By Telecom Lead Team: Cloud
computing, mobility, social computing, big data and smart analytics, IT
appliances, and cybersecurity will become more tightly woven into
mission-critical systems and processes as organizations look for ways to innovate
and operate more cost efficiently, according to Unisys.
“Innovation
and integration continue to be the key watchwords for IT investments in 2012.
In 2011, we saw organizations beginning to make productive use of key
disruptive technologies such as cloud, mobile, and social computing, but the
work was largely done in secure, protected silos, and has yet to become
pervasive across the IT organization,” said Fred Dillman, Unisys chief
technology officer.
Unisys
predictions for 2012:
Cloud
Computing
Private
cloud implementations will continue to accelerate in 2012, with enterprises
gaining confidence in the technology and moving to leverage it across their
infrastructure to drive both improved organizational responsiveness and cost
savings, while still maintaining the security of an on-premise infrastructure.
Unisys expects to see increased interest in enterprise-class cloud management
software, with the ability to manage both public and private clouds as an
integral part of an overall data center environment.
Additionally,
Unisys expects that both government agencies and businesses in 2012 will
accelerate their use of cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) for email and
collaboration solutions, to further reduce costs and simplify operations.
Finally,
Unisys expects organizations to begin the process of broadly assessing their
applications portfolio to take greater advantage of cloud computing
opportunities. These assessments will provide companies opportunities for
consolidating applications and for taking advantage of a growing suite of SaaS
offerings to simplify their IT operations and improve their flexibility.
Mobile
Computing
Mobile
devices are proliferating throughout the enterprise and are increasingly
becoming the new computing platform of choice for employees and customers, as
mobile becomes the preferred channel for doing business. The rapid adoption of
consumer mobile technologies is challenging the traditional model of managing
and securing IT endpoints within the enterprise, forcing organizations to alter
their approach to device management.
In
2012, Unisys expects IT organizations will devote significant resources towards
developing new applications and reengineering business processes to take
advantage of this growing opportunity, as they look to connect with clients and
improve employee productivity.
Additionally,
Unisys expects organizations will make greater use of new mobile device and
application management tools to better manage, secure, maintain, and deploy
mobile devices and applications within their organizations.
Social
Computing
With
the continued spread of social computing in the consumer world, more
organizations are realizing the potential power of social networks to enhance
employee collaboration and productivity within their enterprises, and better
connect with customers, partners and other stakeholders.
In
2012 Unisys expects that organizations will accelerate the trend towards
socially enabling their client-facing channels and contact points, to gain
greater connection to consumers and drive insights into client behavior that
can improve service and client loyalty. Organizations will rapidly integrate
social technologies into the fabric of their core enterprise applications in
areas such as customer relationship management, case management, exception
handling, and other transactional systems.
Unisys
also sees greater use of advanced social networking technologies to enhance
employee collaboration in geographically distributed enterprises — helping to
improve efficiency, employee satisfaction, and overall client service levels.
Big
Data / Smart Computing
Enterprises
are struggling to manage the flood of data being generated and stored within
their organizations in addition to new data streams that have become available
from external sources. The ability to gain insight and competitive advantage
from this data is both an opportunity and a competitive threat, and businesses
and government agencies alike are adopting advanced analytics technologies to
build innovative new services, improve service levels, and drive greater
efficiency.
In
the next 12 months, Unisys expects a greater focus by organizations on
identifying which streams of data can provide the greatest payback via
real-time decision-making. Unisys also expects conversations to shift away from
the technical attributes of “big data” technologies to how
organizations can use this information to better serve customers, open new
markets, and reduce costs.
Finally,
as these growing data streams drive up storage costs, Unisys expects
organizations will look to rationalize storage strategies to keep data costs
under control.
IT
Appliances
In
recent years, enterprises have made growing use of so-called IT appliances –
turnkey combinations of packaged hardware and software that handle specialized
functions – to jumpstart new technology initiatives and avoid complex, lengthy
systems integration efforts.
In
2012 Unisys expects such IT appliances to take on increasingly sophisticated
functions such as management of IT infrastructure, cloud computing, intelligent
analytics, and cybersecurity. In the area of cloud computing, Unisys expects
that highly scalable cloud appliances will appear on the market, allowing IT
managers to more quickly deploy and scale their private cloud implementations.
CyberSecurity
In
2011, the world witnessed some of the most intricate and costly cyber breaches
ever experienced from the hacking of a major gaming company to the theft of
credit card information from well-known corporate and financial institutions.
As
cyber threats grow in number and sophistication, Unisys predicts that in 2012
more organizations will implement predictive security operations, consisting of
dedicated analysts and advanced data analytics software, to identify threats
before they cause significant damage. Unisys also expects that organizations
will create protected silos within their data operations to prevent access to
sensitive information in cases where their network perimeters have been
breached.
Organizations
will also work to create greater integration of their security technologies,
such as intrusion detection, malware / antivirus detection, and data loss
prevention to improve their overall security operational models, and better react
and respond to the growing volume and sophistication of security threats.
