If we have gained anything from 2020, it is the knowledge that things can change at the drop of a hat. At this point, I’m sure that we are all ready for 2021 and what it has in store. Looking back at the year, we can see how things not only changed socially, but they changed technologically. We have depended on technology during this past year more than ever. Through socially-distanced tasks and increased hygiene practices, technology has been there through it all to make it possible.

Think about what would have happened if we did not have modern technology to carry us through this time. You may not have even given it a second thought. Technology has not only aided in keeping millions of people safe during this global pandemic, but it has also been constantly developing to help us in other ways of life as well. The year has certainly been a year of change and development. Technology has been at the forefront of that change. Although technology will always be evolving and changing, this year specifically should be recognized for its advances in technology. Here are some of the latest technologies of this year that are sure to influence people for years to come. 

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an expansive branch of computer science that deals with building machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. In its essence, it equips computer systems with the ability to make decisions like humans. AI is actually one of the top trending technologies of the modern day. It imitates human intelligence by performing tasks such as speech and pattern recognition, weather forecast, and much more. 

AI is becoming a bigger piece to our lives as technology evolves. Machines and technology are evolving into human-like things that can recognize when they do something wrong and also make improvements.

You may recognize AI in varying applications such as Uber, Siri, Google, Bing, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook and many more. Scientists expect Artificial Intelligence to create more than 70 million jobs. Although it’s creating so many more opportunities, it’s also taking away nearly 25 million jobs. AI is expected to create jobs such as maintenance, programming, data science, testing, support, and much more. This modern piece of technology will only become better and smarter as the years go on. 

2. Virtual Reality 

Virtual reality is a computer generated simulation that allows users to experience a three-dimensional environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment. It has become a very popular way for people to experience video games. In comparison to traditional video games, a virtual reality allows users to be right in the environment. These virtual environments stimulate tons of different senses, such as touch, smell and vision. People can experience VR most often on headsets. Companies like Facebook and Sony have taken full advantage of the potential of the technology and created their own version of virtual reality, such as Facebook’s Oculus Rift, Sony’s PlayStation VR, and HTC Vive. 

Virtual reality is not only used for video games or entertainment purposes, but it has also been adopted by the military for training. The three branches that use this are the Army, Navy and Air Force. Augmented reality and virtual reality are also used by doctors, museums, amusement parks and many more. The virtual reality industry is expected to bring in nearly $40 billion by 2021. 

3. Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, is the technology that allows anyone today to configure computer software, or a “robot”, to emulate the actions of a human interacting with digital systems to execute a business process. Essentially, it is a technology used for automating daily tasks. This type of technology is similar to Artificial Intelligence. The RPA technology is used for automating business tasks, such as replying to emails, handling business data, and processing transactions. RPA is capable of automating more than 40% of daily tasks. It might scare some people to know that RPA is technologically advancing far enough to take over a lot of jobs. Fortunately, it will create a lot of jobs too. Many businesses rely on RPA because of its many benefits. There are many companies that provide RPA tools such as Blue Prism, Pega Systems, and Work Fusion. 

4. Data Science 

Data Science is technology that helps make sense of difficult data. It is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge and insights from many types of data. Companies produce an immense amount of data every single day, including business, sales, customer profile information, financial information, and server data. Data scientists then take that data created and convert the unstructured data into structured data. Data scientists analyze this data in hopes of finding patterns. Those patterns are incredibly helpful in understanding the background of a company, such as looking at customer retention, business performance, finances and how those areas can be improved. How far technology has evolved, am I right? 

5. Edge Computing 

Believe it or not, edge computing is one of today’s most favored technologies. Edge computing is truly transforming the way data is being handled, processed, and delivered around the world. It actually brings computation and data storage closer to devices where it’s being gathered, instead of relying on a central location that could potentially be thousands of miles away. Edge computing essentially allows data from Internet of Things (IOT) devices to be analyzed at the edge of the network before being sent to the data center or cloud. Edge computing has been around for awhile. It has just been advancing in little ways over time. The technology was created to bring computing power as close as possible to its data source. It is estimated that by 2022 the edge computing market will be worth $7 billion. Edge computing is popular in retail, healthcare, manufacturing and many other jobs. 

