HorizonWatching

HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report: Mobile Computing

I’ve prepared another HorizonWatching Trend report…this one is on Mobile Computing.  I have posted a deck to Slideshare (see embedded deck at end of this post).

The slides provide an overview on the Mobile Computing trend.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Mobile Computing trend along with many links to additional resources.

The Mobile Computing gold rush is in full swing. The “train has left the station”. It's hard to talk to an enterprise customer these days without getting into a discussion about Mobile.

In 2012, the shipment of smartphones and tablets is expected to exceed that of traditional personal computers, including laptops. Enterprise CIOs want to use these personal mobile devices to give better access to their internal data and processes for executives and employees, as well as enabling better purchasing and support services for their customers.

Complicating the CIO’s life are a number of factors:

• employees who wish to use their own devices and applications at work,
• executives and board of directors who want to use their own devices and applications at work
• the wide variety of devices used,
• legacy applications written for a standard desktop screen,
• application level and device management,
• cost controls, and
• maintaining security across the infrastructure.

Some key technology subtrends to watch in 2012 include Voice search and voice assistants, Location Based Services, Gaming, Event-Based Marketing, and Augmented Reality.  On the horizon are applications like Mobile Video and 3D Mobile Internet.   All this has implications for business processes throughout the organization.   CIOs and IT leaders will want to understand how mobile fits into their organization’s unified communications strategy.

The slides provide an overview of the Mobile Computing trend.  Summary information about the Mobile Computing trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

Check out my other HorizonWatching Trend Reports…hope you enjoy them.

Mobile Computing: A HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report

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HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report: Social Business

I’ve prepared a HorizonWatching Trend report on Social Business and have posted it to Slideshare.  The deck from Slideshare is embedded below.

The slides provide an overview on the Social Business trend for HorizonWatching Community members.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Social Business trend along with many links to additional resources.

I believe that the social business trend will have a profound impact on the architecture and design of future businesses. Social collaboration is changing the way business is being conducted and enterprise processes are being transformed by social technologies. Over the next 10-15 years, social computing enabled collaboration capability will become part of every business function within the company.  Business processes will change and that will lead to required changes in application software.   Since social will eventually be embedded in every business process and transaction workflow, social computing capability will need to be a critical part of every business application.  As a result, I expect entire business application suites will be rewritten to make use of social collaboration features. 

In addition, all this social activity will generate data that will be mined and analyzed in both batch and in real-time.  The insights generated will be a critical input into all business processes, including research, product development, marketing, sales, technical support, and even business processes like accounting, procurement, and legal.   

Those businesses that make the successful transition to a social business will be more agile, more responsive, and more successful than others.

The slides provide an overview on the Social Business trend.  Summary information about the Social Business trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to download and view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

Over the next week or two, I will be posting information about other HorizonWatching Trend Reports. Stay tuned.

Social Business: A HorizonWatching Trend Report

View more presentations from Bill Chamberlin

HorizonWatching Trend Report: Virtualization

I’ve prepared a HorizonWatching Trend report on Virtualization and have posted it to Slideshare.  It is embedded below.

The slides provide an overview on the Virtualization trend for HorizonWatching Community members.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Virtualizatoin trend along with many links to additional resources.

Virtualization as a technology has in fact been around for a very long time.  Virtualized infrastructures have become popular not only for cost savings, but because they can enable quick changes to business models, operating structures and the way that business processes are enabled. In addition, a highly virtualized infrastructure is a prerequisite for private clouds so CIOs will continue to focus on virtualization.

Virtualization is one of the best ways to get more business value from an IT infrastructure. By decoupling logical resources from physical assets, virtualization can empower an exceptionally swift response to changing business conditions or changing business strategies.

Over the last 3-4 years we’ve seen server virtualization really take off as a trend and now it is almost standard technology in the data center.  While security concerns remain a hurdle to deployment, we’ll continue to see a focus on virtualization across the entire infrastructure in 2012.

The slides provide an overview on the Virtualization trend. Summary information about the Virtualization trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

Over the next week or two, I will be posting information about other HorizonWatching Trend Reports. Stay tuned.

