We are a few weeks into 2022, and you might have seen or read articles and reports on trends for this year. I also like to outline the few significant IT trends in this blog post from my point of view based upon my work as Cloud Editor for InfoQ and experiences in the consulting field.

First of all, the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). You can see that Microsoft, for example, is structurally building these kinds of capabilities into their entire platform. Its intelligence is increasing rapidly, and you can already see with enterprises that they can quickly make valuable business applications with it.

Microsoft is already implementing it in their Azure environment. For example, monitoring users’ login behavior is a straightforward example: they continuously keep track of which user logs in when and from which location. They also immediately pass all the data they collect through an AI robot, which will make connections. Furthermore, other examples are that the company enhanced its Translator service and launched the Azure OpenAI service. And it’s not just Microsoft as other public cloud vendors AWS and Google are on board too.

The second trend I see is that more and more companies are looking at options for customizing applications without really having to program, with no code or low code. This has been in the spotlight for some time now, especially among larger companies that would like to facilitate their so-called citizen developers to develop software for use in their own work.

To this end, Microsoft has developed the Power Platform over the past two to three years into a mature low-code platform, which is also interesting for larger organizations. However, you do have to look closely at governance; you can’t just release that completely to users, and you have to build in-game rules, frameworks, and guidelines.

We also see increasing adoption of that platform among enterprises, especially with Dynamics 365. The combination of Dynamics 365, Office 365, and Power Platform is becoming a compelling low-code platform for building business applications. Microsoft has an excellent starting position in the low-code market space with competitors like OutSystems, Mendix, and offerings by AWS (HoneyCode, Amplify) and Google (AppSheets). Also, I recommend reading the InfoQ article: Low-Code Platforms and the Rise of the Community Developer: Lots of Solutions, or Lots of Problems?

The third major trend is cloud integration. In recent years, many organizations have moved to the cloud with their applications and data or will move in the wake of COVID-19. Moreover, organizations that have moved to the cloud are now discovering that as you adopt more cloud technology, the need for integration between those systems increases.

Assume you have a CRM from Microsoft, an ERP from SAP, and a data warehouse on Azure. Your business processes run across all those systems. So you must therefore ensure that these systems can exchange data with each other. And you have to make sure that if you have a CRM in the cloud and a customer portal based on customization, you can also see your customer data in that portal. Or some data needs to enter a system on-premise. So, in the end, you need to integrate that!

Therefore, the need for cloud integration is increasing, especially among organizations increasingly investing in the cloud. Microsoft has an answer to that, too, with a perfect and very complete integration platform on Azure named Azure Integration Services (AIS). As a result, even the most demanding enterprises can meet their needs with this.

Recent analyst reports from Gartner and Forrester showed the services are leading. For example, Microsoft was among the leaders in the latest Forrester Wave for Enterprise Integration-Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) 2021. In addition, it has been in the leader quadrant of iPaaS reports from Gartner consistently over the last couple of years and that also accounts for API Management.

Lastly, with the last trend, the need for integration increases, and so will the demand for supporting and monitoring them.