This year has brought many changes. Technology has been right there with those changes, advancing and evolving along with modern times. Technology is something that will always be advancing. If we’re not careful, some of these advances may take over our jobs! Just kidding… At the moment, we should enjoy all that today’s technology has to offer and hopefully gain a better understanding of how it works.

For quite some time, WordPress has been known as the most powerful content management system on the market. With an estimated 35% of the Internet powered by WordPress, it’s immeasurable popularity doesn’t seem to be fleeting anytime soon. It’s hard to imagine that such a powerful system could possibly be close to death. 

WordPress has made extensive strides since its release in 2003. The powerful platform has evolved from a simple blogging tool into a comprehensive content management system. Would you believe me if I told you that WordPress is still growing? Yes, that’s right! To all those negative nellies out there that believe WordPress is even remotely close to death, look at the facts! 

What do researchers say?

There are over 2 billion websites in existence. As stated before, WordPress powers 35% of those active websites. That’s a huge number! WordPress websites also make up 14.7% of the top 100 websites in the world. Giant companies utilize WordPress to operate their website, such as NBC, TED, CNN, UPS, Best Buy, and many more. WordPress is also known to handle outrageous amounts of traffic on a daily basis. In fact, the powerful platform receives nearly 20 billion page views per month. 

As easy as it may be to point fingers and assume that WordPress is on the brink of death, think about how many people use it every single day. The platform continues to dominate the market; It shows no sign of slowing down. 

Given these statistics that clearly show the steady incline of WordPress success, it would be hard to imagine that such a system could possibly take a hit. What’s even more shocking is that people think the platform is actually dying! Everywhere you look, there are videos and articles pointing to seemingly prejudiced opinions as to why WordPress is headed for the junkyard. 

Why do people suggest WordPress is dying?

While the idea that WordPress is dying simply isn’t true, the reasons for such baloney should be addressed. When you take somebody who already dislikes WordPress and combine it with negative personal experiences, you get somebody who is fully convinced that the platform is on its way to the grave.

WordPress grew into its massive size because it has provided the simplest process for getting a website up and running. As the years have progressed, other web builders like Drupal, Joomla, and Wix have jumped into the competition in an effort to make a simpler web design process. In an effort to compete, those sites created their web design process to be as simple and easy as possible. Those sites were designed for the ultimate beginner, and as a result, making sites like Wix, Drupal and Joomla more restrictive. People started flocking to other platforms because they wanted a website that was easy to use and more limited.  

This placed WordPress in a very awkward position as it became people’s second-choice. People no longer considered WordPress a “go-to” solution. Although things have certainly changed, the platform is still dominating the market.

So? What else?

On top of the tempting competition, people consider WordPress on the brink of a brutal death because of its use of older technologies. 

WordPress uses a programming and scripting language called PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), which used to be extremely powerful and prevalent back when it was first created. It is still powerful, but not as powerful as it used to be due to the advancement of technology in other areas. PHP is a server side scripting language that is embedded in HTML. Its purpose is to manage content, session tracking, databases, and build e-commerce sites. Users do not need to know PHP in order to use or manage WordPress. Users just need to know that it operates with PHP. Although PHP has come a long way since its first release in 1994, people do not consider using it as often because of the creation of other, more efficient, scripts. 

The rise of JavaScript has taken over the minds of web creators all over the world, convincing them that WordPress is officially behind the times. JavaScript has most recently been ranked first among programming, scripting and markup languages. PHP was ranked 9th among that list. Although both programs can be used and enjoyed by developers, many people consider the popularity of the script language when deciding what to use, resulting in WordPress moving further down the list of content management systems that people most enjoy. 

No, it’s not dying…

While it’s true that WordPress has some hefty competition and uses older programming, the platform is still considered the most powerful content management system in the world. Keep in mind that technology is ever changing. It would be unfair to “pin” WordPress on the programming that has made them undeniably successful for years and years.

Despite what people may believe, WordPress is still growing and making changes. It is very alive and continues to dominate the market because of the number of people who are using it. Although WordPress might get a bad rap, there is no other content management system out there that can match its speed, efficiency, flexibility, adaptability, and support.