Virtualization: A HorizonWatching Trend Report

View more presentations from Bill Chamberlin

HorizonWatching Trend Report: Cloud Computing

I’ve prepared a HorizonWatch Trend report on Cloud Computing and have posted it to Slideshare.  It is embedded below.

The slides provide an overview on the Cloud Computing trend for IBM HorizonWatching Community members.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Cloud Computing trend along with many links to additional resources

The cloud computing ‘buzz’ has been going on now for 4-5 years.  Cloud is a disruptive force and will have an impact in most (if not all ) industries.

Cloud computing provides individuals and organizations with new options on how they acquire or deliver IT services, with reduced emphasis on the constraints of traditional software and hardware licensing models.

Long term, I expect cloud and mobile cloud services will replace the traditional client / server application/solution delivery model for the majority of enterprises.

The three main types of clouds are private, public, and hybrid.  All three of these types of clouds are expected to grow significantly in 2012 as enterprises move from experimentation to implementing application solutions.

In 2012 I expect to see mid and large-sized businesses to increase their implementation of all types of clouds.  I also expect larger enterprises will begin to put plans in place to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud.  2012 will also be an important year for cloud services providers hoping to build out cloud application platforms and ecosystems around those platforms.

Here is the deck.

Cloud computing: A HorizonWatching Trend Report

View more presentations from Bill Chamberlin

Over the next week or two, I will be posting information about other HorizonWatching Trend Reports. Stay tuned.

HorizonWatching: Top Eleven Technology Trends For 2012

As I do every year about this time, I’m publishing my list of the top Information Technology Trends for 2012.  I have eleven on my list.

The trends on my list are the ones that I feel will have the most impact on IT departments in 2012.   These are the trends CIOs and IT leaders will be focused on learning about and implementing during 2012.

Here’s my list:

1. Cloud Computing
2. Virtualization
3. Social Business
4. Mobile Computing
5. Big Data
6. Analytics
7. IBM Watson
8. Human / Computer Interaction
9. Security
10. Sustainability & Green IT
11. Consumerization of IT

For each of the trends, I’ll be developing separate posts in the coming weeks that will provide additional detail on each of the trends….so watch this space.

For now, I am embedding a slide deck I have posted out on Slideshare with background on these trends.  Enjoy.

HorizonWatching: 2012 Technology Trends

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IDC: Security Trends and Predictions for 2012

Yesterday I attended IDC’s conference call on 2012 predictions for the IT security industry.  The IDC Security Research team did a great job of laying out the important trends for IT security.

Security is an area that just keeps on becoming more and more important.  Unfortunately, the bad guys out there just keep finding ways to attack and disrupt.  The big trends today of social, mobile, cloud, and analytics are all putting more pressure on IT security professionals today to provide an infrastructure that can withstand almost any type of attack. 

The speakers on the 45 minute conference call were

• Christian A. Christiansen, Program Vice President, Security Products and Services, IDC
• John Grady, Senior Research Analyst, Security Products and Services, IDC
• Phil Hochmuth, Program Manager, Security Products, IDC
• Sally Hudson, Research Director, Security Products and Services, IDC
• Charles J. Kolodgy, Research Vice President, Security Products, IDC
• Chris Liebert, Senior Analyst, Security Services, IDC

Below you will find the IDC Security Predictions for 2012 in bold text along with my notes from the call:

