IDC’s chief research officer, John Gantz, offers guidance for CIOs trying to navigate the difficult economic landscape.
As reported in June, Information is expected to grow 5.1 times by 2012 creating security, privacy, management, and storage challenges, Gantz said.
The number of user interactions -- the number of users times the number of ways users can communicate times the number of instances they communicate -- is expected to grow 8.1 times over the same period.
“Who else but IT can facilitate end user enablement for Web 2.0?” Gantz said. “Who else can build on-request features, manage system capabilities, and enterprise policy on who in the enterprise can blog, for example.”
According to Gantz, technology areas CIOs should look to facilitate and lead this change include security management, mobile data, enterprise social media, business analytics, IT outsourcing and BPO, SaaS, virtual machines, search and discovery, storage replication and IT automation
Technologies that CIOs should still keep on their radar include: virtualisation management software, real time analytics, ethical hacking, IT driven sustainability, IP surveillance, location-based services, video search, compliance, reputation management software, and machine-to-machine data communications.
“The message is that tough times as these are economically, this is the best time in 15 years to use technology as a competitive advantage,” Gantz said.
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