Simon Bulleyment, CIO, Haysmacintyre
"I think we'll see all of the [2011 highlighted] trends gain greater traction.
Organisations will increasingly move to Hosted or SaaS-based solutions to deliver basic services. These services will have to be available regardless of the user's location and the device being used plus they will have to be available 100 per cent of the time. This will bring pressure for service providers to practice what they preach in terms of the SLAs they offer.
2012 will be both exciting and challenging.
The move of services such as Mail, CRM, VOIP, Virtualisation, Server Hosting, Backup and VDI to central hosted services will make it easier to deliver resilient device agnostic systems to end users but on the other hand, there will be an increasing reliance on good quality high speed connectivity to deliver this. Any problem with connectivity is a problem with the service.
2012 will see us redefine how services are delivered. The move to a rental model will produce reductions in staff costs and will allow services to be better aligned with business needs. For vendors this presents a huge opportunity to market on trust and reliability.
2012 will also herald a more widespread discussion of big data around how IT departments can mine the incredible amounts of raw information that their businesses produce. However, the increasing adoption of tablets and smartphones for work will also bring the associated headache of trying to manage so many disparate and rapidly evolving platforms.
2012 will be both exciting and challenging."
Bill Strain, CTO, iomart
"My tech highlight for 2012 will probably be in-memory computing, specifically for applications like business intelligence software, the rise of service oriented architectures and the ability to integrate cloud-based services into hybrid application landscapes.
With the rise of big data, it is becoming even more important to have a strategy that helps make sense of the data you capture and to do it in a timely manner. In-memory processing will be a key enabler of this.
SOA architectures are becoming the norm for any business that requires a platform on which to base its business. If delivered well it will be able to accommodate the use of cloud-based services to create a hybrid blend of in-house and external service provision."
Adam Gerrard, CTO, LateRooms
