Ok. I’m a bit slow in reading my pile of magazines (I still don’tlike reading off the computer screen much). And this post isn’t aboutswine flu, global warming, cancer, the demonstrations outside onUniversity Street (that’s in Toronto), Internet marketing, Twitter,Facebook or anything like that. And google won’t pick up this postbecause I cannot go searching for references for everything (its toolate at night).
Here’s a random list of IT Trends for 2009 that were published in afew magazines in January. I was wondering how much these predictionswould have changed if they were being made today. Here goes (this listis taken/paraphrased/abstract from Baseline magazine -Dec 2008):
1. Software as a Service (SaaS) – 40% growth rate – moves costsfrom the capital budget to the operating budget – drives growth ofclouds (and vice versa)
2. Virtualization – moving into the mainstream – needs to be more manageable – becoming a clear market segment
3. Enterprise Mobility – 3G cell and Wi-Fi – gaining momentum – telework and mobility become a strategic advantage
4. Energy-efficient Data Centers: Green IT – energy costs become front and center in plans – big payback
5. Security, Risk and Compliance – no simple solutions – challenges become more complex – automation is essential
6. Social Networking (LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace) – wikis, blogs,discussion groups, collaborative filtering, applets, games – tap intothe power of human connections – concept is still evolving – providesnew ways to do things – companies must think out of the box
7. Web 2.0 – revolutionizing the enterprise – beginning to deliverrich content in a seamless way – maps, blogs, bookmarking, RSS feeds,Twitter, Facebook – increasingly Web-centric computing model
8. Document Management & e-Discovery – companies need to finddocuments – crosses over many IT lines – new vendors pouring into themarket – buyer’s market in 2009
9. Project Management and Project Portfolio Management – movinginto the spotlight – more formal tools – new applications emerging -bringing greater order to management decision-making – improves agility
10. Web and Video Collaboration – systems like WebEx and NetMeeting- tools are poised to go mainstream – can provide competitive edge aswell as save costs and time – new era beginning with use of Web 2.0capabilities
Well……I wouldn’t take any of these off the list just because there’sa recession. In fact, my view is that all of them lead to reduceday-to-day costs, even if they provided no strategic or competitiveadvantage. It will be interesting to see how various different systemscan be integrated – especially if the recession forces mergers. Itsfunny that, in the article, cost reduction wasn’t used as the mainjustification, but I bet it would if the predictions were updated totoday’s world.
In the areas I’m involved with the biggest ticket items areVirtualization, Energy efficient data center, and project management. Security is always on the table. Advanced Web services are at theleading edge (corporately) but are what people talk about around thewater cooler.