Logicalis Top 10 Tech Trends to Watch for 2011 According to CIOs, CTOs
1. Cloud computing. Cloud has become a huge buzz word in the industry, but if you peel back the marketing fluff and hype, cloud computing simply represents a delivery model for consuming IT as a Service. Whether that “IT as a service” is infrastructure, platform or software, it is just another way for an IT organization to deliver the technology necessary to run an organization’s business.
2. HR issues. This year’s surprise? Social media discussions included a wide range of topics that affect IT managers daily, including Internet usage policies, recruitment, retention, motivation, conflict resolution, and general staff management.
3. Time management. Recognizing that time is the only commodity they can’t replace or replenish, CIOs and CTOs indicated in a multitude of conversations that they were feeling “overworked,” “understaffed” and “spread too thin.”
4. Company direction and planning. IT executives are focusing their attention beyond technology, and their conversations indicate they are looking at the overall corporate strategy.
5. IT security. An evergreen topic of conversation is the security and privacy of corporate infrastructure and data.
6. Software management, licensing, maintenance and purchasing. As IT executives embrace new methods of consuming software as a service, they are questioning existing software paradigms.
7. Social media. As they become more comfortable with social media, technology executives have adopted it for attending conferences, sharing insight and asking for peer guidance on a wide range of topics including how to create and enforce policies related to social media usage. On the negative side, IT executives expressed concerns about security, privacy and the risk of viruses introduced via social media.
8. Mobile technology. Despite concerns over securing and managing devices in the workplace they don’t control, IT executives recognize that the rapid adoption of smart mobile device platforms (Android, Apple, Blackberry), combined with the undesirable expense of employee computing, has created a perfect storm for a mobile computing renaissance. Slimmed-down, low-cost, desktop-replacement mobile applications are making their way out of the app store and into the enterprise.
9. Network and system maintenance. A change in job focus is causing IT executives to rethink how and where they deploy their staffs. Strategic outsourcing of non-core IT tasks is in vogue and savvy IT executives are assessing the impact and freedom it can provide.
10. Jobs and career related discussions. As IT executives adapt to new business directions and adopt the latest technologies, they are aware that the nature of their careers has changed. It’s not “business as usual” with IT executives focused strictly on technology. They are seeing a greater emphasis on business acumen, strategy and tactics enabled by technology. The requirement to justify and build real financial-based business cases for IT spending has become the norm.
“The list shows that technology executives are discussing much more strategic topics than last year. This is indicative of the greater acceptance of social networking as well as the new speed of business – technology managers value their peers’ thoughts and they need input quickly as they make decisions,” said Lisa Dreher, Logicalis vice president of Business Development. “As we did last year, we are looking at using this information to help Logicalis better serve our customers. Based on the data, we know IT executives are implementing new technologies with an eye toward the impact these hold for the structure and management of their IT organizations.”
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international provider of integrated information and communications technology (ICT) solutions and services founded on a superior breadth of knowledge and expertise in communications & collaboration; data center; and professional and managed services.
Logicalis Group employs over 1,900 people worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design, specify, deploy and manage complex ICT infrastructures to meet the needs of over 5,000 corporate and public sector customers. To achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM and Microsoft.
The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of $1 billion, from operations in the UK, US, Germany, South America and Asia Pacific, and is fast establishing itself as one of the leading IT and Communications solution integrators, specializing in the areas of advanced technologies and services.
The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges, with revenues in excess of $4 billion.
For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com
