It’s a new year, and you know what that means — the gym is going to be really busy for the next month. That’s one thing we can all predict with certainty. But, if you’re like me, then as you’re standing there waiting for your favorite machine to free up, you may be wondering things, like “Will data centers achieve carbon neutrality in time to save the planet? Will our critical infrastructure remain safe from hackers? And, will I still be waiting in line for this machine next year, or will I have my very own virtual gym in the metaverse?” Maybe not.

But, since curiosity usually gets the best of me, I turned to some industry experts to find out what their Magic 8-Balls are telling them about the future of the mission critical industry. Here are some of the predictions that caught my eye.

Construction

“In 2023, the ubiquity of 5G will drive a tremendous amount of traffic into the core center and cloud. Data center construction will ramp up significantly, and power demand will spike in response to ongoing digitization priorities. U.S.-based original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and data center designers are considering lowering reliance on other countries for materials and labor, as national security and economic concerns remain at the forefront for US enterprises.”

— Vito Savino, data center segment leader for ABB Power Conversion

Critical infrastructure

“The protection of critical infrastructure industries continues to receive increased attention as attacks on these organizations run rampant. While many attacks against sectors like utilities and manufacturing have remained digital, 2023 will bring about physical cybersecurity attacks against vital organizations like water treatment plants that shut down entire city supplies for days. Water facilities represent a softer target than power plants for example which are used to fending off attacks traditionally. Especially on the heels of the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis, attackers will look to take down water systems in heavily populated areas to cause significant disruption since the damage would be longer-lasting.”

— Nick Tausek, lead security automation architect at Swimlane

Cyber insurance

“Today, cyber insurance policies are developed very naively – looking at the organization’s number of employees and revenue alone to build premiums, but this does not provide an accurate view of a company’s security posture. As vendors and cyber insurance providers work together in 2023 to converge on the best way to underwrite a cyber insurance policy, they will begin to look at a “company’s bloodwork.” This will include meaningful metrics that are demonstrative of the maturity and resilience of the organization’s cybersecurity posture, much like what is done for an individual’s life insurance policy.”

— Rohyt Belani, CEO and co-founder of Cofense

Cybersecurity

“Unsophisticated hackers will be the biggest threat to enterprises in 2023. Today, the gap between less sophisticated and highly sophisticated attacks is getting lower and lower. Anyone can find and purchase sophisticated tools that can bypass most current security solutions on the dark web. Because of this, software leveraged by highly sophisticated actors like state-sponsored hackers is now becoming increasingly common to much less sophisticated actors that target organizations in all industries just for profit, which is highly alarming.”

—  Avihay Cohen, CTO and co-founder of Seraphic Security

“Instead of using common programming languages like Python, threat actors will begin leveraging languages, like Rust, that cybersecurity tools aren't designed to catch, causing attacks to go undetected. Some organizations today continue to neglect to implement cybersecurity basics that detect and prevent basic attacks, let alone attacks built on uncommon languages.”

— Terry Olaes, senior technical director at Skybox Security

“The CISO’s role is all about prioritization, especially as they face economic pressures and uncertainty. When looking at the threat landscape, more than 90% of an organization’s threats come in via email and end at a system’s endpoint. As CISOs plan for 2023, email and endpoint security will be on the top-three list of priority security solutions they invest in and are areas that they are not willing to compromise on.”

— Rohyt Belani, CEO and co-founder of Cofense

Health care

“Expect to see organizations start to coalesce around scientific platforms to optimize research and development (R&D). We know scientists working on life-saving discoveries from cancer research to food scarcity struggle with their data in silos, using dozens of favorite apps to aid them in the process. Anticipate seeing life sciences organizations transition to end-to-end platforms that can integrate legacy applications and instrumentation all utilizing the same data core, in a similar way to how Amazon and Google have in their respective ecosystems. Ultimately, such moves will free biotech’s to focus their time, money, and expertise on what matters most—the science that will help them make better therapies faster and increase their chances of success in a volatile market.”

— Thomas Swalla, CEO of Dotmatics

Power

“Data center computing capacity needs continue to increase to support modern applications and propel the next wave of innovation. Supporting this exponential growth will require higher-power facilities and equipment, which means data center designers and operators will need to rethink their power architectures. As such, they will continue to explore highly scalable, decentralized DC power architecture to address growing density, efficiency, and computing demands.”

— Vito Savino, data center segment leader for ABB Power Conversion

Workforce development

“Hiring and retaining strong cyber talent will be one of the top challenges for the public sector. The cybersecurity skills gap that has plagued the security community for the last several years won’t be closing any time soon. Research reveals that 80% of organizations suffered from at least one data breach in the past 12 months due to a lack of cybersecurity talent or awareness. The public sector is especially at risk, with more than 700,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions as of July 2022. In 2023, the inability to hire and retain appropriate talent to defend against a high volume of attacks will leave the public sector highly vulnerable. To fill the widening cyber skills gap, the public sector must improve compensation packages to prevent losing talent to well-paid roles within the private sector, as well as expand diversity within their workforce.

— Sachin Bansal, Chief Business Officer of SecurityScorecard