HorizonWatching

HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report: IBM’s Watson Technology

I’ve posted a trend report on IBM’s Watson Technology to Slideshare and embedded that deck at the bottom of this post.

IBM’s Watson is an emerging technology at the intersection of Big Data, Analytics and Human / Computer Interaction trends.
The key enabling technology areas are:

• Natural Language Processing
• Semantic Analysis
• Information Retrieval
• Automated Reasoning
• Machine Learning

Watson made a big splash last year on Jeopardy as we all know. While the Jeopardy game was a huge media event and exposure, this technology area has the capability to totally transform decision making.

Watson can sift through an equivalent of about 1 million books or roughly 200 million pages of data, and analyze this information and provide precise responses in less than three seconds.

Watson's ability to understand the meaning and context of human language, and rapidly process information to find precise answers to complex questions, holds enormous potential to transform how computers help people accomplish tasks in business and their personal lives.

The slides (embedded below) provide an overview on the IBM Watson technology trend.  Summary information is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

For other HorizonWatching 2012 Trend reports, check out my posts the last few days.  Also, come back over the next week. I have a few more to post about.

IBM Watson - A HorizonWatching Trend Report

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HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report: Analytics

I’ve posted a trend report on Analytics to Slideshare and embedded that deck at the bottom of this post. 

The importance of having a well defined analytics strategy is becoming much more important for all types of enterprises.  It’s important because our appetite for creating, gathering, and storing data continues to grow and grow and grow.

With all that data being created, collected and stored with our IT infrastructures, Business leaders are yearning for deeper knowledge and insights on all aspects of their business and they know that the information they need is available within all the data flowing through the company IT systems.  The business leaders want the capability to be able to harvest insights that will help them make better decisions.  Increasingly, they analytic tools that can provide predictive insights in real time.

While information overload was once a barrier to good decision making, today’s information management and analytics technologies can make it a real benefit.  Successful implementation of analytics capabilities provide value and can help companies create a competitive advantage. 

The slides provide an overview on the Analytics trend.  Summary information about the Analytics trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

For other HorizonWatching Trend reports, check out my posts the last few days.  Also, come back over the next week….I have a few more to post about.

Analytics: A HorizonWatching 2012 Trends Report

View more presentations from Bill Chamberlin

HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report: Big Data

I’ve posted a trend report on Big Data to Slideshare and embedded that deck at the bottom of this post.  The slides provide an overview on the Big Data trend.  

There’s no denying that our appetite for creating, gathering, and storing data continues to grow and grow and grow.  This information explosion is taxing information management professionals everywhere and resulting in a new buzz word across the industry called “Big Data”.

So what is Big Data?  To me, it refers to how we collect, store, and manage information that comes into an enterprise so that it can be harvested for decision making.

15-20 years ago data was coming in from just a few sources, mainly customer transactions, supply chain transactions, and employee payroll.  Transactions initiated by humans.  Today, data is coming in from everywhere, including other computers and sensors. In addition, the huge growth of videos, pictures, audio, social media and other unstructured data is taxing the storage systems and information databases of many data centers.

These trends continue to put pressure on IT departments to determine how best to design the storage infrastructure and the database warehouses in order to make it easy for the analytic tools to harvest the data for decision making.  That is the challenge of Big Data.

The slides provide an overview on the Big Data trend. Summary information about the Big Data trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

Big Data: A HorizonWatching Trend Report

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HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report: Mobile Computing

I’ve prepared another HorizonWatching Trend report…this one is on Mobile Computing.  I have posted a deck to Slideshare (see embedded deck at end of this post).

The slides provide an overview on the Mobile Computing trend.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Mobile Computing trend along with many links to additional resources.

The Mobile Computing gold rush is in full swing. The “train has left the station”. It's hard to talk to an enterprise customer these days without getting into a discussion about Mobile.

In 2012, the shipment of smartphones and tablets is expected to exceed that of traditional personal computers, including laptops. Enterprise CIOs want to use these personal mobile devices to give better access to their internal data and processes for executives and employees, as well as enabling better purchasing and support services for their customers.

