Gartner’s Top 10 IT Predictions for the next 5 Years

Ok, we know that Gartner’s predictions are so lofty you can get a nose bleed from the altitude from just reading them, but we review them here just for the “Camp” value.  Hence, we cherry picked the top 10 of the predictions, which reflects the key themes at the conference: a focus on mobile, social, big data and cloud.

1. By 2015, big data demand will reach 1 million jobs in the Global 1000, but only one-third of those jobs will be filled.

Comment:  Ok, Wasabi agrees with this one, the demand for big data is growing, and enterprises will need to reassess their competencies and skills to respond to this opportunity. Opportunities will abound for Data Analytic professionals and for individuals with nontraditional skills necessary for extracting the value of big data, as well as artists and designers for data visualization.

2. By 2014, European Union directives will drive legislation to protect jobs, reducing off shoring by 20% through 2016.

Comment:  You go Gartner (even though we think this is way off)! As if we would miss the India IT outsourcing solution.  There isn’t a person on the planet that hasn’t experienced the unique indifference and substandard services from an India help desk.  Wasabi believes the 2016 date is a little too aggressive 20% reduction by 2016?  Hardly, look how long it takes just to comply with HIPAA, SOX, PCI… in this world economy?  Off shoring isn’t going away any time soon, for the time being.

3.  The predominant focus of most Global 2000 CEOs will be on revenue growth, at least until 2018.

Comment:  Why stop at 2018?  Why not till the Sun burns out?  This is a prediction, really? When has a CEO not focused on revenue growth?  Wasabi would like to add, the prediction that it will rain next year sometime as well. 

4. By 2014, IT hiring in major Western markets will come predominantly from Asian-headquartered companies enjoying double-digit growth.

Comment:   This isn’t any ancient Chinese secret… With many major Western IT companies struggling. They are looking for the cheap labor China offers to bolster their bottom lines, so Wasabi say’s “We welcome our new Overlords, or in other words, “Ni hao ma...”.

5. By 2017, 40% of enterprise contact information will have leaked into Facebook 

Comment:  While many organizations have been legitimately concerned about the physical coexistence of consumer and enterprise applications on devices that interact with IT infrastructure, there has been little has been done examining the underlying technologies that permit transfer of information between legitimate enterprise-controlled applications and consumer applications.  In short, as Scott McNeally once said, “there is no such thing as privacy. Get over it.”  Wasabi noted someone else that said exactly the same thing… In his novel “1984”, George Orwell

6. By 2015, 40% of Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations.

Comment:  Not sure about the 40% or the 2015 mark, for Wasabi is distancing itself from this one, but Gamification does address engagement, transparency of work, and connecting employees' actions to business outcomes. Companies apply feedback, measurement and incentives — the same techniques that game designers use, to keep players interested — to achieve the needed engagement for the transformation of business operations.

7. Wearable smart electronics in shoes, “tattoos” and accessories emerges as a $10 billion industry by 2016.

Comment:   We have met the internet, and it’s us.  The majority of revenue from wearable smart electronics over the next four years will come from athletic shoes and fitness tracking, communications devices for the ear, and automatic insulin delivery for diabetics. Wearable smart electronics, such as fitness trackers, often come with data analysis applications or services that create useful insights for the wearer. Applications and services will create new value for consumers, especially when combined with personal preferences, location, biosensing and social information. 

8. 90% of enterprises will bypass broad-scale deployment of Windows 8.

Comment:  Wasabi has been public on this.  See two issues back “Nine, Nine, Nine!” Gartner isn’t really exercising its sooth saying powers for this one…

9. By 2014, market consolidation displaces up to 20% of the top 100 IT services providers.

Comment: No surprise here, we are with you on this one Gartner.  In fact, a Nexus of Forces, including cloud, big data, mobility and social media, along with continued global economic uncertainty, will accelerate the restructuring of the nearly $1 trillion IT services market. By 2015, low-cost cloud services will cannibalize up to 15 percent of top outsourcing players' revenue, and more than 20 percent of large IT outsourcers not investing enough in industrialization and value-added services will disappear through merger and acquisition. 

10. By 2014, 3 of the top 5 mobile handset vendors will be Chinese.

Comment: Once again, Wasabi “welcomes our new overlords…” even if it means throwing away all concepts of environmental sensitivity or concepts of Quality Assurance, or quality in general for that matter.

Source(s):

• http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2209615

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

About Rick Ricker

An IT professional with over 20 years experience in Information Security, Telecommunications, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 333-8394 x 689