More than ever before, IT is driving business competitiveness -- and the underlying force of all of this is the people. Many in the IT industry have been talking about the consumerization of IT for a while now, but in 2013 the need to engage consumers and employees will dominate many of the technology decisions businesses make.
It's all about the experience, the engagement and the features, and providing customers and employees alike with exactly what they need, at exactly the time they need. Gone are the days of information silos -- data today moves anywhere and everywhere, and the way businesses approach IT must move right with it. Keeping "the people" in mind, here are some of the trends CA Technologies foresees as the biggest in enterprise IT this year:
•Big data will grow up: As understanding of big data evolves, so too will its ROI as the insights this data provides help the IT department be more innovative. In 2013, there will be an emergence of a set of big data administrators, who will play a critical role in using new technologies and processing power to take a cold, hard and useful look at data and its business application, decreasing the risk of making big data decisions (since these folks will be the experts) and putting more focus on delivering business value.
•Enterprises will adopt public cloud: The cloud is no longer a mystery -- widespread adoption in the consumer space means people understand it (thanks in part to solutions like iCloud and a other vast cloud-related marketing campaigns in the least year), and realize it's just the way business is done. This comfort level is alleviating some of the trepidation among enterprises when it comes to storing proprietary data in something that's technically public, as is the expansion of cloud offerings designed specifically for enterprise users from large, well-known, and trusted services providers. Industries like healthcare - where the cloud is increasingly the platform for electronic medical record systems - will lead this trend, as practitioners realize the public cloud can help them address compliance, maintain security and access services they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford if they had to manage data storage in-house.
•Identity is the new IT security perimeter: Simply put, the traditional IT perimeter has been erased thanks to adoption of cloud services, more collaboration with external customers and partners from multiple devices, and widespread mobility in the way in which employees access information. For today's security professionals, it's a borderless war on multiple fronts with one common ally -- identity. Strongly authenticated identity is the new perimeter when it comes to IT security, meaning it'll be more important in 2013 to implement measures to identify users based on things like the device, the transaction, their location and more. We'll also see more intelligence built into identifying users -- from pattern creation, image recognition and mobile phone-based authentication to audio and biometrics -- all effectively signalling the end of the password (because it's simply not enough!)
•Everything becomes intelligent (a.k.a. The Seventh Sense): Speaking of intelligence, expect to see an increased exploitation of sensing technologies available in most modern mobile devices in 2013. Everything will become intelligent as sensors are embedded into a wide array of devices from the home (think the Happy Fork that recently made headlines at the Consumer Electronics Show) to those that drive applications in the healthcare, IT and building automation industries. These technologies will drive additional demand for IT to manage, store, analyze and secure the intelligent data generated.
•Building an application? Think mobile first: driven by consumer demand, 2013 will see companies start to build applications primarily for mobile and social platforms, with traditional platforms secondary or perhaps not supported at all. For the enterprise, this means embracing the user experience consumers are used to from mobile applications and adjusting IT to meet this demand. It will also mean great changes in the way mobile IT is managed -- making it less about securing the device itself, and more about managing applications and mobile data (without hampering the user experience, of course).
What do you think will be the biggest IT trend businesses will need to address this year?