Complicating the CIO’s life are a number of factors:

• employees who wish to use their own devices and applications at work,
• executives and board of directors who want to use their own devices and applications at work
• the wide variety of devices used,
• legacy applications written for a standard desktop screen,
• application level and device management,
• cost controls, and
• maintaining security across the infrastructure.

Some key technology subtrends to watch in 2012 include Voice search and voice assistants, Location Based Services, Gaming, Event-Based Marketing, and Augmented Reality.  On the horizon are applications like Mobile Video and 3D Mobile Internet.   All this has implications for business processes throughout the organization.   CIOs and IT leaders will want to understand how mobile fits into their organization’s unified communications strategy.

The slides provide an overview of the Mobile Computing trend.  Summary information about the Mobile Computing trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

Check out my other HorizonWatching Trend Reports…hope you enjoy them.

Mobile Computing: A HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report

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HorizonWatching 2012 Trend Report: Social Business

I’ve prepared a HorizonWatching Trend report on Social Business and have posted it to Slideshare.  The deck from Slideshare is embedded below.

The slides provide an overview on the Social Business trend for HorizonWatching Community members.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Social Business trend along with many links to additional resources.

I believe that the social business trend will have a profound impact on the architecture and design of future businesses. Social collaboration is changing the way business is being conducted and enterprise processes are being transformed by social technologies. Over the next 10-15 years, social computing enabled collaboration capability will become part of every business function within the company.  Business processes will change and that will lead to required changes in application software.   Since social will eventually be embedded in every business process and transaction workflow, social computing capability will need to be a critical part of every business application.  As a result, I expect entire business application suites will be rewritten to make use of social collaboration features. 

In addition, all this social activity will generate data that will be mined and analyzed in both batch and in real-time.  The insights generated will be a critical input into all business processes, including research, product development, marketing, sales, technical support, and even business processes like accounting, procurement, and legal.   

Those businesses that make the successful transition to a social business will be more agile, more responsive, and more successful than others.

The slides provide an overview on the Social Business trend.  Summary information about the Social Business trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to download and view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

Over the next week or two, I will be posting information about other HorizonWatching Trend Reports. Stay tuned.

Social Business: A HorizonWatching Trend Report

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HorizonWatching Trend Report: Virtualization

I’ve prepared a HorizonWatching Trend report on Virtualization and have posted it to Slideshare.  It is embedded below.

The slides provide an overview on the Virtualization trend for HorizonWatching Community members.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Virtualizatoin trend along with many links to additional resources.

Virtualization as a technology has in fact been around for a very long time.  Virtualized infrastructures have become popular not only for cost savings, but because they can enable quick changes to business models, operating structures and the way that business processes are enabled. In addition, a highly virtualized infrastructure is a prerequisite for private clouds so CIOs will continue to focus on virtualization.

Virtualization is one of the best ways to get more business value from an IT infrastructure. By decoupling logical resources from physical assets, virtualization can empower an exceptionally swift response to changing business conditions or changing business strategies.

Over the last 3-4 years we’ve seen server virtualization really take off as a trend and now it is almost standard technology in the data center.  While security concerns remain a hurdle to deployment, we’ll continue to see a focus on virtualization across the entire infrastructure in 2012.

The slides provide an overview on the Virtualization trend. Summary information about the Virtualization trend is provided along with many links to additional resources.   The slides are meant to be read/studied and the links are there for you to continue your learning.  You may want to view the slides in slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links.

Over the next week or two, I will be posting information about other HorizonWatching Trend Reports. Stay tuned.

Virtualization: A HorizonWatching Trend Report

View more presentations from Bill Chamberlin

HorizonWatching Trend Report: Cloud Computing

I’ve prepared a HorizonWatch Trend report on Cloud Computing and have posted it to Slideshare.  It is embedded below.

The slides provide an overview on the Cloud Computing trend for IBM HorizonWatching Community members.  In the deck you will find summary information about the Cloud Computing trend along with many links to additional resources

The cloud computing ‘buzz’ has been going on now for 4-5 years.  Cloud is a disruptive force and will have an impact in most (if not all ) industries.

