A new year is upon us. In the world of IT, that might as well be a new decade. Industries that grow and change as quickly as tech are hard to predict. Here are a few of my predictions on important focuses and buzz-words for 2007.
- Virtualization (both server and desktop)
- Convergence
- Business-savvy IT professionals
- Outsourcing
- DRM
- ROI/TCO
If there’s one thing Hurricane Katrina taught us, it’s that you absolutely cannot predict when a natural disaster is going to make your day really bad. IT departments across the Gulf Coast scrambled to rebuild their businesses and recover their data after the hurricane. If 2006 was the year of disaster recovery and emergency failover, 2007 is the year of virtualization. After all, data can be replicated from New Orleans to Dallas and brought right back online with virtual servers. You can’t replicate a hardware dependent enterprise, however. At the same time, convergence (which was also a big buzz word in 2006) will move from the large enterprise to medium sized businesses. Relational databases allow us to take advantage of internal information hooks and IT departments are discovering the cost benefit of merging systems and data.
There’s a joke around the IT world that goes something like this: “How can you tell if an IT guy has good people skills?” … “If he looks at your shoes when he speaks to you instead of his own!” Funny, and true. IT types are traditionally not well-adjusted and therefore have trouble in the business world. IT professionals who understand business concerns, operational details and ROI/TCO are becoming increasingly important to companies. In 2007, those who land the big jobs/contracts will be the IT professionals who are businesses men first and foremost. We will see continued changes to the way people outsource, and I don’t expect this to settle in 2007. The lesson is clear: those who adapt will win.
Microsoft has gone out on a limb with its ridiculous DRM. Now that it is making life difficult on corporate IT departments, we might finally begin to see a shift away from Microsoft and towards a more distributed market share. I expect that Apple will be the main beneficiary of this, depending on how well the cards are played in Cupertino.
Finally, CIOs and IT Managers will be squeezed by boards due to shareholder resentment of stagnating corporate profits. Costs have continued to go up, but the strong economy kept naysayers at bay. Now, however, is the time for those in charge of technology to begin the process of cost-justification and return on investment planning. For entirely too long, IT has been the unwanted child of organizations because its leaders rarely bothered to provide an exact, concise discription of the real value of IT assets and services. IT is worth big money and provides invaluable services. It’s time to prove it.