Top 8 Software Development Trends of 2022

Integration of top-notch technologies, applying new development methods in accordance with customer requirements are key indicators of where ventures should focus their efforts. Every year dictates new trending software development technologies and standing still is not an option. Vice versa, becoming a leader in current trending technologies in software is the only way to have the edge over competitors and meet the needs of your сustomers.

We conducted a software development industry analysis to find out what software trends are dominating in 2022.

Cybersecurity is Becoming a Top Priority

Every year becomes the worst one for cybersecurity specialists. No matter how much developed defenses become, attacking methods are more and more advanced. Talking about the spike in cybercrime in 2020, president-elect Joe Biden has said that cybersecurity is “a top priority at every level of government” from the moment he takes the office. For most businesses, the transition to remote working increased the risk of breaches due to the higher usage of home networks and personal devices. There are few predictions, that we think might impact the cybersecurity world in 2022:

1. Cloud breaches. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are transferring to the cloud. Cloud services providers should be ready for new challenges since there is a huge chance to observe a significant increase in cloud breaches because of weak security practices in cloud configurations that may lead to such weaknesses.
2.  5G sector. 5G, as the next generation of mobile connectivity and internet, is complex and new. Undoubtedly, it will have a huge impact on areas like smart cities, defense facilities, or intelligent power grids. It is obvious that 5G requires strong attention to security.
3. Cyber insurance. As mentioned previously, the increasing amount of cyberattacks will create a strong demand for cyber insurance policies to soften the potential losses. There already are some cases in the US, where certain companies have purchased such insurance and this market is expected to grow through 2022.
4. Preventing attacks. It might sound obvious, but the future of security lies in a proactive approach. It is a key to prevent attacks rather than deal with their results. Partnering with an experienced software development company can help you mitigate all these risks.

Artificial Intelligence Continues Rising

Artificial Intelligence umbrellas a host of different technologies that are able to process large amounts of customers’ data to provide them with a better and more enhanced customer experience. According to the 2020 McKinsey State of AI survey, 50% of respondents stated that their organizations have already adopted AI in one function at a minimum. So, what are AI software trends in 2022?

1. A rise in computer vision applications to monitor public spaces through data sensors and cameras. With the help of artificial neural networks, the apps will be able even to monitor social distancing in the post-pandemic world.
2. Predictive analytics combined with computational power will be widely adopted by companies to find their potential customers. With the help of AI algorithms, businesses can get access to the sales data of thousands of customers and find out their preferences.
3. Because of the increase of remote work, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, customer centers will adopt greater amounts of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and automated speech recognition (ASR).
4. Robotics will be widely implemented in finance, KPO, marketing, and manufacturing to automate rule-based business processes.

Internet of Things is Being Integrated Everywhere

The Big Data Industry Keeps on Developing

Some studies prove that there are 40 times more bytes in the world than there are stars in the observable universe. Experts predict that the global Big Data market will reach $250 billion by 2025. So, it is only a matter of time when you’re going to start using it in your business routine because it may become an integral part of modern business processes soon. There are few areas that might be driving the development of Big Data in 2022:

1. Augmented Analytics. Augmented analytics add Machine Learning and AI tools and frameworks to existing BI toolkits. This can significantly decrease the time required for data preparation and cleaning. Business users could receive day-to-date insights directly from the tool, saving a lot of time for data scientists.
2. In-Memory Computation. In-Memory Computation is a different way of speeding up analytics. Real-time processing is the most obvious advantage of this method. All processes flow on the data stored in RAM and, as a result, the data can be queried at a rate more than 100 times faster than any of the existing solutions. This may help businesses to make proper decisions and act immediately.

Progressive Web Applications are Becoming the Next Big Thing

Show me a person who would wait for an app to be downloaded to use it. These days are gone because modern people prefer a quick fix. And PWAs offer this: they’re much faster and lighter to download than conventional apps, at the same time offering similar to native apps user experience, and notification sending option. Progressive web apps can operate offline and are reported to increase user engagement to 137%. What is more, users face no updating issues as gratefully to the specific functionality of PWAs, they update automatically every time they are visited. From the development side, this type of application is cost-effective and time-saving as it doesn’t require various versions for different devices. This usually results in 3 or 4 times lower costs compared to a native app.

Such behemoths as Forbes, Starbucks, Pinterest, and The Washington Post have already been using the technology in their businesses. Pinterest has reported having experienced a 44% increase in their ad revenue rate and 40% more time spent by their users on their PWA in comparison with their mobile website.

Java and JVM Remain Being Hits Among the Programmers

Java appeared in the developing world in the mid-’90s and since then it has reached the dominating position among the top software development technologies in demand.

The explanation is quite simple: “Write once, run everywhere”. Because of its high security level, Java has been adopted by a big number of enterprises, and such leading service providers as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon support it for app development. Is it so popular just because of being secure? Of course, no. Java has much more to offer: a high degree of stability, automatic memory allocation, extremely wide use in Android App Development, and a wide range of open-source libraries. Thanks to the JVM feature, it also has a high degree of platform independence. Therefore, many popular programming languages such as Kotlin, Scala, and Groovy use JVM as their runtime. Though having no competitors in matters of stability and trust, Java remains one of the top software trends in 2022, making developers carefully watch and master every single latest technology in Java programming.

Python has Beaten JavaScript

Python takes first place among the most popular languages with the biggest percentage of growth rate (19%) according to the PYPL index (the popularity of programming language index that analyzes how often language tutorials are searched in Google).

Being one of the easiest programming languages to learn, Python continues attracting more and more newbies eager to master it, and without any doubt can be named one of the latest trends in IT industry software. According to the survey held by Stack Overflow, it’s the most-wanted language to learn among the developers. For the first time since 2012 Java is not one of the top two most popular web app development languages. At the end of 2021, Python won the prestigious award of TIOBE Programming Language of the Year for the second time in a row. The award is given to the language that has gained the highest increase in ratings in one year. From the third position in the rating, Python is number one, as of January 2022, with more than 1% ahead of others. We can see Java in third place in the list for the first time in almost 20 years. This can be explained by the machine-learning boom among the number of developers learning Python, as to its simplicity and ability to support multiple programming paradigms. Owning a wide range of software libraries that can be dropped into a code and scaled to large applications, Python gives multiple opportunities for web and desktop app development to arranging system operations.

Deep Learning: TensorFlow will Continue Dominating

TensorFlow goes on to have strong adoption among machine learning engineers and developers. In a short period of time, TensorFlow has become the most popular tool and framework for machine learning, consolidating its position by 2.0 release, introducing python friendliness, dynamic Graph, easy model building with Keras, and eager execution, and many more. Other innovations include TensorFlow Lite which allows deploying it on mobile and web and TensorFlow Extended the end-to-end platform for deploying production ML pipelines.

Though with the release of Facebook-owned PyTorch, the popularity of TensorFlow has decreased, it still remains the most widely-used ML framework and is predicted to maintain this position in 2022 and beyond.

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