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What’s going to make news in IT this year? We asked our customers and scanned our social media from the last few months to create a list of what we think will be the top 10 trends people talk about in 2014. Take a look at our list and see if you agree.
- More confusion over tech decisions. When an organization needs to make a choice on cloud, mobile devices or other tech, who has the final call? The CIO’s traditional role as a tech gatekeeper is quickly being reduced by the CMO and other executives who feel the need to make decisions more independently. This growing trend will only continue to evolve throughout 2014.
- Big data gets bigger. Analyzing vast quantities of data for business insights is now an established practice, and we foresee it only becoming more prominent this year. Advanced solutions like SAP HANA are making this process more of an everyday task instead of a one-time project, and enterprise organizations will start to take advantage soon.
- Healthcare IT (HIT). Like big data, this segment of IT is poised for explosive growth. Affordable Care and meaningful use are here to stay for the near future, meaning their respective tech requirements will also be in high demand. In addition, telemedicine, e-prescribing, and healthcare analytics will all grow in importance as healthcare CIOs search for ways to engage patients, providers and payers in more efficient communications that result in better outcomes.
- The Internet of Things. We can already control our thermostats and TVs remotely from a mobile device; 2014 is the year when this explodes to numerous other uses. Everything conceivable – from appliances to light bulbs – will be Internet-ready, and consumers will control their lives via mobile devices. This means BYOD will become significantly more important and more complex as anything and everything becomes a “device” for Internet connectivity.
- As-A-Service. With belt-tightening measures firmly in place, enterprise organizations that want to remain at the forefront of technology face a tremendous dilemma which can be summed up in a simple question: “Cap-ex or op-ex?” In the coming year, infrastructure restrictions will be less of a barrier to business growth as the enterprise C-suite embraces the “as-a-service” concept and understands that it’s not the technology itself that transforms the business; it’s the way the business accesses and uses that technology that is transformative.
- IaaS: As the “as-a-service” movement takes root, the infrastructure-as-a-service or platform-as-a-service market will grow tremendously as well, particularly among software developers who want to speed application development, QA and solution deployment.
- Trust, Security and Privacy. In order to enjoy more personalized experiences with technology, consumers will become more willing to provide and share identifying information. As a result, security will become a more significant focus for technology developers. Cloud-based applications and physical devices will take important steps in the coming year to protect consumers’ identities and safeguard their personal information, lending a helping hand to technology professionals who already have their hands full working on internal security policies and disaster recovery/business continuity strategies.
- Mobility on the Move. As mobile applications replace traditional websites and software products, the combination of mobile and cloud will grow in significance. Mobile devices will become even more powerful and will be able to handle increasingly complex applications. The proliferation of the cloud allows for collaboration, personalization and mobile access to a large amount of data and a wide variety of products.
- Advanced Infrastructure. Tech departments will trend toward the advanced products like 3D printing that can be used in a variety of applications and industries and hold the potential to change the way things are produced or manufactured. This means a renewed focus on how these new technologies will be managed and supported, something already weighing heavily on the minds of enterprise IT professionals.
- Hybrids. No surprises here: Hybrid clouds will emerge as the winners in private vs. public cloud debates.
Do you agree with this list? What other topics would you add that will be big in 2014?