Angela Gahagan – Thomson

Predictions of cloud’s influence in 2012 are stronger than those of a doomsday

Among end of the world predictions, 2012 forecasts a significant cloud presence, with better connectivity and an increase in user devices being two of the major driving factors. As a result, business intelligence (BI), ‘big data’, bring your own device (BYOD), and the consumerisation of IT emerge as some of the top business technology trends to look out for. Below is an overview of the coming year from the local industry.

Cloud connections

“Cloud computing will infiltrate every aspect and sphere of our lives. Computer hardware will become a dinosaur as we move and conduct more services on the cloud.” – Charles Pittaway, MD of Netcash

“According to Cisco’s Global Cloud Index (2010-2015), we are firmly in the zettabyte era in terms of datacentre and cloud traffic.” – Rory Green, data centre product specialist at Cisco South Africa

“A recent MTN Business snap-survey revealed that although 50% of businesses have noticed a significant increase in the uptake of or interest in cloud computing across SA in the last 6 months, 35% feel the trend is general uncertainty. Cloud computing is destined to reshape an organisation’s (private or public) IT infrastructure, and businesses should be continuously looking to invest in moving forward.” – Angela Gahagan-Thomson, managing executive of MTN Business

“Cloud computing is going to continue to grow. More and more services are moving into the cloud, ie, more specialisations. We are also finding that more core businesses such as banking are heading into the cloud.” – Wesley Lynch, founder and CEO of Realmdigital

“Cloud computing is here to stay, and already there has been an uptake and interest from small medium enterprises that are more receptive to a public cloud as they have fewer risk and security concerns and can integrate more easily and speedily. Despite some of the telco hindrances, there is still significant potential for cloud computing in South Africa and the rest of Africa, especially with messaging, collaboration, telephony and unified communication services.” – Chris Hathaway, director at Soarsoft Africa

“Higher speed mobile data networks (such as LTE) will drive the adoption of mobile devices, and it will better suit the cloud paradigm shift, making cloud computing a more efficient business tool.” – Barry Hatfield, business development manager for cloud services at Internet Solutions

“The concept of ‘the cloud’ has been bandied about by the industry to such an extent that you would be hard-pressed to find a technology business without some level of cloud strategy. While South African organisations are moving some of their applications into the cloud, the movement is still cautious. It is interesting to see that critical business software is making the move to the cloud, however, and I predict the uptake in South Africa, based on recessionary challenges and strategic business decisions in 2012, will be high.” – Jane Thomson, MD of Softworx

“If we consider the maturity of the cloud computing model, technical and security obstacles are being tackled, most notably with the emergence of the private cloud, which addresses many of the security concerns around companies hosting their information in a cloud environment. The private cloud along with a tight economic environment is making cloud computing a very attractive model, allowing companies to reduce their capital expenditure while providing the scalability that is required with growth... and attenuation.” – Dr Andrew Hutchison, international pre-sales management: Americas & Africa at T-Systems International

“Cloud computing hasn’t changed things too much – yet. But the net effect of cloud-based solutions and services currently emerging will be experienced over 2012 and 2013.” – Karl Reed, chief marketing and solutions officer at Elingo

Business, personal conjoin

“In today’s mobile world, people want the network to follow them, providing the ability to work ‘on the fly’ using the same devices they use for personal consumption.” – Paul McKibbin, divisional MD at Jasco Carrier Networks

Arno du Toit

“Hosted communication platforms like Facebook are also becoming the platform of choice for internal and even external communications, while other social networks are becoming necessary marketing channels. As such, companies will need to consider how this service is catered to in the organisation in 2012 and beyond, as it is an essential community platform that enables communication and provides a further means to leverage technology to drive business and commerce.” – Barry Hatfield, business development manager for cloud services at Internet Solutions
“Tools to access and analyse data from social networks are already in place and available, and local companies are starting to pay attention to them. Companies can use the valuable information gleaned from social networks to customise their marketing and personalise their interactions with clients. This allows for a better customer experience, as well as measurable improvements in campaign ROIs.” – Mark Bannerman, country manager, MicroStrategy South Africa

“Users are expecting the same slick experience from their business software as they do from their general day-to-day online usage. The rise of social media behemoths like Twitter and Facebook has introduced a new level of user-centric interface. The uptake of social networking is dramatic and the growth is across all age and demographic groups. When users log off their social networking site and then log on to their software applications, it’s hard not to notice the often ‘clunky’ interface that exists in these business systems.” – Jane Thomson, MD of Softworx

More mobility, less bulk

“According to the Gartner 2012 predictions report, mobility tops the technology trends list. The consumerisation of IT is expected to force more change over the next 10 years than any other trend. To manage the proliferation of consumer devices being introduced in the marketplace, IT must respond by finding a way to accommodate user requests and to balance the differences between what employees and CIOs want.” – Cary de Sousa, enterprise relationship manager of Citrix Systems South Africa

