber AI can enable security teams not only to respond faster than cyberattackers can move, but also to anticipate these moves and act in advance. Cyber defence engineers are no longer working on individual machines fighting malware, but act as generals: guiding their troops of anti-malware assets with more situational awareness than ever before to secure the most valuable IT assets. In Belgium and abroad, AI-enabled defensive technologies are ready for deployment and have transitioned into mainstream security solutions.
What does the future hold?
Meeting these challenges requires expertise that is not typically found in technology teams. With Belgium already facing a significant digital skills gap, leading businesses are upskilling their teams to manage this new normal, as technology shifts back into the physical world.
But there is good news too. A large number of start-up, scale-ups, and even unicorns have emerged in Belgium in recent years, and with many exciting new opportunities for all businesses on the horizon, the future looks promising.
If you would like to discuss any of these trends and learn how they apply to your organization, we would be happy to share our insights and help you to engineer your tech-forward future.
