A list was posted yesterday in InformationWeek that looked at the latest trends that the business aware CIO should be keeping an eye on in the upcoming year.
Honestly, there was nothing earth shattering. As with many lists like this they tend to echo some of the same things that were just as important in the year prior’s list. This one is not much different.
The list was produced by Sunil Manglore, MD, of CA Technologies and the highlights were as follows.
1. Increased adoption of SaaS options by the SMB – This one has been more like the old “this is the year of mobile!’ mantra that was chanted since the first Internet bubble burst until it actually did gain traction in recent years. SMB’s are always looking at SaaS implementations but the question is always “Can they afford them?”. That’s a question that we will be asking until the economy gets better which translated means, for many years at best.
2. BYOD (bring your own device) – Another annual favorite as employees want to be comfortable with what they use, companies try to “cheap out” by not investing in proper unified tech for their workforce and employees want to be mobile (as in, if I leave this job will I lose all of my tech capabilities.
3. Big data – IT’s Bigfoot. Lots of talk about it but skepticism about just how real it is AND whether anyone can corral the data to be put into a usable form will be bigger questions. This is a classic hype is bigger than the reality for most businesses since they don’t collect data at the level of Fortune 500’s.
4. Security – One word: Target. if this isn’t at the top of every IT practitioners’ list of most important things to consider then they may be in the wrong line of work.
5. DevOps – When the term needs to be defined as a concept first as it was in this list, then you should be suspect. The definition offered was
Devops as a concept, is a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration and integration between software developers and information technology professionals. The term refers to a set of technologies that will connect the real and digital worlds by embedding sensors in everyday objects and establishing real-time communications between objects and machines.
My question is: Don’t these groups talk already?
So these are some predictions for the upcoming year that could merit a look see. Do you have these on your list of things to do?