BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 14
By Sadraddin Agjayev – Trend:
In general, the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the predicted IT trends, Sarkhan Talibzade, Director of the ICT center of the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction, told Trend.
“All business entities, as well as large companies and government agencies have repeatedly increased the use of information technology in their daily work and strategic plans. Just like in other countries, there's a transition to remote work in Azerbaijan. The demand for cloud services has increased, the processing of large amounts of data, as well as the use of new technologies with an increase in pressure on IT infrastructure has become even more relevant,” said Talibzade.
He went on to add that the expansion of the 5G test network across the country has slowed down, although there is still need for its implementation.
“One of the important factors is that along with improving the quality of internet access, this will create conditions for development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) technology (inter-machine interaction),” Talibzade noted.
He said that innovations were more related to the integration of all organizations of the country into online services in the first quarter of 2020, adding that various new and existing services, both public and private, were introduced and improved, inter-industry and government (G2G) communications were expanded.
Talibzade added that the demand for expanding the online e-government services system has increased in recent years.
“In addition, only last week, two private clinics contacted us for advice on updating the IT infrastructure and conducting initial work in the field of telemedicine,” he said.
“The judicial system has also begun to review certain cases online. Discussions that previously had to be held in the courtroom can now be conducted in real time with video conferencing,” said the expert.
He also highlighted a sharp increase in demand of Azerbaijan’s residents for online services during the pandemic, which led to a heavy load on the online stores.
This process continues, and requires high technical training, the ability to manage warehouses, the organization of quick delivery as well as the provision of quality services to customers, Talibzade said.
“The demand for web technologies, mobile applications, large data management, data analytics, for systems that are resistant to large loads and flexible scalability, as well as for specialists in this industry, are growing every day,” he said.