Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2020. Read them in this 12th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Nigel Tozer, Solutions Director, EMEA at Commvault
CCPA, AI, and Cloud
The holidays are here and 2020 is fast-approaching. Commvault has had an exciting year with a new CEO joining the company, the announcement of its first-ever acquisition, and the launch of a new SaaS venture, Metallic. The company plans to build on this momentum next year with additional innovations that enable enterprises to tackle their toughest data challenges and realize new data opportunities. Commvault’s Nigel Tozer predicts that Commvault will continue helping its customers meet rising compliance requirements, including California’s new CCPA data privacy regulations, while cutting through the complexity of managing multiple clouds, and mitigating the threat of zero-day malware.
- CCPA Will Prompt Lawsuits in the US: Unlike with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU, which involves regulators getting involved and taking action, the legal system in the US will precipitate some high-profile cases involving the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in 2020. Even though class-action isn’t allowed under CCPA, a successful case will have a knock-on effect and open the door to high numbers of plaintiffs.
- Expect CCPA to Fuel a Data Collection and Processing Backlash: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) will highlight data collection and monetization in the US, just as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) did in Europe. This will fuel a backlash on data collection and processing in the US, especially around political ad targeting during the 2020 election year. Companies such as Facebook and Google will come under greater pressure to distance themselves from this area, and data analysis companies that are now largely unheard of will be in the news for the wrong reasons.
- Increasing Focus on Eliminating AI Bias: With AI creeping into more areas of our lives than ever, companies in this space will have to double-down on eradicating, or at least minimizing, any bias embedded in their AI. This will mean pre-processing and profiling of data prior to using in AI systems – so once again, data quality will take center stage, but for different reasons than previous years.
- AI Technology and Privacy Concerns Drive Consideration of Health Care Data Anonymization: We know AI works better with more data, and we all want its benefits when it comes to healthcare. IT companies moving into health data (such as Google buying Fitbit), combined with heightened awareness of privacy, will force governments around the world to enact anonymization laws that encourage the collection and use of health data for the greater good, without compromising patients’ privacy.
- Cloud Companies May Be Hit By A Major Zero Day Malware Exploit: We may see the first zero-day exploit using malicious code that has a significant impact. Public cloud companies will be affected, having a major ripple effect on those who rely on them.
- Public Cloud Price War: There will be a backlash against the cost of public cloud services, resulting in a slight but impactful slowdown in public cloud growth. It will result in cloud companies cutting their prices, bringing more services to market, and more acquisitions by the big cloud players as they attempt to be more competitive. This price war is happening already, but it will intensify over the coming year and make more headlines.
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About the Author
Nigel Tozer is a Solutions Director, EMEA at Commvault. Nigel is a keen technologist with over 30 years of experience. He moved into data and information management after working for a vendor of digital graphics systems. He has always had front-of-house roles, in presales and then the commercial space, especially focusing on the channel. He has developed partner programs, run partner enablement and set up an EMEA wide aggregation business for service providers. Nigel was an early advocate of cloud as a business-transforming technology, and currently spends much of his time on the data-related aspects of governance and privacy (he’s qualified as a GDPR practitioner). In his personal life he enjoys cycling, good food and time with family. He is also passionate about sustainability and the environment.
