2021 has seen organisations undergo digital transformations and a continued push for sustainable practices. Paul Browne examines the triggers driving major transformation programmes in Irish organisations and outlines some trends we can expect in 2022. Fuelled by digital transformation and a heightened focus on cybersecurity and data protection, 2021 has seen a significant increase in activity across the Irish business landscape. Disruptive trends are driving structural changes in the way organisations operate. Over the course of the year, we have seen a range of triggers driving major transformation programmes in the Irish market, such as a major focus on sustainability, millennials accelerating the adoption of tech-enabled products and services, and the reskilling of employees to make organisations more agile. As we close out 2021, we see several key trends emerging for 2022. Sustainability as a transformation driver Sustainability has evolved into a key priority for the technology profession. In recent months, we have seen sustainability emerge as the new driver of transformation, similar to digital, driven by the need to meet emerging challenges along with rising importance and visibility across society. The sustainability landscape is complex with multitudes of standards and metrics, and the ecosystem is ever-evolving. Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions in particular will evolve to include sustainability reporting and ratings. For example, power consumption or percentage of renewables used. Investors and capital markets now weigh environmental sustainability more heavily as part of ESG (environmental, social and governance) analysis of investment opportunities. Organisations must show how they are contributing positively to society and not just meeting financial performance metrics. KPIs will explicitly reference energy consumption, carbon output and climate ethical work practices. We expect that the phrase “verifiable claims” will be critical for executives in 2022 as they seek to deliver the transparency demanded by stakeholders. Initial conversations post-COP26 have highlighted the role for blockchain and its ability to provide immutable evidence across an end-to-end supply chain. A renewed focus on business resilience Organisations continue to struggle to protect themselves fully against the multitude of emerging cyber threats. Many of the world’s biggest and most technologically advanced organisations have suffered cyber events. The reliance on third parties in the supply chain has been a particular challenge. Proactive and predictive supply chain management with technology at its core has emerged. Organisations can no longer assume that users, systems, or services within the security perimeter can be trusted. Technology companies must embrace digital trust to develop consumer confidence and competitive advantage. They need to embed privacy and risk management into their products and offerings and ensure that integrity, transparency, and accountability are designed into their systems. Organisations are taking a proactive approach and continuously monitoring all system levels to react to threats effectively. They are planning and preparing for a breach, with many organisations now using cloud-hosted services to assist in reacting to a breach. It forms a vital part of their security defence within a comprehensive structure involving people, processes, and technology. Cloud-supplied security offerings provide a cost-effective solution with a lower cost of entry. The ‘pay per user’ and ‘pay as you go’ cloud model offers full enterprise-level security to organisations that were previously priced out of the market. These offerings will continue to evolve, with artificial intelligence built into technology platforms rather than being provided as an add-on. For example, AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations) will be embedded into IT Operations to help reduce, simplify, optimise and automate a wide range of tasks and processes needed to deliver effective IT incident identification, management, and resolution. Paul Browne is Director of Azure Cloud Engineering at EY.