Eight Trends Driving IT's Future

Data as a Platform
The era of viewing everything through the application lens is over; architectures will be chosen on their ability to manage soaring volumes of data instead of application support.

Analytics Beyond BI
The wealth of unstructured data available to businesses must be tapped with a mix of technologies to fully leverage its value.

Cloud Computing
Hybrid clouds — Saas and PaaS combined with internal apps on both public and private clouds — will cement IT’s role as a driver of business growth and change the face of enterprise computing.

Server-centric to Service-centric
Architecture will shift from in-house servers to a distributed model — inside the enterprise and beyond — to separate infrastructure, systems, applications and businesses processes from one another.

Security Evolves
IT’s fortress mentality is giving way to a security architecture that responds in proportion to threats as they happen; security systems will become more automated.

Risk-Based Data Privacy
Risks around personal data grow with regulation and enforcement; IT must manage risk from data breaches or privacy breakdowns.

Social Network Data Boom
Companies now collect massive amounts of data about individuals and communities; analytics are needed to leverage it.

User Experience Matters
Today, companies are driven by the need to optimize and reduce costs. Tomorrow, they will need to focus application design on the streamlining the user experience.