Cloud computing provides individuals and organizations with new options on how they acquire or deliver IT services, with reduced emphasis on the constraints of traditional software and hardware licensing models.

Long term, I expect cloud and mobile cloud services will replace the traditional client / server application/solution delivery model for the majority of enterprises.

The three main types of clouds are private, public, and hybrid.  All three of these types of clouds are expected to grow significantly in 2012 as enterprises move from experimentation to implementing application solutions.

In 2012 I expect to see mid and large-sized businesses to increase their implementation of all types of clouds.  I also expect larger enterprises will begin to put plans in place to migrate their legacy applications to the cloud.  2012 will also be an important year for cloud services providers hoping to build out cloud application platforms and ecosystems around those platforms.

Here is the deck.

Cloud computing: A HorizonWatching Trend Report

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Over the next week or two, I will be posting information about other HorizonWatching Trend Reports. Stay tuned.

HorizonWatching: Top Eleven Technology Trends For 2012

As I do every year about this time, I’m publishing my list of the top Information Technology Trends for 2012.  I have eleven on my list.

The trends on my list are the ones that I feel will have the most impact on IT departments in 2012.   These are the trends CIOs and IT leaders will be focused on learning about and implementing during 2012.

Here’s my list:

1. Cloud Computing
2. Virtualization
3. Social Business
4. Mobile Computing
5. Big Data
6. Analytics
7. IBM Watson
8. Human / Computer Interaction
9. Security
10. Sustainability & Green IT
11. Consumerization of IT

For each of the trends, I’ll be developing separate posts in the coming weeks that will provide additional detail on each of the trends….so watch this space.

For now, I am embedding a slide deck I have posted out on Slideshare with background on these trends.  Enjoy.

HorizonWatching: 2012 Technology Trends

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IDC: Security Trends and Predictions for 2012

Yesterday I attended IDC’s conference call on 2012 predictions for the IT security industry.  The IDC Security Research team did a great job of laying out the important trends for IT security.

Security is an area that just keeps on becoming more and more important.  Unfortunately, the bad guys out there just keep finding ways to attack and disrupt.  The big trends today of social, mobile, cloud, and analytics are all putting more pressure on IT security professionals today to provide an infrastructure that can withstand almost any type of attack. 

The speakers on the 45 minute conference call were

• Christian A. Christiansen, Program Vice President, Security Products and Services, IDC
• John Grady, Senior Research Analyst, Security Products and Services, IDC
• Phil Hochmuth, Program Manager, Security Products, IDC
• Sally Hudson, Research Director, Security Products and Services, IDC
• Charles J. Kolodgy, Research Vice President, Security Products, IDC
• Chris Liebert, Senior Analyst, Security Services, IDC

Below you will find the IDC Security Predictions for 2012 in bold text along with my notes from the call:

1. Customer Expectations & Frustration Will Grow.  IDC has been hearing that IT leaders are having a hard time defining the risks, let alone trying to solve them.  This leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding between IT leaders, the execs, and the employees.  As a result of this miscommunication and misunderstanding, frustrations over expectations will increase.
2. Cloud Will Slowly Incorporate Identity, Privilege & Access.  IDC says many large enterprises are looking to implement hybrid and private clouds and these large enterprises are slowly building into their implementations identity, privilege & access.
3. Mobile Security Merges Mobile Device Management, SaaS, & Policy.  Security vendors are realizing that the combination of threats and risks associated with mobile is different and complex.  Correlating user to device, application, and data is becoming increasingly important. IDC also says the integration of standards will become increasingly important.
4. Social Networking Becomes More Hellish and Complicated.  IDC says social computing continues to change and evolve.  Focus on control and privacy aspects of social will increase.  As enterprises invest more and more to integrate social throughout all business processes their needs to be better tools to ensure that social not only increases employee productivity, but manages enterprise risk effectively.  IDC says watch for greater restrictions on employees tweeting and posting on behalf of the enterprise.
5. Big Data Comes to Security as Threat Intelligence Security Services.  IDC says Big Data combined with advanced analytics will be used to help enterprises reduce risks via predictive analytics.
6. Professional Services Drive Managed Security and SaaS.  IDC expects firms to roll out an increased number of professional services in order to drive   IDC says professional services engagements are leading to increased opportunities for managed security services and SaaS.   
7. Threat Ecosystem Changes from Channel to Direct Model.  IDC says bad guys are moving more towards a direct model of organization where they do everything themselves vs. relying on third parties to do their dirty work.
8. Freemium Changes Endpoint Markets for Consumer/SMB in China.  IDC says the freemium model, where businesses offer products and services for free and then try to lure customers into buying premium versions, has implications for security and risk management.
9. Weaponized Malware Takes Threats to a New Level.  Increasingly, the bad guys are using malware to do some really awful things.  IDC says this could be a new and very vicious trend that is not on the radar of many enterprises yet.
10. New “Normal” is Constant Attacks and Breaches.  IDC says enterprises of all sizes must brace themselves for constant flood of attacks from all types of sources.  These attacks are searching for vulnerabilities that might be exploited later.