“Devices are likely to become thinner, more light-weight and feature faster boot-up times, due to the inherent benefits of solid state drives. Faster, slimmer and greener processors are also being developed that allow for a lighter design without compromising speed. We will start seeing entry level-notebooks with eight gigabytes (GB) of internal memory and high end systems with 16GB as standard issue.” – Deon Botha, HP PSG Business Unit Manager at Drive Control Corporation
“The widespread availability of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and the vast array of choices when it comes to computing equipment, has given rise to a trend that has become known as bring-your-own-device, or BYOD, which we can expect to see a lot more of in the coming year.” – Paul McKibbin, Divisional MD at Jasco Carrier Networks

“The average business will need to support twice as many end-user devices in 2015 as in 2010, and the diversity of these devices will continue to grow.” – Rory Green, data centre product specialist at Cisco South Africa

“The year ahead will see the continued growth of the tablet computing market and increased penetration of smartphones in South Africa, as local users and businesses begin to rely even more heavily on mobile apps and services in their day-to-day lives.” – Robyn Milham, head of Enterprise Sales for Southern Africa at RIM

“We are already seeing trends that connectivity outstrips basic human requirements. In this country there are currently more mobile phones than running water. However, there is still a wealth of people who have not been connected and thus the growth rate will definitely increase. There is a growth in all kinds of technology. Wireless is a lot easier to roll out than a fixed line.” – Wesley Lynch, founder and CEO of Realmdigital

“The adoption of the virtualised desktop is set to continue its growth into 2012, driven by rising cost pressures and the need to mobilise the workforce. The rising trend of the consumerisation of IT is also seeing a number of personal smart devices, like smartphones and tablets, enter the corporate network, and a virtualised desktop environment is one of the ways that CIOs can best accommodate this shift in trend.” – Barry Hatfield, business development manager for cloud services at Internet Solutions

Data, data, data

“This year will see BI focusing heavily on mobile, social networking and the cloud in South Africa, although the biggest local BI trend will be mobile. In Europe, it is fairly commonplace for enterprises to have a mobile BI strategy, but because SA is generally a few months behind the curve, this year will see the biggest adoption of mobile BI yet in SA.” – Mark Bannerman, country manager, MicroStrategy South Africa

“Business intelligence and better data analysis is needed to deal with an increase in ‘big data’. Of course, BI can be deployed via the cloud. But data warehousing has been lagging behind. The data warehouse is the base of the BI pyramid. As organisations are faced with big data challenges, there is a compelling case for them to define and refine their data environment, irrespective of whether the data is stored onsite or in the cloud.” – Sean Paine, COO of EnterpriseWorx

“In 2012, ‘big data’ has huge economical, social and technology implications, and is set to transform all aspects of business and society.” – Inana Nkanza, country manager of EMC Southern Africa
“The increased international bandwidth on offer, as more high-speed undersea fibre-optic cables are lit up in 2012, will drive a number of shifts in the way businesses use technology, most notably the move to ‘big data’ applications, like video on-demand and collaboration tools. Complementing these are a number of terrestrial fibre-optic cable projects that are rolling out nationally.” – Barry Hatfield, business development manager for cloud services at Internet Solutions

Possible setbacks

“Despite the PC industry experiencing stronger growth this past year compared to the last three years, analysts are forecasting possible sales drops to as low as 20%, unless the serious hard drive shortage the industry is encountering is resolved.” – Craig Brunsden, executive director at AxizWorkgroup

Abundant opportunities

“Technology is revolutionising the face of education. Gone are the days when students spent hours in the library researching and reading. A classroom that is permanently connected via technology should be seen as a key emerging trend for 2012.” – Stewart van Graan, MD of Dell
“In 2012, we’re likely to see an ongoing acceleration in the implementation of multimedia contact centre channels by all major brands.” – Karl Reed, chief marketing and solutions officer at Elingo
“The marketing landscape will change drastically with more effort, focus and investment going into digital communication channels. Increased access to high-speed Internet (broadband) and Internet connected devices such as smartphones, tablets and smart televisions, are playing major roles in the shift from traditional towards digital channels.” – Grant O’Connor, regional manager for Adobe Sub-Saharan Africa

“Great innovation and technology exists, which can fill the void left by platter hard drives (resulting from the recent floods in Thailand), although it has not yet reached the mass market. As such, we can expect to see a rapid uptake of solid state drive (SSD) technology in the mobile computing space.” – Deon Botha, HP PSG Business Unit Manager at Drive Control Corporation
“While 2011 was the year when Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS slugged it out for smartphone market share, 2012 is the year that Windows Phone 7 is going to rock the boat, especially in South Africa, and primarily thanks to Nokia.” – Arno du Toit, chief commercialisation officer at Virtual Mobile Technologies

“With online advertising set to become the only media type to show double digit growth by 2014, 2011 has proved a boom year as digital becomes an ever increasing aspect of big businesses marketing strategies. Despite this, the online media world in South Africa is bracing for a tough year ahead as competition for the online ad spend is intense.” – Tanja Lategan, CEO of 365 Digital
“2012 shall be the year of weight-loss. That is, IT weight-loss. Increasingly, IT managers are being forced by their executives to do more and more IT stuff with less and less IT budget. This will essentially drive IT consolidation as well as investigations into alternative lighter technologies that will facilitate greater productivity, results and profit for the business.” – Scott Martin, director of infoprotect