It is no doubt that CIOs will be struggling with the strategic investments in 2015. Initial investments for the big data are already made, or being made, and 2015 will be the year where the boards will be asking the results of big data. Cloud migrations which have already been started is another point to be asked. Plus, the Internet of Things (IoT) is also on the table. Are these not enough? No, here is what we are expecting the CIOs to discuss in 2015.
CIOs will be discussing heavily about the network and this time it will be about reliability. The communications between the devices, applications and integrations require reliable networks. In addition, people will be placing more loads on the networks by shifting to video and mobile communications. Yet, there is the ever growing demand for data by the people, by the cloud and by the (multiple) data centers. There is the imminent need to solve the network reliability issues to ensure the massive demands that will be put on the network: scalability, load balancing, redundancy, automation, virtualization and newer technologies – such as optical technologies – will be the main discussion topics.
Next comes the Internet of Things, where every device is somehow connected to the Internet, exchanging information with other devices and applications. I find this to be a primary concern for the enterprises as well, in addition to the small and medium businesses. The increasing use of personal technologies, especially with the smart watches and personal health equipment, combined with the personal clouds will no doubt will be in the enterprises’ agendas. In addition to the network load that will be brought by the devices, there will be machine to machine communication complexities and security issues. On the other hand, IoT will bring new expectations, opportunities, disruptions, business models to the table. It is no surprise that Microsoft is developing the “Managing Enterprise Devices and Apps” exam.
Speaking of machine to machine communication, and the security we need to talk about an even more complex and extended computing environments. It is obvious today that with each passing day more variety of devices are introduced to the Internet, putting extra load on the shoulders of security professionals. It is not just about learning the vulnerabilities of the devices. But it is rather about establishing trust between the devices, networks and people, mitigating risk and proactive risk analysis and response.
IT departments’ role on cloud transformation and deployments will continue in 2015, but the departments will act more as a service broker: they will identify needs, requirements, offer solutions, manage technologies and service users. The public, private, hybrid cloud, virtual machine discussions will be had less and less every day and the focus will be more on business initiatives, technological compliance, customer interaction, operational transformation. In other words cloud discussions will be on solving business needs rather than the technology itself (of course this is why IT exists; check my “IT Pros: Get Close to the Business” article for the discussion on this subject). On the other hand, for the companies they are shying away from the cloud, once again the cloud solutions will be discussed and on premise solutions will be reevaluated.
Finally, big data will be on the table. The companies who have successfully adopted big data infrastructure will be taking further steps. So far enterprises struggled on gathering, managing and making sense of the data. The ones that are ahead of the curve have already digged the data and and gained insights. 2015 will be the year to act on the insights and further use the big data for predictive analyses. Big data insights will also be used for improving operational efficiencies, identify opportunities and improve customer service levels.
What are your expectations for 2015? Hit the comments below!
Image credit: gartner.com
