Enterprise Computing Trends in 2012

Enterprise computing for 2012 creates a plethora of challenges and opportunities within the B2B market. Business owners, clients and customers alike are having to adapt to increased globalization and the commercialization of technology owners, both at home and in the workplace. In this regard the scalability of E-commerce, cloud computing and big data management enhances an organizations ability to reach new audiences and position themselves within markets – both physical and virtual – that stretch the boundaries of culture and economic systems.

I recently consulted on a B2B Enterprise Computing industry trends analysis in collaboration with a national agency and network of Universities in the UK. It investigated the fusion of technologies, their impact on business and trade relations, and the trends in IT that will define not just strategic focus in 2012 but for years to come. Garnering opinions from industry experts and executives within a host of business verticals such as Health, Education, Finance, Law and IT services the results often sparked debate and conflicts of interests. Each sector certainly has bespoke IT needs and restrictions – public vs private, profit vs people oriented, etc. – but the core IT focus requirements remained the same. While priorities also differed at the outset, it was interesting to note the almost exclusive agreement on the final ‘trending’ points. That virtualization, collaborative systems and information governance play key roles. That the afore-mentioned commercial outlook, embracing cloud philosophies and big data management will drive success.

Trending IT needs in 2012…

1. Managing costs: This was rewording from "Cutting costs" to "Managing costs" as business leaders in several sectors objected to the terminology and philosophical mindset. It is less an exercise of 'cutting' and more about 'managing' what is currently rolled out and budgeted for. Which is especially pertinent in this economic climate when manageable and variable expenses are crucial. One major factor that makes this possible is the resilience and security of cloud technologies. Cloud computing is so attractive for this very reason - a company can manage costs, leave administration to external parties, reducing overheads and pay per user/usage. Downsized license agreements and internal IT infrastructure variables therefore become much more manageable.
2. Driving revenue through further investment in IT: This depended greatly on the company and sector of business. For example public sector industries – Health, Education – are greatly restricted by budgetary sanctions and governance "red tape", so their opportunity is limited to specific vendors and government run initiatives. Within big business, investment is made in-house or outsourced as an effort in consolidation, standardization or value adding. The bottom line, IT life cycle management that scales is uppermost in executive strategists minds.
3. Improve security governance and demographics: Globalization and commercialization are turning employees and customers into "digital aficionados." People are turned off by unfamiliar hardware, software they have to learn, individual access logins for each and every platform or interface they want to use. This culture creates an expectation for people to be able to use the tools and technologies they are familiar with and use in everyday life. This is a considerable challenge for IT departments, especially where cultural boundaries are blurred, local laws create road blocks to technological rollout and standards must be maintained in-house. Creating a policy and embracing "native experiences" is fast becoming a crucial aspect of strategic focus, to empower, engage and maintain productivity.
4. Big data: Especially key in Health and Finance, the ability to capture, store, search, share and analyse vast amounts of legacy data is at a critical mass. Providing greater storage and bandwidth depends on deployment, network storage capacity and in the 'cloud' on a pay for usage agreement level. The issue to address is migrating from old in-house physical data warehousing, security and recovery, to a methodology that embraces online virtualization. None of which is cheap, and all of which takes a lot of time to sort and filter.
5. Minimizing the energy footprint and impact: In several industry forums there was a distinct impression that this was the ‘white elephant’ in the room. While important as a process of stepping through hoops for regulators and government standards it was referred to as being important only as a “slogan of the day.” However, trends in IT are moving towards going green as matter of course. Economics, optimization, utilization, speed, space and time - all are key drivers for green initiatives. There are also movements afoot where companies will be penalized – for example regarding carbon consumption, energy usage, etc. Enterprise computing is being driven to make ‘green’ initiatives a priority, but it has to be said, this is at the chagrin of some, especially in these economic times with governance and capital restrictions stymieing growth.

For any B2B provider or client, smarter computing is going to drive the ability to scale. Fundamentally, businesses must build an infrastructure so that employees, customers and technology can be harnessed to grow the business while creating ROI. Which, when all is said and done, IS the key to any successful business strategy.