IT Trends Expected for 2014, 2015 & Beyond
Ten Information Technology Trends for 2014 & Beyond
The pace of change in IT today is greater than ever. And it’s been
said that the changes we’re due to see in 2014 and beyond start with the
way people think. Perhaps this means that a lot of the transformation
taking place is due to the growing maturity of the business leaders in
the world.
Still, the use of new and emerging technologies, such as
context-aware mobile apps and enterprise social networking, along with
the proliferation of public and private cloud, is forcing businesses to
assess and manage the impact these technologies may have on their
business. Leaders should understand, prioritize and apply these new
technologies within the context of their overall business goals.
And so, below is a list of ten trends in Information
Technology as reported by several sources, including Gartner, Inc. and
Forrester Research. Keep in mind, too, as you read through this list,
that New Horizons has the training associated with each one of these
trends:
1. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
According to a biannual survey of SMB IT intentions by Spiceworks, Inc.,
almost 59% of small-midsize businesses already support the BYOD trend, with the trend even more popular in companies with less than 20 employees.
And according to a recent Gartner report,
about half of the world’s companies will enact BYOD programs by 2017
and will no longer provide computing devices to employees. Ultimately,
only 15% of companies will never move to a BYOD model, while 40% will
offer a choice between BYOD and employer-provided devices, according to
the report by Gartner analyst David Willis, which was announced this
January.
In the BYOD era, security professionals will need to diligently
monitor vulnerability announcements and security incidents involving
mobile devices and respond appropriately with policy updates.
Employee-owned devices will be compromised by malware at more than
double the rate of corporate-owned devices, which means enterprises that
adopt BYOD initiatives should establish clear policies that outline
which employee-owned devices will be allowed and which will be banned.
2. Cloud Adoption within Small Businesses
Cloud adoption is growing rapidly in popularity, and CRN predicts that by 2015,
small businesses will spend almost $100 billion altogether on
cloud-based services. Companies are increasingly interested in cloud
infrastructure and application services. More than 62% of the SMBs
surveyed by Spiceworks are currently using some type of cloud-based
service. By 2015, studies by Logicalis IT provider suggest that nearly
80% of organizations will pursue a private cloud strategy.
Cloud solutions actually present business of all sizes with
tremendous opportunities for efficiency and cost savings. Obviously,
with change comes uncertainty, but endless industry statistics show
evidence that cloud computing is worth the investment.
3. Disaster Recovery
Regardless of the region you’re located in, there’s a clear correlation
between the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, The Calgary floods of
2013, and the most recent flooding in Colorado leading towards the
popularity of businesses adopting recovery options. Following these
weather events, numerous businesses across these regions were offline
for days in New York, New Jersey, Calgary, High River, and Colorado.
In order to minimize the effects of disasters—such as hurricanes,
tornadoes, floods, fires or earthquakes—businesses should develop a
solid Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). A DRP will minimize disruptions,
ensure organizational stability and provide a quick and orderly recovery
for your business.
4. Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
Microsoft SharePoint content management and collaboration technology adoption has increased over the past few years.
Approximately 63% of midsize businesses are using the platform to organize and share information, according to Forrester Research.
Microsoft SharePoint has been around since 2001 and is one of the top
business collaboration resources today. However, it wasn’t until the
SharePoint 2007 release that businesses really started to harness the
power of online collaboration.Now, with SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint
2010, Microsoft has gone even further to offer sought after services
straight “out-of-the-box.”
5. Big Data
Big data demand will reach 4.4 million jobs globally,
but only one-third of those jobs will be filled. Gartner says the demand
for Big Data is growing, and enterprises will need to reassess their
competencies and skills to respond to this opportunity. Jobs that are
filled will result in real financial and competitive benefits for
organizations. An important aspect of the challenge in filling these
jobs lies in the fact that enterprises need people with new skills—data
management, analytics and business expertise and non-traditional skills
necessary for extracting the value of Big Data, as well as artists and
designers for data visualization.
Making sense of big data is a combination of organizations having the
tools, skills and more importantly, the training to see data as the
fuel that drives their business.
6. Gamification
Forty percent of the Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations.
Gamification addresses engagement, transparency of work, and connecting
employees’ actions to business outcomes. Companies apply feedback,
measurement and incentives, the same techniques that game designers use,
to keep players interested and to achieve the needed engagement for the
transformation of business operations. Gartner predicts that the
worldwide market will grow from $242 million in 2012 to $2.8 billion in
2016, with enterprise gamification eclipsing consumer gamification in
2013.
7. Windows 8
Ninety percent of enterprises will bypass broad-scale deployment of Windows 8.
Gartner claims that most enterprises and their trusted management
vendors are not yet prepared for the change to Windows 8, and says
enterprises will want to wait for more stability before proceeding.
While Microsoft as a technology company can make these changes at a more
advanced pace, the market will take time to mature, and most
enterprises will sit on the sideline for now.
Sidenote: On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer support Windows
XP or Office 2003. According to Microsoft, “After this date, there will
be no new security updates, no non-security hotfixes, no free or paid
assisted support options and no online technical content updates.“
8. Web-Scale IT
Large cloud services providers such as Amazon, Google , Salesforce.com,
and the like are re-inventing the way in which IT services can be
delivered. Gartner points out that the capabilities of these companies
exceed the “scale in terms of sheer size to also include scale as it
pertains to speed and agility.” The suggestion is that IT organizations
should align with and emulate the processes, architectures, and
practices of these leading cloud providers.
9. Mobile Apps and Applications
Gartner predicts that through 2014, improved
JavaScript performance will begin to push HTML5 and the browser as a mainstream enterprise application development environment.
As a consequence, it was suggested that developers focus on expanding
user interface models including richer voice and video that can connect
people in new and different ways. Apps will grow and applications will
shrink, continuing a trend that has been documented for a while now.
The market for creating apps continues to be very fragmented (Gartner
estimates that there are over 100 potential tool vendors), and
consolidation is not likely to happen in earnest for a while. It is
suggested that ‘the next evolution in user experience will be to
leverage intent, inferred from emotion and actions, to motivate changes
in end-user behavior.”
10. The Internet of Everything (IoE)
Cisco believes IoE brings together people, process, data, and things to
make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever
before—turning information into actions that create new capabilities,
richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for
businesses, individuals, and countries.
The rise of objects that connect themselves to the internet,
from cars to heart monitors to stoplights, is unleashing a wave of new
possibilities for data gathering, predictive analytics, and IT
automation.
2013 was certainly a successful year for New Horizons, as we trained
over 57,000 clients, launched Authorized IBM Courses and delivered more
than 3,500 customized courses. However, we are even more excited about
the expanded training solutions we can provide our clients for 2014: In
the upcoming year, we are adding even more course offerings around
Microsoft Office 365, SalesForce, Selling, Business Intelligence, Red
Hat and more.
New Horizons understands that one of the greatest challenges students
face is sacrificing time at work to complete training, and we have a
solution for that: Since students often take courses from their place of
work, our Online LIVE eliminates travel and the additional time away
from the office. So the minute a class is completed, students are
already back to work and able to fulfill their daily responsibilities.
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Oftentimes
with new technology, businesses push ahead and security is an
afterthought. But information security job candidates are getting asked
about their knowledge of cloud computing, indicating that companies are
thinking about security at the architectural stage of cloud initiatives.