If I have enticed you to use WordPress for your website needs, then follow this link and my team and I will help you get started.

Understanding that high network reliability is the lifeblood of our clients, we are implementing network upgrades in a series of maintenance windows starting this August and lasting through September 2018. Why more than one maintenance window? Best practice mandates minimizing introducing too many variables at one time. In fact, over the past two decades, Hostirian has systematically implemented strategies to keep pace with technological advances.

“Our network is continually evolving in order to effectively maintain a redundant network with no single point of failure,”  said Dakota Jones, Hostirian’s Director of Network Operations.

To accomplish this with minimal disruption to our clients, we routinely schedule an orderly and well-prepared series of maintenance windows during time frames outside of peak business hours.

“Our goal,” according to Sascha Wintz, Vice President of Hostirian, “is to maintain a scalable and highly reliable network according to current standards.”

As always, we’re here to help 24 x 7 x Forever. Our support staff is physically located in the data-center so if you have an issue with your service, we are here to help you resolve that issue immediately. You do not have to wait or play phone tag to get ahold of someone who can actually help you with your problem.

T-REX is a world class venue providing startup entrepreneurs with low cost & flexible enterprise space, while serving the region with quality programming and an inspiring community. The immaculate building and work area is a testament to the dedication and passion business leaders and corporations have for innovation and creativity. Starting a business is not for the weak heart, many of the challenges and hurdles that startup’s have to go through can be demotivating. T-REX serves as a safe haven for start ups that are working hard and fighting even harder to have a presence in their respective industry. With state of the art tools, work areas, and access to support systems, T-REX provides the start up community with important resources that a budding company needs access to, all at a very affordable cost.

T-REX operates under a highly adjusted pricing model that fits the needs of small business start up ventures. With memberships starting at only $50 per month, entrepreneurs can get access to private phone booths, fiber internet connection, unlimited coffee, shared conference rooms and inclusion into all T-REX programming, thus providing start ups with good market exposure. T-REX also offers office space for tech companies, helping these businesses lower the cost of rent and overhead so that they can focus on their true innovation. With 8 venture accelerators and organizations providing grants and in-kind support services, organizations that become members of T-REX are granted access to multiple areas of funding for their respective projects. There are 8 multi-million dollar organizations co-located in T-REX providing access to vital resources for T-REX members. Every organization is committed to producing and supporting the innovation of the start up community.

With every “do-good” non-profit comes a need to raise dollars for their respective efforts. During this past week T-REX provided the St. Louis community an update and announcement about their need to enhance the work place, and increase it’s space to help serve more of the start up community. With demand at an all time high, T-REX is close to capacity in accepting office space members, and general members to use the state of the art facility. They are now looking to the community and business leaders in STL to raise resources to build a larger work area and space for start up ventures.

T-REX is a place of innovation, a place to take a dream and put it into action. In an ever increasing competitive marketplace, the need for affordable work space and access to resources is in high demand because it provides entrepreneur’s with the chance to succeed. Hostirian is a proud sponsor of T-REX and believes in the core values of Providing, Creating and Accelerating the start up community. The belief that helping others achieve success, and adding to their quality of life in their profession will provide great returns on investments for both individual businesses supporting the mission and the economic state of our local business community. 68 companies have graduated from the T-REX program, and solidified their brick and mortar footprint right here in St. Louis, providing the St. Louis business community economic growth and potential to become even better than yesterday.

If you believe in innovation, growth and hard work, check out the T-REX building downtown in the Lammert Building at 911 Washington Avenue. Enter through the lobby and take the elevators to the 5th floor to witness and experience great organizations in the making. We promise you won’t regret it.

About Historian:

Hostirian is a global market managed service provider, specializing in colocation, website hosting, social media management, and custom web/software development.  The company’s dedication to the industry, and their clients have given them the honor of working with some of the largest companies in the market. Hostirian’s team of developers, techs, and executives are dedicated to protecting and managing all things IT so that their client’s can focus on what matters.

Hostirian provides complimentary audits of businesses IT infrastructure. The strategy that Hostirian develops for each client is unique to the specific needs and goals of the respective company. Get in touch today.