| | The emerging world of
information technology is
one in which data is
king, social platforms
evolve as a new source of
business intelligence,
and cloud computing
finally delivers on IT’s
role as a driver of
business growth,
according to a new report
from Accenture.
The Accenture
Technology Vision 2011
identifies eight emerging
trends that challenge
long-held assumptions
about IT and are poised
to reshape the business
landscape. The report
also offers “action
steps” that high
performing businesses and
governments can take to
prepare for the new world
of computing.
“We took a look around
the corner and saw a
world of IT that barely
resembles what enterprise
computing looks like
today,” said Gavin
Michael, managing
director of R&D and
alliances, Accenture, who
supervised the project.
“The role of technology
changing; it is no longer
in a support role.
Instead, it is front and
center driving business
performance and enriching
people’s lives like never
before.”
One of the most
significant trends
identified in the report
finds that the age of
“viewing everything
through an application
lens is coming to an
end.” Instead, platform
architectures will be
selected primarily to
cope with soaring volumes | |
|
| | of data and the
complexity of data
management, not for their
ability to support
applications.
The tried and true
relational database will
not go away, but it will
soon start to make way
for other types of
databases – streaming
databases, for instance –
that mark a significant
departure from what IT
departments and business
users have relied on for
decades.
“IT and business
leaders will begin to
view application services
as utilities that can be
procured off the shelf,”
said Michael. “The roles
of application and data
will be reversed, with
data becoming the
platform that supports
application services.
Business leaders, as
such, will be encouraged
to reframe their IT
orientation around the
idea of data platforms.”
The vision also
predicts the evolution of
social media into social
platforms. This means
company web sites may
longer be the first port
of call for customers.
This has the potential to
disrupt the way companies
conduct business, posing
new challenges – and
opportunities – for IT.
For example, “social
identities” – based on
the rich history of
information that
individuals leave in
social networks – will
become much more valuable
to businesses than the
traditional and isolated | |
| |
| | people in data security
will decline, replaced by
automated capabilities
that detect, assess, and
respond immediately.
• Data Privacy:
Individual privacy will
take center stage as a
result of increased
government regulation and
policy enforcement. The
report concludes: “We
expect that leading
players will develop
superior levels of
understanding,
enterprise-wide, about
the distinctions between
being a data processor –
broadly handling the
personal data of others –
versus being a
datacontroller, thus
lowering the risks of
unwitting breaches or
privacy regulations and
perceptions of privacy
breakdowns.”
• Analytics:
Companies that continue
to view analytics as a
simple extension of
business intelligence
will be “severely
underestimating
analytics’ potential to
move the needles on the
business.” Among other
failings, traditional BI
does not take advantage
of the wealth of
unstructured data that is
now available. IT leaders
will need to work closely
with business leaders to
identify where analytics
can be leveraged
effectively, as well as
the proper mix of
services required to
optimize analytics
capabilities across the
enterprise.
• Architecture:
Information technology is | |
|
| | evolving from a world
that is server-centric
to one that is
service-centric.
Companies are quickly
moving away from
monolithic systems that
were wedded to one or
more servers toward
finer-grained, reusable
services distributed
inside and outside the
enterprise. The goal: to
decouple infrastructure,
systems, applications,
and business processes
from one another.
• User Experience:
Today, business process
design is driven by the
need for optimization and
cost reduction. Tomorrow
it will be driven by the
need to create superior
user experiences that
help to boost customer
satisfaction. Great user
experiences will require
more layered approaches
than what is typical
today. As such,
application design will
be a multidisciplinary
exercise: Typically
handled today by IT
architects and business
owners, tomorrow it will
involve optimization from
the perspective of the
process actor, with the
emphasis on simplicity
and on removing
inefficiencies.
“The report is rich
with detail as it
identifies trends and
offers action steps that
we believe will have the
greatest impact on
business performance in
the future,” said
Michael. “It should be a
must-read for business,
IT, and government
leaders.” | |
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