With the arrival of the new year, I got thinking yesterday of the anticipated trends for 2009. Looking around the web produced some interesting results.
From Baselinemag.com on IT infrastructure:
Software as a service; Virtualization; Energy-efficient data centers; Security, risk and compliance; Enterprise mobility; Social networking; Web 2.0; Document management and e-discovery; Project and portfolio management; Web and video collaboration
Looking at this list makes me wonder if they simply recycled the list from 2008. With the exception of “Project and portfolio management”, none of these seem new. An increase in the development and availability of project and portfolio management tools would be welcome, although simply having more tools for this doesn’t necessarily mean that corporate executives will necessarily make the right decisions. Looking at this list also makes me wonder when it was written – it doesn’t seem to reflect the downturn in the business cycle with little mention of the anticipated pressure on IT to lower costs in the short run.
From Gartner on strategic technologies:
Virtualization; Cloud computing; Beyond blade servers; Green IT; Web-oriented architectures; Enterprise mashups; Specialized systems; Social software and social networking; Unified communications; Business intelligence
This list seems to reflect better the state of IT currently – all of these topics can directly or indirectly lead to cost reductions for IT or improvements in business processes for cost reductions elsewhere in the enterprise.
From McKinsey Quarterly on business technology trends:
Distributing cocreation; Using consumers as innovators; Tapping into a world of talent; Extracting more value from interactions; Expanding the frontiers of automation; Unbounding production from delivery; Putting more science into management; Making business from information
This list is obviously taking a viewpoint from a more abstract level, but it’s an interesting read, paralleling some similar thoughts from The Economist earlier this year in their special report on innovation. “Distributing cocreation” is “open innovation” to others, as is “Tapping into a world of talent” and “Using consumers as innovators”.
Obviously these predictions need to be taken with a grain of salt – given the uncertainty of the current business climate, anything could happen in IT in 2009! Let the challenges begin!
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