The IT and software development industries never standstill. Every year dictates new trends, technologies, and techniques that have to be deployed in order to retain the competitive advantage and meet users’ needs.
Becoming a leader in such an ever-changing field requires keeping up the pace with innovation. And the faster you can adjust to the new rules, the better outcomes you can get in the long run.
If you are a developer yourself or run a business related to this sphere, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we have prepared for you the top 7 trends to look out for in 2021. Let’s see what it holds for us!

Outsourcing
Outsourcing has been trending for several years and it’s still at the peak. High demand for high-quality software with a shorter time to market and lower development cost makes it a win-win deal for businesses to outsource software development services. And this trend is predicted to keep emerging in 2021.
Speaking of outsourcing it is worth mentioning that delegating development tasks to an offshore provider has gained special popularity. Trusted providers of custom software development services from distant countries like Ukraine can provide businesses with high-profile specialists at much lower rates. A good example of such an outsourcing software development company is Develux. The company offers businesses from around the globe to outsource top-quality software development services and, thus, significantly cut costs.
Cybersecurity
Following outsourcing custom software development services, the next biggest trend of 2021 is cybersecurity. This trend began emerging a while ago, but it only grows bigger and more relevant every year.
in 2021, we expect cybersecurity to remain the #1 priority for every software development company. There are quite a few reasons for that. But, most importantly, although the security measures become more and more innovative, the methods of getting around those measures also evolve and become more and more advanced.
Thus, mitigating risks and ensuring the highest level of security will be the core tasks in the software development landscape this year. Moreover, according to the Cybersecurity Guide, this trend is already resulting in the emergence of a whole new direction in software development that will frame the industry in the next decade. This new direction is called security software development and it implies that technologists of the future will be creating programs prioritizing the security of data and computer systems.

Artificial Intelligence
If you look back to the biggest software development trends of the past five years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be there, so there’s no wonder that it continues rising in 2021 as well. AI is sought to be one of the core technologies of the future. And, though it is still evolving, AI has already found wide application in a variety of industries and for multiple purposes.
By this point, nearly half of organizations across the globe have already adopted this technology for certain functions. This year, we expect to see even more innovative ways to use AI and even more businesses to adopt it. Namely, some of the core implementations of this technology that will be trending include:
- Predictive analytics;
- Computer vision applications;
- Robotics;
- Automated speech recognition;
5G
We all have been waiting for it to arrive and it’s finally here! The long-awaited 5G network has caused a big bang in the world of technology and experts believe that it will be one of the leading trends in the IT industry for 2021.
5G offers wider possibilities for software developers. It will expand the connection ability, make communications more accessible and faster, which will provide more space for implementing more complex projects and bringing them to users from all over the world.
Big Data
The global Big Data market has been growing rapidly lately and this tendency is here to stay. According to the experts’ prediction, by the end of 2021, it will reach $70 billion and, by 2025, it will cross the point of $250 billion.
Looking at these numbers, it becomes clear that Big Data will become one more thing shaping the future of software development and business as well. In the nearest future, we can expect Big Data to become an integral part of the business operations of many companies all over the world. But, that’s going to happen in the future. As for 2021, there are two main areas that are expected to use Big Data – augmented analytics and in-memory computation.
Python
Being around for decades, JavaScript and Java have been leading the charts of the most popular programming languages for years. However, in 2021, the trend is changing. This year, Python is not only catching up but actually outdoing JavaScript. According to the industry experts, Python is going to hold first place among the most sought-after and popular programming languages of this year.
Cloud Computing
We’ve seen cloud computing be among the biggest trends of 2020. Last year, companies and organizations of all shapes and kinds, including startups, businesses across multiple industry verticals, as well as governmental organizations, have been embracing Cloud. This year, this trend will stay with us and Cloud technology will become even more popular.
We’ve heard about the benefits and effectiveness of cloud computing for many years. However, the core reason why it wasn’t fully adopted before is that this transition still was rather complicated. But, now, the situation has changed. Today, making a transition to this computing form is easier than ever, which is why we expect it to be widely adopted by companies across the world.
Final Thoughts
Of course, the seven trends we’ve discussed in this article can’t cover everything this year holds for us. There are already many other, less significant tendencies and even more are yet to come.
However, these are the ones that are expected to dominate the industry. Thus, each of these trends is something to pay close attention to starting right now.
As for other innovations, make sure you keep abreast of the hot industry news to keep up with changes!