1. Customer Expectations & Frustration Will Grow.  IDC has been hearing that IT leaders are having a hard time defining the risks, let alone trying to solve them.  This leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding between IT leaders, the execs, and the employees.  As a result of this miscommunication and misunderstanding, frustrations over expectations will increase.
2. Cloud Will Slowly Incorporate Identity, Privilege & Access.  IDC says many large enterprises are looking to implement hybrid and private clouds and these large enterprises are slowly building into their implementations identity, privilege & access.
3. Mobile Security Merges Mobile Device Management, SaaS, & Policy.  Security vendors are realizing that the combination of threats and risks associated with mobile is different and complex.  Correlating user to device, application, and data is becoming increasingly important. IDC also says the integration of standards will become increasingly important.
4. Social Networking Becomes More Hellish and Complicated.  IDC says social computing continues to change and evolve.  Focus on control and privacy aspects of social will increase.  As enterprises invest more and more to integrate social throughout all business processes their needs to be better tools to ensure that social not only increases employee productivity, but manages enterprise risk effectively.  IDC says watch for greater restrictions on employees tweeting and posting on behalf of the enterprise.
5. Big Data Comes to Security as Threat Intelligence Security Services.  IDC says Big Data combined with advanced analytics will be used to help enterprises reduce risks via predictive analytics.
6. Professional Services Drive Managed Security and SaaS.  IDC expects firms to roll out an increased number of professional services in order to drive   IDC says professional services engagements are leading to increased opportunities for managed security services and SaaS.   
7. Threat Ecosystem Changes from Channel to Direct Model.  IDC says bad guys are moving more towards a direct model of organization where they do everything themselves vs. relying on third parties to do their dirty work.
8. Freemium Changes Endpoint Markets for Consumer/SMB in China.  IDC says the freemium model, where businesses offer products and services for free and then try to lure customers into buying premium versions, has implications for security and risk management.
9. Weaponized Malware Takes Threats to a New Level.  Increasingly, the bad guys are using malware to do some really awful things.  IDC says this could be a new and very vicious trend that is not on the radar of many enterprises yet.
10. New “Normal” is Constant Attacks and Breaches.  IDC says enterprises of all sizes must brace themselves for constant flood of attacks from all types of sources.  These attacks are searching for vulnerabilities that might be exploited later.

To catch a replay of the conference call, go to Security Predictions 2012: Big Data, Social, Mobile, and Cloud Embolden the Security Community.  You’ll need to register first.  You can access more IDC related security content at IDC Security Research

IDC Retail Insights: Predictions for 2012 for the Retail Industry

IDC has released its IDC Retail Insights' Predictions for 2012 via it’s annual predictions conference call.  This was a global predictions call and was focused broadly on all types of financial services.  There are also other calls coming up that focus on regional predictions in both Europe and Asia as well as calls specific to sub-industries within Financial Services.   

Leading this conference call was Bob Parker Group Vice President.  Other IDC Retail Insights team members on the call were

• Christine Bardwell   Research Manager
• Greg Girard   Program Director
• Leslie Hand   Research Director
• Ivano Ortis   Head – International, IDC Retail Insights

Summary

According to IDC Retail Insights, the economic indicators are strong going into 2012.  IDC believes that year to year spending growths for Retail Industry segments will range from a low of 3.9% for for Home Furnishing to a high of 5.6% for Drug Stores.  Spending will grow the fastest in the software at 5.8% year to year, while services growth will be lowest at 3.5%.  Asia Pacific is poised to grow the fastest at 4.8% while Western Europe will only row at 3.6%.

The IDC Retail Insights team also confirmed four major IT trends that are reshaping the industry:  Cloud Computing, Social Computing, Mobile Computing, and Analytics.

The Ten Predictions

The 2012 predictions list below was sourced from the conference call slides.

1. Growth Strategy. “Consumers, not products or channels, create the basis for growth strategies.”
2. New Retail IT Model. “The Omni-Channel Consumer directs a new Retail IT model for the industry – O3.” 
3. Innovative & Efficient. “Retailers will race to innovate and will operate more efficiently.”
4. Synchronicity. “Retailers will synchronize the supply chain with the clock speed of their customers.”
5. Brand Experiences. “Retailers will create great brand experiences by enabling engaged employee experiences.”
6. Customer Engagement. “Planning paradigms will begin to evolve to support genuine customer brand engagement strategies.”
7. Assortment Planning. “Continuous assortment planning (AP) orchestrated for space becomes the planning hub.”
8. Store Evolution. “The store evolves – welcome to the Omnichannel Store.”
9. Social Conversations. “Customer experience improvements that boost online conversion will go beyond the web store.”
10. Delivery Models. “eCommerce delivery models will fragment.” 

