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Once again this year, the Strategy and Organisation Working Group of the Association of Centres for Communication and Information Processing conducted a survey on the most important topics and trends of IT institutions from research institutions and universities in Germany. 85 institutions participated in this year’s survey, providing exciting insights into promising IT topics that will shape the year 2022.
Are you wondering what the top trends and topics are and what you need to be prepared for in the IT world? Then you’ve come to the right place!
Top Trends & Topics
The results of the core survey contain twelve consistent questions each year that provide promising insights into IT topics that are definitely worth keeping an eye on. We have compiled the most central points for you:
Which top trends stand out in IT in general? In the top 3, IT security stands out in first place, followed by cloud offerings and machine learning. Mobile working and digitalisation have also joined the top 5 general IT trends.
The fact that the topic of IT security plays a major role at RWTH Aachen University cannot be overlooked: for example, a cyber security awareness training course was launched at the university in December last year to familiarise students and staff with the topic of phishing and IT security in general – an important and central topic that the university is also dedicating itself to this year in order to ward off possible cyber attacks and get a feel for the right measures to take. Ever heard of vishing? We have already addressed the issue and keep up with all the important developments in the IT world.
In this year’s survey by the ZKI, the topic of IT security is generally considered to be the number one top trend, and this also applies to the question of which top trends are particularly relevant for the German higher education and research landscape.
Here, cloud offerings secure second place. The topic of cloud-based data space or FAIR DATA Space, a digital space to be created for business and science, also turns out to be a mega-trend for the year 2022 and should definitely not be swept under the table 😉 Keep up to date on this on our blog as well.
The issue of staff shortages is preoccupying universities nationwide and has earned itself a third place on the podium.
Topics that are currently being strategically addressed at German universities are, in first place, IT Security, closely followed by Research Data Management and Digitisation. The topic of research data management remains very present in the German research landscape and represents a central issue. This is also the case for RWTH Aachen University: There are many places to go around the topic of research data, such as on the RWTH websites and the RDM blog.
New technologies?
What new and increasingly relevant technology trends should we be prepared for this year? Multi-factor authentication, cloud and Docker containers are the top trends in the Top Trends survey. What exactly is meant by multi-factor authentication and why it contributes to more security, we have prepared on our blog.
In addition, services and technologies such as application management, HISinOne and collaboration solutions will play a significant role for universities in 2022.
The survey offers even more promising insights: the complete analysis of the entire survey can be found on Zenodo.
The fast-moving IT world and digitalisation require constant adjustment and reaction. We are curious to see how the topics and trends will continue to develop this year and keep our eyes and ears open. 🙂
Responsible for the content of this article is Lina-Louise Kaulbach.
