What’s in Store for IT and the CIO in 2008?

A wise man once told me, “When you try to read a crystal ball, you usually end up chewing glass.” But the New Year is just around the corner so let’s see if we can see what’s in store for 2008…

10. Mobile explodes. With 3 billion devices already in the market and a growth rate that will double over the next two years, watch how the RPMs of commerce increase via these devices.

9. CIOs still try to figure out Enterprise 2.0. (Most IT executives I talk to are saying that right now hype dominates substance.) 8. CIO turnover continues to accelerate. The job’s not getting easier, you know. Increase revenue, keep the lights on, protect the customer—and do it all for less. Sounds as if 2008 will be a challenge.

7. Best-of-breed vendors find it hard to survive: EqualLogic, Vontu, Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, RSA, Neoware, Knightsbridge, WatchFire…need I say more?

6. Green goes gold and CIOs need to grasp the holistic cost of powering their data centers. IT leaders will no longer be able to say, “Electric bill? Not my problem.”

5. Training current employees and finding new talent are a major concern on which CIOs need to focus. As new technology needs come into play, are you staffed for success?

4. Master data management starts to make some noise. As BI companies continue to get gobbled up, major players will now be able to deliver true MDM platforms. Users are asking for it and the vendor community is responding by building platforms that will allow for data analysis, integration and reconciliation.

3. Unified communications is aggressively accepted, and the likes of Cisco, Nortel, Avaya, Microsoft and others will battle it out in this booming market.

2. For all its talk, money and bluster, Google fails to win over the CIO or the enterprise. Another year goes by in which Google talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk.

1. Larry Ellison is wrong. There will be more than five software vendors left in 2008. There will be six. Maybe seven if we’re lucky.

On behalf of everyone at CIO, I wish you a safe, happy and healthy New Year.