Analyst house, Gartner has outlined five key trends that it believes will shape cloud strategies between now and 2015. Gartner Vice President, David Cearley put the list together, sighting that cloud computing has the potential to impact every aspect of IT and how users access applications and business services. Included in this is the growing importance of the hybrid cloud model and cloud-centric design.
However, a new report published by Forester has revealed that CIOs are worried that cloud computing is more of an enemy than a friend. The survey of some 300 enterprise executives indicated the idea of cloud providing quick and easy cost reductions is putting strain on the financial expectations of IT departments.
Virtualisation continues to hit the headlines too, with a new CIO survey from Barclays Capital claiming that IT leaders wishing to mobilise their workforce to save on costs with fewer computers are turning to desktop virtualization. More than half of the 100 respondents Barclays polled said they were testing, have deployed, or were planning to install a system for desktop virtualisation in 2012.
According to leading analysts though, despite the virtualization software market maturing with growing adoption among enterprises, customers will need to grapple with tricky software licensing issues as this marketplace becomes more abstract and complicated.
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Analysts agree that the cloud is to be central to how we use computing from here on in. However, market watcher, Gartner, has rejected the popular notion that we are entering a "post-PC era". Its prediction that personal cloud will replace the PC at the centre of users' digital life by 2014, equates to no single device acting as the central hub; the PC will be one of many.
The trend for the consumerisation of business IT shows no sign of abating either, especially when it comes to mobile technology. Recent research by Trend Micro has discovered that more that 78 per cent of employees are permitted to use their personal devices for work. Has bring your own device (BYOD) truly arrived in the workplace?
Finally, the cloud has a role in economic recovery, according to Microsoft. According to the software giant, global cloud services will generate nearly 14 million jobs between 2011 and 2015, and "IT innovation created by cloud computing" could produce $1.1 trillion in new annual revenues by 2015.
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The UK tops the virtualisation adoption league, according to the latest V-Index survey produced by research specialists Vanson Bourne. Beating off America, Germany and France, large enterprises in the UK are ahead with 95% of organisations having either partly or fully virtualised their servers . VMware topped the pile of hypervisors with 91 per cent of UK companies choosing the brand.
Where Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is concerned, a strategist for the Evaluator Group has been touting VDI's security benefits as the key proof point for organisations. According to Randy Kerns, senior strategist for the Evaluator Group, it’s not all about money or future cost-savings, but security that makes VDI so appealing today.
Smart devices also take centre stage with a report from analyst-house IDC assessing the impact of mobile adoption on the traditional IT landscape. According to Stephen Minton, VP of Worldwide IT Markets at IDC, if smartphones and tablets were removed form IT spending forecasts, global growth in 2011 would only be 2.5% and the take-up is all that is preventing the European IT spend plunging into a negative growth in 2011.
Finally, at its recent symposium Gartner analysts identified the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for next year. It includes entries such as cloud and tablets alongside business analytics, mobile apps and other key initiatives which David Cearley, VP and Gartner Fellow believes “Will be strategic for most organisations and IT leaders should use this list in their strategic planning process by reviewing the technologies and how they fit into their expected needs.”
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Once again, outsourcing is on the up. According to Gartner, outsourcing has become an integral part of the way enterprises are managed with the majority of businesses spending more on outsourcing now than at any point in recent years. According to the report, 53% of European organisations planned to outsource more, with 40% due to increase their external IT services spending. So, you could say you are in good company!
Those Gartner analysts have been rather busy of late, also coining 2011 “the year of PaaS”. Yes, yet another acronym to get your head around. This prediction states that all leading enterprise software vendors and large cloud specialists will introduce new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings in 2011. re:niu will be tracking this prediction on your behalf, and will let you know whether this crystal ball gazing becomes reality.
Meanwhile, virtualisation continues to cause a stir. A new report shows that server virtualisation continues to be the biggest priority for IT departments across all industries. Ovum states that a sizeable minority of servers now exist as virtual machines (VMs), and expects that over time most server instances will become virtual.
Finally, consulting giant Deloitte have stated that company directors can no longer afford to be anything less than ‘tech savvy’. The announcement identifies the top 5 priorities that boards fail to devote enough time and attention to as they oversee IT risk and strategy.
