10 IT silver linings on FY17 horizon

April 01.

The first day of the new fiscal year is special. Extra special.

Planning meetings, brainstorming, presentations, revenues forecast, team structure, higher bottom-lines, optimal productivity, QBR, AGM and more. A plethora of business jargons and management books literally fly thick and fast across corporate teams for a fortnight on an average in the first month of the fiscal.

It is super important to have the foresight and the insight, both short term and long term, of the company’s horizon. 

And with technology becoming an intrinsic and pervasive component of each business today, the fiscal year planning demands to be immaculate, insightful and predictive. And a far greater deal of involvement of CIOs, CTOs and IT teams in this digital age.

Here are ‘few of the many’ developments in the technology industry that will influence and rule India Inc. (Listed in random order)

#1 Cloud is loud

Indian cloud market to touch $15 billion by 2020 as per reports with the market size of private cloud and public cloud to be almost equal by that year. Public will outdo private in terms of growth factor!

#2 IoT = Internet of Threats

Internet of Things is all about connected devices talking to each other for enhanced productivity and competitive advantage. But ICS, ransomware, spearfishing and all bad things makes IoT extremely vulnerable at the moment. It’s a learning and experimentation stage as different OEM technologies attempt for IoT standards.

#3 Big Data to become Big

Finally it looks like the year of Big Data as it overcomes its ‘hype to overhype’ shadow cycle. Big data comprising of many parts like analytics, BI, data lakes, dash boarding, flash arrays, self-service BI, user experience, etcetra is definitely a ‘not-to-be-missed’ trend, more so for companies with huge B2C (and B2B) customers in populated country like India.

#4 Security is secure

Anything and everything – inside or outside, perimeter or end point, on premise or cloud, laptop or wearable, smartphone or tablet – has to be secure more than ever before. APT, SIEM, Cloud Security, IAM, Vulnerability Management, IDM, DLP are few key trends.

#5 World of consolidation 

We have the pending goliath Dell-EMC merger; we also have mergers in hospitality (Marriott- Starwood), luxury luggage (Samsonite-Tumi) as examples that will disrupt the corporate world and impact the work culture and IT budgets on both sides of the deal. Acquisition of global IT distributors Ingram and Transition was the new trend in last quarter of 2015-16.

# 6 CIO is not ‘Career is Over’

CIOs’ role worldwide and in India will change and evolve further. CIOs have become business strategists rather than pure techies for a corporate. CDOs, chief analytics officer, data scientists and other designations will crop up, but CIOs at large will reign as the final authority for IT projects.

#7 Software is the new hardware 

Dwindling numbers in the hardware appliances enterprise space will continue as everything becomes ‘software led’ in the datacentre and the corporate’s infrastructure. Enterprise hardware market will not go extinct but attain different forms or new locations. Welcome to SDS, SDN, SDDC and the big trend SDx (Software defined anything).

#8 Tap the App 

Robust application roadmap will be a decisive growth factor for all companies in B2B and more so for B2C. New age applications and its impact on business benefits would influence CIOs’ IT budgets. CISOs need to be closely clued into the IT team to ensure each and every application on the company network is secure.

# 9 Digital transformation (DX)

DX will drive “everything that matters in IT” over the next several years as per IDC. Succeeding in what IDC calls the DX economy means using technologies such as mobile, cloud, big data analytics, IoT, AI and robotics to “create competitive advantage through new offerings, new business models, and new customer, supplier, and distributor relationships.”

# 10 Mobile and Mobility

Smartphone numbers’ explosion and its impact on users’ behaviour – personally and professionally – has led all kinds of businesses (legacy and modern) to innovate in this ‘mobile first’ world.

Phew.

This list does not include new-age technologies like advanced machine learning, robotics, 3D printing, adaptive security architecture, cognitive services and algorithm-based computing, to name a few. These will not only have their presence felt strongly in future, but change the way technology is consumed and leveraged by enterprises.

Ride the tech trends. Drive IT-led business. Lead the growth charter.

Have a record – breaking fiscal year ahead!