For More Information

• The full report will be posted at the IDC website sometime in the next month.
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Retail Insights Predictions 2012: Retail. Other webinars targeting EMEA and AP are also available at the IDC website
• Press Release:  IDC Retail Insights To Present Top 10 Predictions for 2012
• Community:  The IDC Retail Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Retail Insights Newsletter: www.idc-ri.com/newsletter
• The IDC Retail Insights main page is at http://www.idc-ri.com
• The IDC 2012 Predictions portal is at http://www.idc.com/research/Predictions12/Main/index.jsp.  This page is being updated daily as new reports come out, webinars announced, etc.

IDC Financial Insights: Predictions for 2012 for Financial Services

IDC has released its IDC Financial Insights' Predictions for 2012.  The December 6, 2011 annual predictions conference call was marred by technical problems, but the IDC team went ahead and recorded the webinar portion.  The recording will be available on the IDC Predictions website and has been loaded to You Tube, here and is also embedded below.

This was a global predictions call and was focused broadly on all types of financial services.  There are also other calls coming up that focus on regional predictions in both Europe and Asia as well as calls specific to sub-industries within Financial Services.  

Leading this conference call was David Potterton, Vice President of Global Research.  Other IDC Financial Insights team members on the call were Jeanne Capachin, Marc DeCastro, Karen Massey, Aaron McPherson, John O'Brien, Sean O'Dowd, and Michael Versace.

Summary

The IDC Financial Insights team started off the predictions by saying there are going to be four main themes in 2012. 

1. Meeting regulatory and compliance requirements.
2. Improving the cross-channel experience
3. Improving operational cost efficiencies
4. Improving revenue generation 

The Ten Predictions

The 2012 predictions list below was sourced from the conference call slides.

1. IT Spending Growth. “Tumultuous financial markets, failing institutions, and lower profits in Europe and the U.S. will inhibit, but not eliminate, IT spending growth.”
2. Channel Mix. “Financial institutions struggle to harness the right channel mix for an optimum customer experience.” 
3. New Business Models. “Financial institutions will see the need to develop a new business model, but execution will elude the industry.”
4. Revenue Generation. “Revenue-generation continues to be a major challenge in 2012 as financial institutions explore new pricing options enabled by technology.”
5. Reliability of IT. “IT reliability becomes a major risk factor due to the age and complexity of key systems.”
6. Mobile Payments. “Financial institutions will generate less than 10% of total mobile payments.”
7. Operational Efficiency. “Financial institutions will continue to tackle operational efficiencies and will target average cost income ratios of 40%.”
8. Risk Management. “Risk management will top US$60B and 15% of total IT investments across WW financial services.”
9. Social Media. “Financial institutions will use social media to improve decision making and drive financial results.”
10. Big Data Analytics. “Over 40% of all tier 1 banking and capital market firms gear up to execute big data / analytics business and technology strategies.”

Webinar Recording via YouTube

 

For More Information

• The full report is at:  Worldwide Financial Services 2012 Top 10 Predictions: Thriving or Just Surviving? .  Other reports targeting EMEA and AP are also available at the IDC website
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Financial Insights Predictions 2012: Financial Services.  This is the global predictions call.  Other webinars targeting EMEA and AP are also available at the IDC website
• Slides: To download the conference call slides go to: http://idc-insights-community.com/posts/4a985ecf02.
• Press Release:  IDC Financial Insights To Present Top 10 Predictions for 2012
• Community:  The IDC Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Financial Insights Newsletter: www.idc-fi.com/newsletter
• The IDC Financial Insights main page is at http://www.idc-fi.com/
• The IDC 2012 Predictions portal is at http://www.idc.com/research/Predictions12/Main/index.jsp.  This page is being updated daily as new reports come out, webinars announced, etc.

Jack Uldrich: Predictions for 2012

Jack Uldrich is a well known author, blogger, columnist, keynote speaker, and global futurist.  Two books of his I recommend are 1) Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business.

