Top 5 Technology Trends to Track in 2019

It’s the beginning of yet another new year and we wish you a happy and prosperous one!

As usual, we’ll kick off with the top 5 technology trends we expect to continue making their mark on the way companies gain faster and better insights with the help of automation and semantic technology.

Our top 5 this year relate closely to Ontotext’s R&D plans and our commitment to deliver cognitive technologies that enable our customers to turn disparate data into actionable insights. To accelerate our R&D in AI further, we’ve secured more than €3M external funding for 2018 and the following years. This will allow us to continue developing innovative solutions for enterprises today such as creating big knowledge graphs in Life Sciences and the Financial Sector as well as company graphs. And to get these solutions to our customers as quickly as possible.

So, here’s our review of the top 5 technologies to follow in 2019:

Knowledge Graphs

Number one on our list for this year is the knowledge graph. The knowledge graph represents a flexible and dynamic collection of interlinked descriptions of entities (real-world objects, events, situations or abstract concepts) and combines characteristics of several data management paradigms.

Why it is important: Knowledge graphs have the ability to integrate data from disparate data sources and use these data as background information. As such, they create the context that helps enterprises enhance their cognitive graph analytics and data discovery solutions. The flexibility of knowledge graphs makes them the perfect model for analyzing relationships, detecting patterns and inferring new facts.

Ontotext’s R&D in focus: Ontotext takes part in two EU-funded innovative projects centered on developing big knowledge graphs and their power to connect data and provide context. They both use our signature semantic graph database GraphDB, which is capable of storing and analyzing billions of facts from the World Knowledge Graph in the Linked Open Data cloud and from proprietary datasets.

The first one is euBusinessGraph. The ambition of this project is to create a platform for integrating, harmonizing and publishing data about European companies in a cross-border and cross-lingual business knowledge graph. Ontotext is lending its expertise in semantic technology and graph databases to develop, run and host the euBusinessGraph marketplace and services.

The second one is CIMA (Intelligent Matching and Linking of Company Data). Its goal is to link and harmonize company data from various sources by using machine learning, semantic modeling, data integration, etc. In this project, Ontotext will apply its extensive competence in cognitive content analytics that underpins the Ontotext Platform. The platform facilitates the integration of structured information and text into huge knowledge graphs.

Blockchain

Number two in our list of technology trends for 2019 is blockchain technology. A blockchain is a kind of shared online ledger that allows direct processing and recording of transactions between parties. No single authority controls the data and each party of a blockchain has access to the complete database and its history. This kind of public ledger ensures that data can’t be changed retrospectively or tampered with.

Why it is important: Although it started as the underlying technology for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, blockchain is quickly maturing and businesses are figuring out new ways of implementing and improving it. As the general understanding grows, the technology proves that it would work not only for asset transfers but also for recording any information where a permanent record is needed.

Ontotext’s R&D in focus: Ontotext has just started working on WeVerify (Wider and Enhanced Verification for You) – a EU-funded project that aims to create a blockchain-based public database of known fakes. Ontotext will lead the work on using blockchain technology to confirm the authenticity of judgment calls by journalists when they perform data verification and expose fake news. WeVerify will use a highly scalable knowledge graph of verified content, accompanied by a blockchain ledger to ensure database integrity and that data cannot be corrupted or tampered with.

Internet of Things Business Applications

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects or “things” embedded with sensors or other electronic devices that can collect and exchange data. Recently, the IoT has started to serve not only individual consumers with smart appliances and smart homes but is expanding to businesses. According to some estimates, by 2020, over half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some IoT elements.

Why it is important: The real value of IoT is not that your coffee starts brewing when your morning alarm goes off, but that the data that these connected devices can collect will allow consumers and businesses to run more efficiently. Some businesses have already started capitalizing on this technology enabling various applications in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Ontotext’s R&D in focus: Ontotext is collaborating in the BigDataGrapes project, which endeavors to enable global disruption of the grapevine-powered industries. BigDataGrapes uses Ontotext’s semantic graph database GraphDB to create a big knowledge graph with information extracted from sensors combined with university research. As a result, real-world observations are turned into knowledge enriching the knowledge graph, which, in turn, will help BigDataGrapes interpret the results obtained from the sensors.

Here, it is also important to mention that our commitment to provide enterprises with efficient tools for managing the Big Data challenge (of which IoT is a big part) has led to adding new technologies to our arsenal. In 2018, we developed a new mechanism for data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL), based on Apache SPARK, as well as a new MongoDB connector for GraphDB, which allows integration with other Big Data stores.

Insight Platforms

Next on our list of top trends for 2019 are insight platforms. These are platforms that unify different technologies for managing and analyzing data, which fast-tracks the way in which enterprises derive insights and make informed decisions.

Why it is important: A recent Forrester blog post by analyst Brian Hopkins makes the case that: “Businesses want action, not data. The path to action lies through digital insight.” The ability to integrate data from disparate sources and combine text analytics with big knowledge graphs helps enterprises boost their knowledge management and gives them a significant competitive advantage.

Ontotext’s R&D in focus: In January, we start working on two new EU-funded projects for developing insight platforms that will facilitate the processes of decision-making – EXA MODE and InnoRate.

EXA MODE (EXtreme-scale Analytics via Multimodal Ontology Discovery & Enhancement) is a Big Data project for Healthcare. Its goal is to develop and release extreme analytic methods and tools that will be adopted in decision-making by the industry and hospitals.

InnoRate (Data-driven tools for supporting and improving the decision-making processes of investors for financing innovative SMEs) aims to develop and deploy a trusted service platform across Europe. The platform will support and improve the decision-making processes of investors and lenders concerning innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high growth potential.

Cognitive Computing

Our last technology trend for 2019 is cognitive computing. Its goal is to create a computerized model similar to how humans think. Using machine learning algorithms, the computer can then simulate the way the human brain works. In effect, this is any kind of analytical software that allows machines to understand what something is about the way we, humans, do.

Why it is important: In today’s data-driven world, more and more businesses have to perform various advanced analytics tasks if they want to stay competitive. With the help of cognitive computing, they can find more efficient ways of connecting their knowledge, derive deeper insights from it and improve their decision-making and business practices.

Ontotext’s R&D in focus: Although Ontotext is not directly involved in developing cognitive computing, our technologies enable customers to create their own cognitive computing solutions. Also, as any successful cognitive computing outcomes are heavily dependant on working with disparate data (especially rapidly changing data), Ontotext’s existing technologies play a significant role in the recently started EU-funded projects CIMA, InnoRate and TRR (Tracking of Research Results). All three will rely on our technology for matching descriptions of people, organizations, locations and other types of entities across different sources already proven in many commercial projects.

These projects are the continuation of our efforts in 2018 to target new use cases and expand the added value we offer with new types of technology in our products. Such as the Semantic Vectors package integrated as a GraphDB plugin for search based on concept similarity in knowledge graphs.

Ontotext’s constant drive to improve as technology and expand its applications to solve real business problems bring us to the next step: merging into “Sirma AI” JSC and becoming the driving force behind SENPAI – Sirma’s enterprise AI platform.

Take a look at our Technology Solutions and contact us to start benefiting from innovative and intelligent business applications.