To catch a replay of the conference call, go to Security Predictions 2012: Big Data, Social, Mobile, and Cloud Embolden the Security Community.  You’ll need to register first.  You can access more IDC related security content at IDC Security Research

IDC Retail Insights: Predictions for 2012 for the Retail Industry

IDC has released its IDC Retail Insights' Predictions for 2012 via it’s annual predictions conference call.  This was a global predictions call and was focused broadly on all types of financial services.  There are also other calls coming up that focus on regional predictions in both Europe and Asia as well as calls specific to sub-industries within Financial Services.   

Leading this conference call was Bob Parker Group Vice President.  Other IDC Retail Insights team members on the call were

• Christine Bardwell   Research Manager
• Greg Girard   Program Director
• Leslie Hand   Research Director
• Ivano Ortis   Head – International, IDC Retail Insights

Summary

According to IDC Retail Insights, the economic indicators are strong going into 2012.  IDC believes that year to year spending growths for Retail Industry segments will range from a low of 3.9% for for Home Furnishing to a high of 5.6% for Drug Stores.  Spending will grow the fastest in the software at 5.8% year to year, while services growth will be lowest at 3.5%.  Asia Pacific is poised to grow the fastest at 4.8% while Western Europe will only row at 3.6%.

The IDC Retail Insights team also confirmed four major IT trends that are reshaping the industry:  Cloud Computing, Social Computing, Mobile Computing, and Analytics.

The Ten Predictions

The 2012 predictions list below was sourced from the conference call slides.

1. Growth Strategy. “Consumers, not products or channels, create the basis for growth strategies.”
2. New Retail IT Model. “The Omni-Channel Consumer directs a new Retail IT model for the industry – O3.” 
3. Innovative & Efficient. “Retailers will race to innovate and will operate more efficiently.”
4. Synchronicity. “Retailers will synchronize the supply chain with the clock speed of their customers.”
5. Brand Experiences. “Retailers will create great brand experiences by enabling engaged employee experiences.”
6. Customer Engagement. “Planning paradigms will begin to evolve to support genuine customer brand engagement strategies.”
7. Assortment Planning. “Continuous assortment planning (AP) orchestrated for space becomes the planning hub.”
8. Store Evolution. “The store evolves – welcome to the Omnichannel Store.”
9. Social Conversations. “Customer experience improvements that boost online conversion will go beyond the web store.”
10. Delivery Models. “eCommerce delivery models will fragment.” 

For More Information

• The full report will be posted at the IDC website sometime in the next month.
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Retail Insights Predictions 2012: Retail. Other webinars targeting EMEA and AP are also available at the IDC website
• Press Release:  IDC Retail Insights To Present Top 10 Predictions for 2012
• Community:  The IDC Retail Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Retail Insights Newsletter: www.idc-ri.com/newsletter
• The IDC Retail Insights main page is at http://www.idc-ri.com
• The IDC 2012 Predictions portal is at http://www.idc.com/research/Predictions12/Main/index.jsp.  This page is being updated daily as new reports come out, webinars announced, etc.