2012 Predictions
So its that time of year when I start thinking about what is going to be the next big thing in the coming year in terms of corporate IT and technology generally.
Cloud Computing
As in my 2011 predictions article cloud computing will continue to be a major theme within IT. Cloud computing will go through a maturity stage in the coming year and the definition will become widely accepted as –
“requires systems that run on a simplified data center architecture, operated largely by automated policies, not human hands. The architecture allows end users to self-provision their own servers, and has a billing mechanism that allows the supplier to charge only for the resource used, not the lifetime software license cost”.
Not just adding the word cloud to existing offerings as several of the large vendors have tried to do (termed as cloud-washing).
I believe that this concept will also move toward cloud based applications which does enable SME’s to use enterprise class applications at a fraction of the cost.
The major challenge for the big enterprise vendors is how they set up the billing for these kind of services and they will need to change the mind-set from the existing Processor based and other costing models.
Enterprise Apps
Again this was an area I touched on last year and this hasn’t moved as quickly as I thought it would, however there are signs of this market picking up. The site www.getapp.com currently has over 4,580 apps available for download in many areas of business.
This area needs to become more mature before it becomes mainstream but the signs are there that this is happening and the trajectory is in the right direction.
Social Media/Collaboration
The one area that I see massive movement next year is the area of Social Media and collaboration. In the past collaboration would have been treated separately but until the drive of social media the collaboration would have been 1-to-1.
With social media the collaboration becomes many-2-many or any other combination you can think off.
It seems strange that this hasn’t happened sooner as a corporation has to be the best example of a social network in existence.
The tools are now there and a good example is www.yammer.com. This has aspects of Twitter and Facebook and is integrated into corporate infrastructures for security purposes but is cloud based.
Theses tools lend themselves to be department; company; interest group; Project or any other configuration that suite the problem/need you currently have and facilitate communication interaction and inclusion.
Transform from Can’t do to Can do
Probably my most radical prediction for the coming year is the transformation of the IT department from a mentality of cant do to a can do mentality.
Its interesting to see that all of the predictions I have may so far are all around things that are or facilitate self service to the end user not the central IT department.
The central department is viewed as a hindrance to the organisation by many and as a result is often bypassed.
IT management need to change the culture and start to get things done. One of the most annoying things that business users experience is the SLA. Service Level Agreement, these were initially put in place to encourage requests to be seen to within a timeframe that can be measured for performance, what has happened over time is the SLA has become how long it will take – not the original intention.
This transformation will not happen overnight it will take years. If we don’t start this movement now we may end up with all IT roles being shifted to the cloud!
Well that’s it for my 2012 predictions it looks like we have an interesting year ahead.
2012 Predictions and thoughts
So its that time of year when I start thinking about what is going to be the next big thing in the coming year in terms of corporate IT and technology generally.
Cloud Computing
As in my 2011 predictions article cloud computing will continue to be a major theme within IT. Cloud computing will go through a maturity stage in the coming year and the definition will become widely accepted as –
“requires systems that run on a simplified data center architecture, operated largely by automated policies, not human hands. The architecture allows end users to self-provision their own servers, and has a billing mechanism that allows the supplier to charge only for the resource used, not the lifetime software license cost”.
Not just adding the word cloud to existing offerings as several of the large vendors have tried to do (termed as cloud-washing).
I believe that this concept will also move toward cloud based applications which does enable SME’s to use enterprise class applications at a fraction of the cost.
The major challenge for the big enterprise vendors is how they set up the billing for these kind of services and they will need to change the mind-set from the existing Processor based and other costing models.
Enterprise Apps
Again this was an area I touched on last year and this hasn’t moved as quickly as I thought it would, however there are signs of this market picking up. The site www.getapp.com currently has over 4,580 apps available for download in many areas of business.
This area needs to become more mature before it becomes mainstream but the signs are there that this is happening and the trajectory is in the right direction.
Social Media/Collaboration
The one area that I see massive movement next year is the area of Social Media and collaboration. In the past collaboration would have been treated separately but until the drive of social media the collaboration would have been 1-to-1.
With social media the collaboration becomes many-2-many or any other combination you can think off.
It seems strange that this hasn’t happened sooner as a corporation has to be the best example of a social network in existence.
The tools are now there and a good example is www.yammer.com. This has aspects of Twitter and Facebook and is integrated into corporate infrastructures for security purposes but is cloud based.
Theses tools lend themselves to be department; company; interest group; Project or any other configuration that suite the problem/need you currently have and facilitate communication interaction and inclusion.
Transform from Can’t do to Can do
Probably my most radical prediction for the coming year is the transformation of the IT department from a mentality of cant do to a can do mentality.
Its interesting to see that all of the predictions I have may so far are all around things that are or facilitate self service to the end user not the central IT department.
The central department is viewed as a hindrance to the organisation by many and as a result is often bypassed.
IT management need to change the culture and start to get things done. One of the most annoying things that business users experience is the SLA. Service Level Agreement, these were initially put in place to encourage requests to be seen to within a timeframe that can be measured for performance, what has happened over time is the SLA has become how long it will take – not the original intention.
This transformation will not happen overnight it will take years. If we don’t start this movement now we may end up with all IT roles being shifted to the cloud!
Well that’s it for my 2012 predictions it looks like we have an interesting year ahead.