IT Predictions for 2013

Before we continue with our discussion regarding how to develop Conceptual Models, we're going to pause for a moment and look at the year ahead. In many ways, Enterprise IT seems to move a bit slower than the overall tech sector - that's often because the nature or mission of Enterprise Information Technology is the application of new technology rather than its invention (in most cases). Even still, the last two years have seen some fairly remarkably developments, including:

• Industry-wide adoption of Cloud Computing models (both internally and externally)
• Rapid movement towards the concept of Big Data (before that concept has been fully fleshed out).
• Very rapid movement towards adoption of both social media and mobile applications (and integration of the traditional Enterprise IT with both).

Sometimes, the future is hard to read...

Two years is a quick turnaround and what it really represents is the turning of the ship in a new direction - as opposed to having reached the distant shores. While progress is being made in these new directions - they are in most places 'works in progress.' And of course they must be added to the backlog of works in progress that are already present - yesterday's hype-driven initiatives such as:

• Cyber security
• ITIL
• SOA
• EA
• ERP (yes it's still out there and very much alive).
• Business Intelligence
• Semantic Technologies (the Semantic Web)   and so on...

Today's IT department is a busy place indeed - it is coping with more new technology expectations than ever before. Yet seldom do IT budgets reflect the widening scope of those expectations. Given this background we're going to make a handful of predictions for 2013...

• Prediction 1 - Big Data will be redefined into a more actionable approach - this approach will become more architecture driven and less focused on roll-out of databases alone.

• Prediction 2 - Big Data and Semantic Technology will begin to merge - this will occur through management of meta-data as well as through management of architecture-driven Big Data solutions.  

• Prediction 3 - More project teams will be consolidated - much of this will happen onshore but some it will be near-shore and offshore. Why? Because more firms are beginning to understand that globally dispersed teams aren't that efficient - initial costs saved must be measured against overall lack of effectiveness in understanding client needs.

• Prediction 4 - There will be some backlash against the frenzy of IT consolidation that's been occurring for the past several years (driven mainly by Google, Oracle and IBM). This may lead to more anti-trust actions.

• Prediction 5 - There will be increasing pressure on Congress to examine H1b policy decisions. Most of the influence on these policies have been driven by a handful of the largest IT related companies - their arguments and contention that there is an IT skills shortage in the US will be called into question.

• Prediction 6 - Mobile App development will become the hottest / most desired job title - at least near-term.

• Prediction 7 - Massive Online Multi-player gaming environments will unveil new monetization strategies. Massively available online courses will do the same and move towards interchangeable content.

Of course, the most enjoyable part of our industry is how often we end up getting surprised - we're looking forward to that as well...

Copyright 2012  - Technovation Talks, Semantech Inc