IT Industry Predictions for 2013

Moving forward into the new year global economies are expected to remain in “crises mode”. Despite this however, IT professionals remain optimistic about the future financial health of their respective organizations.

Business strategists from software, hardware and data center industries seem to think 2013 will be a big year in terms of how we collaborate.

For example, the depression has already changed the way we do business; Collaboration between companies in exchange for services may save money while delivering profitable results between b2bs (Business to Business).

Social media management will continue to play a huge role in collaboration. CTOs will also need to address the security concerns of cloud computing as well as the issue of “big data”. Additionally, the BYOD (bring your own device) trend is expected to gain more traction in 2013.

Cloud & Big Data Challenge

According to ISACA, a global non-profit network composed of nearly 100,000 IT pros, 70 percent of industry professionals feel the “Cloud” continues to be ill-received. Part of the year will likely be spent trying to secure public and private clouds as well as successfully integrate a cloud based OS into existing IT infrastructure. Some hint that a name change may be in order – to rid the “cloud” of any negative connotations. In fact, nearly 70 percent of workers feel the negatives of the cloud outweigh the positives. Again, the big issue here is security and how organizations will choose to address those concerns. Hopefully a cost-effective approach will be taken.

Big Data is also a huge area of concern for the data center industry. Organizations have accumulated so much data that they can hardly manage it, let alone analyze and access it in a timely manner.

Companies will need more storage as well as the right technology to efficiently manage big data. Fortunately, many organizations are hard at work developing tools for analysis. Georgia Tech is expected to make great strides in 2013, as they were recently awarded millions from DARPA for the sake of developing big data management systems.

Despite the struggling economy, security concerns of the cloud and management issues associated with big data, 2013 should be a progressive year for IT. Strategists are confident economic challenges will force companies to re-invent themselves for the better. The advancements we make in our industry will ultimately bring down the cost of data storage and hopefully remove the negative stigma associated with cloud computing. Just because we are in crises mode doesn’t mean we can’t move forward into a prosperous future. Here’s to 2013 and all the good things that have yet to come.