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IT professionals are back on the centre stage
Over the years and decades, the rate of innovation in IT rises and falls. Go back to the 1970s and 1980s and the ascendancy of ERP systems, the emergence of mid-range computers and then the advent of the PC brought almost continuous, massive and rapid change.
In the 1990s it was quieter – a case of more of the same, spiced up by the largely false alarm of the Millennium Bug at the end of the century. In the 2000s, you might hesitate to say ‘only’ the internet, but the growth of broadband internet usage had no other major rivals to grip the attention of IT professionals.
Until now. Just when you thought the rate of technology change was permanently slowing, we have a cluster of competing technologies forcing IT departments to stay agile or lose competitive advantage. There are smartphones and tablets coming into the organisation; the new delivery method of cloud computing; social media’s rise in the political and business worlds; the emergence of ‘big data’ analytics as a way of dealing with all this new data and devices; and the upcoming Internet of Things to pile up even more information for you to manage.
What’s an IT department to do? Well, first embrace the change and be glad that once more you’re central to your business’ prosperity and survival. In dealing practically with these issues, the Special Report articles in this IT Adviser provide insight on all these trends from experts from across the industry.
Adviser is published quarterly, of course, and offers an overview of the main themes in our industry. But as change is rapid, NCC publishes monthly ‘Guidelines’ reports on emerging IT trends, and hosts monthly seminars for you to network and share ideas about your changing role. We also provide our weekly ‘In the News’ email, while the NCC website is updated daily and offers the opportunity to instantly share views and ask questions.
The aim is to give you the type of support and information you need, at the frequency need it. Hopefully NCC’s value is most apparent at a time when technology is moving so fast. But if there is anything else you would like from the NCC, please email tim.ring@ncc.co.uk to tell us.
- This issue of IT Adviser has been co-edited by Ian Jones, who is now moving on to apply his comprehensive knowledge of the IT industry to running NCC events. Thanks to Ian for the outstanding editing job he has done.
Tim Ring
Editorial director
The National Computing Centre Ltd
Download the whole issue as a PDF: IT Adviser, Issue 69, Spring 2012
Apple takes bite out of BlackBerryAs tablets and smartphones become commonplace in UK businesses, the BlackBerry is still the corporate device of choice but Apple is hot on its heels and the favourite on a personal basis. Thats according to the Corporate IT Forums latest Reality Checker, which surveys ... read more..
Consumers are in the driving seat as enterprises adopt mobile technology and they will set the agenda for IT decision making throughout 2012, writes Andy Jacques at Good Technology.It was only a few years ago when employees would consider themselves fortunate to have a decent company laptop and perhaps a ... read more..
Alessandro Moretti of (ISC)2 says IT risk management systems must acquire the intelligence to look ahead not back.By definition risk is about events that may happen in the future. It is a paradox then that most efforts to assess risk are about what has been known from the past. In ... read more..
Ray Gerber of Thunderhead explains why organisations need to overcome their dread of growing data volumes.Data reserves continue to grow exponentially and many organisations are struggling to keep on top of the sheer volume of information they hold about their customers. This increase in business data, particularly regarding customers, ought ... read more..
Cloud computing is changing the traditional IT managers role, as day-to-day IT operations are wrested away from the inhouse IT department. Egeneras Pete Manca explores how IT managers can survive in this new cloud-centred world.A recent IBM Tech Trends Report found that 75% of respondents expect their business will be ... read more..
Andy Walker at Centrica explains why agile IT projects are the new fashion.Make no mistake about it, for large organisations the IT function is undergoing big and necessary changes. Driven by a combination of new technology and a tough economic environment, industry-wide were seeing a shift from the big bloated ... read more..
Consumer technologies in the enterprise are good for productivity, but are they bad for security and management control? Andrew Millard of Citrix Online finds out.As personal smartphones, tablets and other devices enter the workplace, many firms are witnessing significant productivity improvements. But the majority lack the controls needed to manage ... read more..
Demystifying Twitter, Facebook and LinkedInSocial media has had a major impact on businesses and the public sector but people still struggle to understand the true worth of Facebook and Twitter and how exactly their organisation should involve itself in the social media world.Now new NCC Guidelines, Demystifying Social Media ... read more..
Doug Harr of Splunk reflects on the future role of the CIO.CIOs are on a never-ending quest to define their place in the world. Witness the frequency with which CIO publications opine on the definition of the job and what the CIOs focus must be.Distinctions and battle lines are drawn ... read more..
I like doing this What I think will happen in the coming year column a lot. I also usually like to wait until after the big Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas to do it. But that certainly isnt necessary this year. For just as Microsoft announced that this ... read more..
Chris Gabriel of Logicalis tests the real strength of this years most hyped IT trend.2012 wherever you look, many experts are saying this will be the year of big data and as a result big analytics. Why?In a difficult economy Standard Chartered Bank experts say the UK economy ... read more..
Social media, blogs, messaging. How should the IT department react to these latest forms of corporate communication? Well, first be grateful your younger colleagues are into them, because your customers are as well, says Mike England of Imago Techmedia.One of the biggest issues facing IT departments today is the changing ... read more..
Steve Schmidt of Flexera sees an opportunity for IT user companies to use a new range of intelligent devices via the emerging Internet of Things.Gartner has claimed that the Internet of Things is on the horizon. The Internet of Things is a phrase used to describe how the internet will ... read more..
Ganesh Pai of MphasiS says the use of IT outsourcing is being driven by the twin pressures of social media and the economic downturn.As we move through 2012, there are some new issues and the re-emergence of some old favourites to challenge how the outsourcing industry functions.Last year, the market ... read more..
To mark its 20th anniversary, Access commissioned the Centre for Future Studies to study how technology will transform business operations by 2020. Alex Reeves reports on this issues most distant look into the future of IT.Sweeping changes in the business landscape will mean a new approach to IT delivery by ... read more..
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