In a 2011 interview with TechWorld, Ben Fried, Google’s Chief Information Officer, postulated that the ever-evolving world of tablet devices would change the face of business and information technology. Fried went so far as to compare the change to the effect that smartphones had on the market in the early to mid-2000s.
Those are certainly bold words, but how much truth is in that claim?
Looking at the facts, you have to think that Fried was onto something when he made the claim. His own company announced its entrance into the tablet market only six months after he made the claim and that announcement followed Microsoft’s own unveiling of a tablet. A glut of new tablets running on different operating systems will certainly add another level of complexity to the jobs of CIOs and IT engineers everywhere.
So what are the other factors that are changing the landscape of general information technology?
Cloud Computing
In an April interview with ITBusinessEdge.com, Michael Keen, vice president of presales at ASG Software said that cloud computing had fundamentally changed the way business was conducted. “These drivers are forcing the hands of many IT executives to come up with a strategy, and a way to execute against that strategy, to drive agility and flexibility in their infrastructure so they can provide a quick and efficient way for IT to adapt to these changes,” he said. The adoption of cloud computing has been stimulated by the economic slump of the mid to late-2000s and the early part of this decade, which has made the prospect of a comparatively cheap alternative to traditional information storage methods.
Social Networking
In 2010, Gartner Research conducted a study that estimated that 70 percent of social media initiatives would fail. That is a daunting number to social media professionals, but the figure acts as evidence of the volatile and ever-evolving nature of the medium. Social networking is a business tool that is evolving from day to day but one thing is certain, it has changed the way business is conducted. Whether that’s by bringing a company’s employees together to form communities on Facebook or G+ or by creating direct lines between companies and their customers, social networking has added another dimension to business processes.
The landscape of information technology is changing rapidly, and it will be up to the IT managers and CIOs to stay ahead of the curves that new technologies will throw their ways. Good IT systems are at the core of smooth and efficient businesses so make sure you and your IT managers stay well-versed on the changes.