With 2015 right around the corner, it’s important you make sure that you and your technology department are ready for the New Year. Last year, we discussed “The Top 5 Technology Trends for 2014”. These trends included Big Data, BYOD and Cloud Computing. While these trends are still at the forefront of the technology world, there are some new things that IT shops should be considering in 2015.
Resource Management
More and more, IT departments are starting to make their organizations aware of their energy usage and compute-to-consumption ratios. In a recent report, Gartner suggested that energy management will become an enterprise-level discipline by 2017, which will be enabled by energy management information systems. Not just a benefit to the environment but to your organizations bottom line too!
Mobility
If a trend happens year after year, is it still considered a trend? In this case, yes, as advances in mobility change constantly. Most recently, the question of security is being raised about mobility in the workplace. It’s important that your organization creates a “BYOD” policy if you don’t already have one. If you do have one, review it frequently as changes in mobility may alter what it needs to cover. Additionally, your company needs to be ready to support all the different variations of tablets, phones and PC’s. Gartner states that employees are now using a variety of devices which demand that your organization’s platforms accommodate to all of them!
Hybrid Clouds
Through 2013 Gartner reported that more than 60% of IT adoption of the cloud was to redeploy current applications. Currently, a shift is taking place that exploits private and hybrid cloud techniques. With this, Gartner advises companies to develop only after public services have been integrated with private delivery.
Big Data
With companies collecting and analyzing more and more data, demand for big data is growing. As this need grows, so do the jobs associated with it. Gartner reports that in 2015, big data demand will reach 4.4 million jobs globally. Surprisingly enough, only one-third of those jobs will actually be filled. So if you’re in need of big data professionals in 2015, be sure you make an offer fast if you interview a talent professional. With so many of these jobs open, top talent will be snatched up quickly.
Another issue facing big data is the inability for organization knowing how to use the data and IT managing it. These two pieces working together can sometimes be tricky. Putting off this initiative however, could be detrimental. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by this task, take a tip from Gartner: virtualize storage and deduplication, evaluate all data inputs to get rid of what isn’t necessary and then segment and prioritize what’s left.
The Internet of Everything
The Internet of Everything (or IOE) could be the biggest trend (or phenomenon!) happening in 2015. After all, Cisco’s CEO John Chambers, predicts the impact of IOE in the public sector to be $4.6 trillion. He believes it will have a dramatic impact on everything from city planning, first responders, military, health and dozens of other environments (Time Magazine). If you aren’t familiar, IOE is adding connectivity or intelligence to any device or product. For example, thermostats that can now be changed from your mobile phone. And now “smart” refrigerators, cars, TVs and many other products are making their way in to the market.
This next big thing is not just impacting the technology industry. It’s touching nearly every industry in a major way. Companies should be prepared to be a part of this upcoming trend!
What other trends are you or your company anticipating in 2015? Feel free to share in the comments!
And if you’re in need of staff in the upcoming year, please reach out to IDR for your needs!