CIO — I'm not sure how this year will shape up, but I know it won't be boring. Let's buckle up and see where this crazy ride will take us.
Sun sets: Passionate people, a ton of technology but one muddled value proposition. Time to go private and for Scott McNealy to return as CEO?
$800 billion=GRC: The massive bailout of the U.S. economy will bring with it demand for a lot more transparency. More governance, regulatory and compliance spending is a comin'.
CIOs grow or implode: CIOs will either step up and bring the right mix of business technology expertise to the executive suite OR scurry back to a traditional operational post. I'm betting on the former.
Google and Apple for business: Tough times cause dramatic change. Google apps and Macs/iPhones will penetrate the enterprise.
Web 2.0 shifts to Mobile 2.0: The computing power of ubiquitous mobile phones is growing exponentially. It will happen.
Data protection becomes top of mind: Customer loyalty will once again reign supreme, and that will put enormous pressure on every CIO to prevent data breaches. Unfortunately, some will fail.
Risk-aversion trumps innovation: Based on the economy and CEO mind-set, CIOs will focus on security, reliability and scalability. Only the brave (or desperate) will innovate.
Infrastructure takes center stage: Based on numbers four and five, technology plays like consolidation, virtualization, green IT, dynamic cooling, management applications, storage and security will run the priority list.
IBM, HP, Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle lick their chops: CIOs continue to consolidate their vendors and demand higher value from them. Big vendors make more key acquisitions to round out their solution set.
Tech spending in 2009 will be negative: IDC, Gartner and Forrester have all reported downgrades to their IT spending forecasts. This could be the first time ever that IT spending experiences negative growth. Still, incredible opportunity as $600 billion is spent in the U.S. and $1.5 trillion across the globe.
We'll be there with you every step of the way.
