Eval-Source has compiled a list of 12 technology trends and predictions that should play out this year. These predictions and trends are based on what the consulting firm sees with its customers, what their concerns are, and what organizations will need to address. This is part two of a two-part piece. Part one can be found here.
7. Mobile device management and security have to be addressed - Organizations that support multiple device and OS’ will have to become more diligent as to how security is handled from an enterprise point of view. Mobile device management will become disruptive to large organizations with large workforces to administer, control, inventory, upgrade, etc. Also, how is additional security managed for the additional devices and rogue devices that are added to the network without IT permission? See a post we did on what’s next for mobile security.
8. Data explosion and content management will disrupt IT organizations and architectural organizational strategies - The explosion of social media and the infrastructure that is required to support the social aspect and data created by newly created collaboration, both internally and externally, will become an issue to manage. Organizations will have to look at new content management systems to unify the many disparate silos throughout their organization to unify data for use. This will include new applications for content management, whether it is a SaaS or on-premise model. How does this impact your internal application strategy? Mobile devices out in the field will also cause further content management issues for organizations.
9. Does your organization have social media policies in place? - This is becoming a very hot-button legal issue. Organizations that have a social media strategy should have a code of conduct for usage. Many lawsuits have emerged on the issue of who owns the followers of a social media account the company or the individual acting on the company’s behalf. Codes of conduct, disciplines, dismissal behaviour should all be defined. Furthermore, users of these company accounts should be made aware of the implications of using social media on a company’s behalf.
10. The rise of internal collaboration tools. - A few large companies in Europe have said they are not going to use email. What they said is that email usage will decline due to more internal collaboration. Email still has many business uses especially for privacy within companies and external privacy issues. It has been my experience, even with larger companies, internal collaboration is still very difficult among team members and even worse across various departments throughout the organization. Collaboration vendors will have to focus on the message of how companies will be use internal collaboration tools to expedite requests and reduce traffic and duplicate content. Many tools of this nature already exist, including Chatter, IM, and Lotus Notes collaboration. Organizations will deploy these types of systems to leverage data, answers, and form a central repository.
11. The rise mobile applications - Tablets and smartphones are playing an important part in the enterprise. Applications will become more distributed and organizations will have to pay attention to mobile device management, further application security measures and enterprise applications in general. These applications will become harder to monitor, controlling content and storage of such data will lead to an explosion of metadata within the enterprise.
12. Organizations will increase adoption of infrastructure and platform (IaaS, PaaS) for their foray into cloud - These services will open new doors to companies to get into cloud and easily build SOA infrastructures without large outlays of cash. The new platforms will allow for greater business agility for companies to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. These will also provide the basis for organizations to foray into cloud further by adding additional SaaS and other services to the expandable cloud platform.
Eval-Source is a consulting firm that provides enterprise software selection and strategic technology consulting services for organizations. Visit www.eval-source.com to learn more.