Uldrich has released his list of predictions for 2012.  I like reading his list every year because his predictions are integrated into stories and potential scenarios that could very well happen.  The stories and scenarios bring the predictions to life and helps you imagine other uses for the predicted technology trend.

Here’s a summary of his list

1. Blackout Friday. Retailers will admit to using advanced facial recognition software.
2. Collegiate Guarantees.   University helps unemployed alumni with special offer.
3. Augmented Political Reality.  A mobile app to help voters match candidates to special interest groups
4. Potty “Gaming”.  A new game to help parents potty-train their toddlers.
5. Urban Crops.  A city will initiate a major focus on urban farming to feed it’s citizens.
6. Paparazzi Drones.    Advanced miniature robotic drones to be applied to the celebrity industry.
7. Virtual Grocery Stores.  Subway walls to become a smartphone enabled virtual grocery store..
8. Nano-Drugs.   Trial program launched to apply groundbreaking nanoscience technology to cancer treatment
9. Networked Traffic.    Social networking apps to reduce traffic congestion.
10. Phone Food Sensors.  New device attached to smartphones chemically analyzes food while shopping at grocery stores.

You can read the detail behind Uldrich’s list at his blog  http://jumpthecurve.net/health-care/futurist-jack-uldrichs-predictions-for-2012/

IDC Health Insights: 2012 Health Industry Predictions

Earlier this week, I attended the annual IDC Health Insights Predictions 2012:  Health conference call.  

This was a global predictions call that covered the entire Health Industry, including health payer, provider and life science sectors.  The team identify major global trends that will impact the has scheduled other prediction calls going into more detail on topics specific to payer, provider and life sciences.  There are also other calls coming up that focus on health industry related predictions in both Europe and Asia.   

Leading this conference call was the IDC Health Insights Group Vice President, Scott Lundstrom.  Also on the call were 8 other members of the IDC Health Insights analyst team

Summary

IDC says significant changes are transforming components of the Health Industry value chain driven by a focus on patient safety, cost containment, quality improvement, and regulatory compliance.  Key topics of importance to business leaders will be EMR and EHR for providers, connected health, healthcare industry reform, and the life sciences value chain. 

Overall, IDC list 5 major technology themes

1. Reform
2. Analytics and Big Data
3. Cloud
4. Mobile
5. Social

IDC is hot on themes 2-5 throughout all of its predictions calls.  

The IDC Health Insights Ten Predictions for 2012

The 2012 predictions list below was sourced from the conference call slides.

1. EHR. “The Majority of U.S. Providers Will Use an EHR by the End of 2012”.
2. ACOs. “Successful Accountable Care Organizations Will Emerge from Private or Public-Private Initiatives” 
3. Re-Branding for Care. “Health Plans Rebrand: Care is the New Core”
4. Integrated Strategies. “Integration of Payment, Clinical Performance and Outcomes”
5. Analytics for Pharma. “Pharma adds "Actionable" to Analytics in 2012”
6. Analytics for ACOs. “The Next Mountain for ACOs to Climb Will be the Development of an Enterprise Analytic Framework Including Clinical Analytics”
7. Outsourcing.  “Outsourcing Best Practices Shift From Vendor to Partner”
8. Mobile. “Bring Your Own Mobile Device Gains Popularity, But Security Risks Abound”
9. Communication Strategy. “Second-Generation Communication Strategies Emerge”
10. Social. “The Next Generation of Consumer Engagement will Leverage Consumers’ Social Graphs”

For More Information

• The IDC Health Insights main page is http://www.idc-hi.com/
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Health Insights Predictions 2012:  Health.   See the IDC Insights Predictions 2012 page for other Health Insights prediction calls coming up.
• Reports: IDC Health Insights Top 10 Predictions for Health Industry (not published yet). Also Asia/Pacific Healthcare 2012 Top 10 Predictions
• Press Release:  IDC Health Insights press releases
• Community:  The IDC Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Health Insights Newsletter: www.idc-hi.com/newsletter
• The IDC 2012 Predictions portal is at http://www.idc.com/research/Predictions12/Main/index.jsp.  This page is being updated daily as new reports come out, webinars announced, etc.