The following is a summary of my predictions of the ICT trends for 2020. They have been selected because of their impact on the networking industry, and they forecast what is expected to happen or start happening, within the next 12 months. This information incorporates input and insights from several sources, available in a supporting document. "A machine with basic reading capabilities will be able to read everything the human race has ever written by lunchtime, and then it will be looking around for something else to do." – Stuart Russell, Human Compatible Welcome to the cognitive era. Compute costs will continue to head towards zero.

In 2018, the number of Australian households with rooftop solar passed 2 million – that's one in five.¹ Tomorrow's smart grid will be a constellation of many generation sources working together, shifting from the traditional one-way power flows from generation through grids to consumers to two-way flows including from the customers back into the grid. As we move towards decentralisation, there is an urgent need for new business models and the technology to support it. A new wave of innovative technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Edge and Fog computing, blockchain, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become key enablers for such a transformation. Cisco in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and SAS embarked on a trial where the feasibility and economic benefits of DER aggregation and a real-time energy brokerage in a residential framework were successfully designed, tested and verified.