It’s that time of year again – Flash Memory Summit! As you may know, FMS is a great opportunity for companies, influencers and media working in the storage industry to network. This will be NGD System’s 6 years in a row at the summit and of all the years we have attended, I will say this year is truly going to be among the most interesting for NGD Systems, our partners and especially our customers. Not only are we able to announce some exceptional news from our company but SNIA will announce that we (the Working group I help co-chair) has finalized formal categories and definitions for the Computational Storage industry.

By 2025, IDC predicts organizations will churn out 175 zetta-bytes of data. However, our recent survey of more than 300 storage professionals, found that bottlenecks and compute problems continue to plague IT pros as they struggle to support their growing edge workloads. In the study conducted by Dimensional Research, barely one in 10 respondents gave themselves an “A” grade for their compute and storage capabilities.

We wrap up our series on corporate data management and digital transformation tech trends with digital ethics and privacy. Increasingly, these issues are at the forefront of consumer use concerns. People are starting to notice how their data is being used, particularly in relation to advertising.

Blockchains is #4 on our list of tech trends that are at the forefront of corporate data management and digital transformation. A blockchain is a “time-stamped series of immutable record of data that is managed by cluster of computers not owned by a single entity.” Each block of data is secured using cryptographic principles. Originally designed as online currency, this technology has applications for prediction markets, file storage, and supply chain auditing.

Tech trends of 2019 all point to data management and digital transformation as hot topics. Autonomous Devices is #3 on the list and refer to devices that are aware of their surroundings and make decisions based on the data environment. This is real-time data analytics in action! From self-driving cars to smart thermostats, and advanced robotics to customized farming practices.

It always seems like the marketing guys have all the fun when it comes to product launches. They get to write press releases (OK, they can have that part!), do interviews with press and analysts, host launch events, and make up cool collateral .