IT Trends

In case you haven’t noticed, the threat of online security breaches is real!  And sadly there aren’t enough jails to lock up all the cyber-criminals walking the earth.  We recently worked with a client whose computer became overrun with viruses, causing a loss in work productivity and personal data.  Today’s cyber-bandits come in various forms and can cause serious damage to your personal or professional PC.  We’ve provided an article which outlines some trending threats you should be aware of:

http://alltopstartups.com/2013/10/20/online-threats/

Any machine that you use extensively (whether it be for business or pleasure) needs to have software to protect against cyberthreats.  There are dozens of companies in the PC security space (Norton, AVG and Kaspersky just to name a few) with pros and cons to each.  In a later post we’ll give you our take on the various vendors; but for now just know that you need to pick one and keep the license updated.

Now keep in mind – disaster can strike at any time!  So to protect yourself from losing valuable data, we advise you to invest in a backup solution.  A number of companies (i.e. Dropbox) offer space on their servers for free, and it’s easy to install.   Even if you believe that you’re not on your PC enough to warrant the time and/or expense to invest in a cloud based solution think of it this way:  having your data backed up in the cloud is like having insurance…it’s better to have it and not need it…than to need it and not have it!

Education is key; so be sure to check out the article so you know what you’re up against.   Then contact us if you’d like more information on how to protect your PC against online threats!

Strategic technologies are those with the potential for significant impact on enterprises during the next three years. Gartner’s list of the top 10 strategic technology trends highlights 10 key trends that companies should be factoring into their strategic plans for the year ahead.  Eric Lundquist of Information Week comments on the list in a commentary on informationweek.com that I found insightful.  Each year at the annual Gartner Symposium, Gartner analyst David Cearley names his top 10 strategic technologies for the enterprise CIOs and IT execs attending the event.  He states that ‘This year had a couple of new entrants, including one named “integrated ecosystems” — which seemed to me less a technology than a process, but the final list had many old names rearranged in order of priority’.  Have a read through his commentary:

http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/gartners-top-10-it-trends-hits-and-misse/240010008

I’ve recapped his review below for your convenience:

1. Mobile Devices Battle

The “mobile first and everywhere” theme has become a major part of Gartner’s (and nearly every other consulting organization’s) corporate mantra. The battle refers to the Apple/Google/Microsoft dustup of smartphones, tablets, and most recently convertible laptops. You should also throw Amazon in the mix, especially if they figure out how to tie the Kindle more tightly to customers signing up for Amazon Web Services.

The most interesting thing about the battle as I see is, while the fight is taking place outside the corporate confines, the selections will be part of the corporate infrastructure. The BYOD movement is fully upon the corporate world, with customers deciding what they want and expecting IT to make it work securely. The evolution of the BYOD movement with corporate mobile management and the restructuring of IT organizations to be mobile first is, I think, the most interesting part of the mobile battle.

2. Mobile Applications And HTML5

Is it odd that a revision of the markup language (still not approved and turned into what some call a living standard) is high up on the top tech list? Probably not, but the disruption inherent in HTML5 has been ongoing for a number of years. The “should we develop apps or Web?” argument continues in many companies.

I don’t see this one ending soon. I think Gartner missed a chance to talk about responsive Web design (RWD), which addresses a lot of questions about adapting Web pages to a wide variety of devices. RWD is a disruptive tech.
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3. Personal Cloud, Not Personal Computing

This was a new one on the Gartner list. I think it belongs on the list. While a lot of time is spent figuring out how to divide business and personal operations on devices like smartphones, less time has been spent on figuring out how employees can build their own information clouds that contain their data and corporate data.

4. Internet Of Things

This one has been on the list for a couple of years and belongs there. As the Gartner analysts said at their opening keynote, it will soon be cheaper to sensor and monitor the corporation than to avoid the monitoring. In my opinion, network developers are not ready for the huge network demands that the Internet of things will create.

5. Hybrid IT And Cloud Computing

This refers to building corporate cloud infrastructures that mix inside and outside resources. Despite the hype around cloud computing, in my view, the hybrid model will be the most successful model over the next few years. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to take the concept to a deployed reality that can be measured, monitored, and secured.

6. Strategic Big Data

Clearly, 2012 has been the year of big data. Similar to cloud computing, the hype about big data has overshadowed the process of deciding what new types of data streams a company requires, how to introduce those streams into the infrastructure, and how to measure the value of creating a big data environment.

7. Actionable Analytics

This is tied to the big data discussion but is probably more important. Turning on the big data firehose in your company won’t make much sense unless you have a plan how to gather the data, analyze the data, and create actions on the data. Making the wrong decisions faster is not a plan for big data success.

8. Mainstream In-Memory Computing

At its simplest, in-memory computing can be considered a solid-state replacement for spinning disks. That would be a mistake as database structures, queries, and all the traditional pieces of the corporate business intelligence puzzle are changed by moving to the in-memory model.

This is one of those transitional points where users need to stop and rethink what they want to accomplish in their computing environment rather than simply stick with their traditional vendor now offering an in-memory appliance.

9. Integrated Ecosystems

I thought ecosystems were integrated by definition? Not in the computing world, I guess. In any case, this refers as a move back to the “best of breed” vendor and service selection, rather than marrying one vendor’s stack of applications and services. Best of breed largely faltered on the difficulties of integration, and this will again be the deciding factor in whether the integrated ecosystems movement stumbles at the starting gate. This category was also new to Gartner’s top 10.

10. Enterprise App Stores

This one is interesting. The app store model that has proved to be so successful in the consumer market is held up as the way corporate users should go about selecting and provisioning their corporate apps. While the concept has been around for a couple years, I’ve seen very few examples of the corporate app store emerging from a prototype to full-blown deployment. I think it might have something to do with the difference between app store consumer developers out trying to make money and traditional in-house app development. The enterprise app store may be one of those emerging technologies that is always emerging.