Technology is a fast-evolving field, with the opportunities to establish successful businesses and careers appearing and disappearing rapidly. To be successful in technology, you need to select the sector that has the brightest prospects, and this is often a new area that is just starting to show signs of growth.

The tech industry is still growing rapidly

Information technology has been a rapidly growing field of business and industry since the dawn of the electronic age in the 1940s. The pace of growth has steadily accelerated, but over the decades, certain sectors have grown more slowly and even ceased to exist, while others have appeared seemingly out of nowhere and thrived.

Internet technology is currently underpinning a growing phase in technology businesses at a scale that has never been seen before. Since the late 1990s, the internet has influenced the daily lives of people around the world in an unexpected and unpredictable manner. As with technology businesses in general, internet businesses have also risen and faded in popularity, and new areas in internet technology are appearing on a yearly basis.

The newest areas in technology

Connected devices and smart networks are a hot topic. The reason for this is that wireless internet connectivity is widely and cheaply available: any device with an electrical power source easily connects to the internet and delivers information to a central network. Information sourced from billions of connected devices spread over the globe can help inform decision-making on everything from electricity supplies to food production.

In fact, one of the hottest areas in technology is big data. Whether sourced from connected devices or the social media interactions of billions of users, big data warehouses can be enormously valuable and allow businesses and governments to come to informed conclusions about their customers, and about society. The ability to analyze big pools of data and compile descriptive reports is highly sought after and can lead to a substantial competitive advantage.

Internet security is another area that is experiencing very high growth. As people, businesses, and the devices that they use become relentlessly interconnected, the opportunities to exploit vulnerabilities in the internet grows. Online security is front and center for businesses of all sizes and is therefore a growing area for skilled IT workers and the businesses that deliver advice on securing networks.

Topping up your skills and training

Whether you are currently employed in information technology, or are thinking of a career in IT, training is the key to moving into the more lucrative technology business sectors. The programming languages and systems used in the fastest-growing information technology sectors are constantly changing, so even experienced, savvy workers in the technology sector find that they need to constantly retrain themselves.

Training can take a number of different shapes and forms. There are numerous courses on offer by providers of IT services that can teach you the essential skills involved in operating certain systems, or help you to understand the intricacies of a specific programming language. For a broader education, you could look at a degree – a master in cyber security, for example, will give you a broad understanding of internet security issues and is a good way to prepare for a career in information security, or to start your own information security business.

Stay up to date with the changing technology environment

Technology is a fast-paced field of business, and many people enjoy the fact that the pace of change leaves them constantly facing new challenges. There is a danger, however, that your skills and indeed your entire business can become irrelevant with time. For example, punch cards and magnetic tape storage systems used to be a very large industry, with billions spent on the equipment that reads these old storage technologies.

Nowadays, hard drives and solid state drives are used for mass storage, and businesses that used to focus on old storage techniques had to close or adapt to the newer methods. Operators of old machines will struggle to find employment, but many adapted their skills over time to be able to service newer technologies.

As long as you can stay ahead of the changing technology environment with respect to both your personal skills and the environment in which your business operates, you can continue to take advantage of the incredible growth and opportunities that exist in the technology business sector. On the other hand, if you are entering the technology business for the first time, look for sectors that are only just showing signs of getting established, rather than those than have been around for a long period of time.