This is a presentation that I gave at an orientation programme for new students. It outlines what IT professionals should be aware of (as of 2017)

1. IT IN 2017
WhatyoushouldknowasITprosin2017

2. Introduction

3. What this presentation will cover
● Popular technologies and buzzwords.
● General technology trends over the last few years.
● Introductions to various technologies.
● General, publically available information.
● Demos, Videos, etc.

4. ● No super-technical, in-depth analysis.
● No Agile, Scrumm, DevOps, Big Data, etc.
● No coding, no programming languages, no
super-geeky stuff.
● Chill out, relax and enjoy the show. This is not for
technical people.
What this is NOT about

5. Beyond Appliances

6. Smart devices
● TVs, Fridges, Microwaves anything can be a “smart”
device.
● Small, specialized devices dominate the market.
○ Fitbit and other fitness trackers, smart watches.
● ARM processors are fundamentally different from
normal desktop / laptop processors.
● Uses the RISC architecture.

7. Security is a serious issue.
● The Mirai botnet infected smart devices.
○ Massive DDoS attack.
○ Hundreds of Thousands of devices vulnerable.
● Lack of updates means lack of patches.
● Ubiquity of devices poses problems.

8. Are IoT botnets really dangerous?

9. The New Cloud

10. What is “The Cloud”
● Servers in a datacenter somewhere.
● Just someone else’s computer.
● You don’t have to worry about management.
● More than a buzzword.

12. The many benefits of the Cloud.
● Safe, Secure, Simple.
○ Don’t have to worry about where the files are stored or how.
● Offload costs and responsibilities.
● Scalability.
● Examples:
○ IaaS: AWS, Azure, Rackspace
○ PaaS: Heroku, Google App Engine,
○ SaaS: Office 365, Google Drive

13. The Modern Cloud
● Serverless computing.
○ Pay for what your app does.
○ Extension of “Pay as you go”
● AWS Lambda, Apache OpenWhisk.
● Hyperscale
○ Exponentially increase storage.
● Software Defined Networking

14. The Bahubali statue scene.
● This scene is great. It shows us how awesome Bahubali is.
● Thing is, this sucks for the guy in charge of erecting the statue.
● It was luck that Bahubali showed up, otherwise the entire statue
would’ve fallen, killed a bunch of people and would’ve shattered into
a million pieces (probably).
● How do we do it without Bahubali?
● Bahubalis are expensive. Bahubalis are rare. If Bahubali falls sick, we
have no statue. If he gets hurt, no statue. If he’s busy trying to impress
the girl, no statue.

15. An alternative solution
● More ropes, more people

16. Infrastructure for the Modern Age

17. Virtualization
● Computers as livestock
○ Using many “virtual” computers instead of fewer real computers.
● Computerception: Computers inside Computers.
● Provides a lot of advantages
○ Scalability
○ Efficiency
○ Safety, easier to test.
● Hardware support is commonplace.

18. Containers
● Vastly different from virtualization, provides the same
benefits.
● Linux specific
● Even lighter than virtual machines.
● Less overhead, more scalability
● Quickly replacing virtual machines everywhere.

19. The Modern Web

20. http://ibsar.ac.in/cognizance
Responsive Web Design

21. The rise of Javascript
● Not Java.
● Scripting language for the Web, but not exclusively
anymore
● Electron, Node.js, AngularJS, Apache Cordova doing
new things with Javascript.

22. Modern Approaches
● Changing the way applications are built.
● CDNs, UI Frameworks, SOA, new ways to build and
improve user experience.
● SPAs, Responsive Applications.
● Platform-independent web apps.

24. The new realities of tech

25. The rise of Virtual Reality
● A long history
● Several iterations of VR in the past.
● Two major types: Phone VR and High-end VR.
● Expensive to develop.
● Lots of possibilities.
● Constantly growing.

26. Augmented Reality
● This is what Pokemon GO used.
● Microsoft HoloLens extremely promising.
● Apple released ARKit at WWDC 2017 for iOS.
● Google is working on Google Tango

27. AI

28. Machine Learning
● Creates mathematical models for predictive analysis.
● Uses large amounts of data from various sources.
● Similar to computational statistics used for forecasting.
● Various approaches
○ Deep Learning
○ Neural Networks
○ Cluster analysis, etc.

29. ● Current score of the
batting side.
● Wickets fallen till now.
● Wickets fallen in last 30
balls. 30 is a tuning
parameter and its value
is set to 20 in the case
of T20 matches.
● Run rate till now.
● Run rate in the last
30/20 balls.
● Score in last 30/20
balls.
● Balls remaining.
● Country where match is
being played.
● Team batting
● Team bowling
● Day or day and night

30. Artificial Intelligence
● Specific field in computer science.
● Commercial applications are quite recent.
○ Search and recommendations
○ Autonomous cars, drones, etc.
○ Computer Vision
○ Predictive Analytics

31. Conversational UI
● Google Assistant, Amazon Echo, Microsoft Bot
framework.
● Bots can interface with other applications on behalf of
the user.
● Bots can also be developed by applications devs for
various stuff.

33. Modern Warfare

34. 1337 h4xx0rz
● Cybersecurity is as old as computers.
● Security is very important, especially in this day an age.
● More threats than simply Malware / Adware, etc.
● Russian meddling in the U.S. election was a
cyberwarfare operation.

35. Cyberweapons
● Edward Snowden in 2013 exposed the NSA and the
Five-Eyes network.
● States have advanced cyberweapons to use against
each other.
● Also used for large-scale surveillance of civilians.

36. Cryptoviruses
● Modern viruses that encpryt (lock) your data for
ransom.
● Started with “CryptoLocker”.
● WannaCry / WannaCrypt was a cryptovirus.
○ 40,000 machines, including ATMs affected in India alone
● Ransom is demanded in bitcoin, for anonymity.

37. A new Financial System

38. Transactions without Banks
● Decentralized ledger of transactions.
● Works on cryptographic validations.
● Currencies without countries or corporations mean:
○ No credit card fees.
○ No banking fees.
○ Levels the playing field.
● 1 Bitcoin (as of 14 July, 2017) = ₹ 1,48,461

39. Conclusion

40. Closing thoughts.
● Not everything is the next iPhone.
● Mature technologies are still good and still very
popular.
● Some technologies are more promising than others.
● Managing hype is important.

41. Thank you
Questions?