HorizonWatching

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.

IDC Financial Insights: Predictions for 2012 for Financial Services

IDC has released its IDC Financial Insights' Predictions for 2012.  The December 6, 2011 annual predictions conference call was marred by technical problems, but the IDC team went ahead and recorded the webinar portion.  The recording will be available on the IDC Predictions website and has been loaded to You Tube, here and is also embedded below.

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 David Potterton, Vice President of Global Research.  Other IDC Financial Insights team members on the call were Jeanne Capachin, Marc DeCastro, Karen Massey, Aaron McPherson, John O'Brien, Sean O'Dowd, and Michael Versace.

Summary

The IDC Financial Insights team started off the predictions by saying there are going to be four main themes in 2012. 

1. Meeting regulatory and compliance requirements.
2. Improving the cross-channel experience
3. Improving operational cost efficiencies
4. Improving revenue generation 

The Ten Predictions

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

1. IT Spending Growth. “Tumultuous financial markets, failing institutions, and lower profits in Europe and the U.S. will inhibit, but not eliminate, IT spending growth.”
2. Channel Mix. “Financial institutions struggle to harness the right channel mix for an optimum customer experience.” 
3. New Business Models. “Financial institutions will see the need to develop a new business model, but execution will elude the industry.”
4. Revenue Generation. “Revenue-generation continues to be a major challenge in 2012 as financial institutions explore new pricing options enabled by technology.”
5. Reliability of IT. “IT reliability becomes a major risk factor due to the age and complexity of key systems.”
6. Mobile Payments. “Financial institutions will generate less than 10% of total mobile payments.”
7. Operational Efficiency. “Financial institutions will continue to tackle operational efficiencies and will target average cost income ratios of 40%.”
8. Risk Management. “Risk management will top US$60B and 15% of total IT investments across WW financial services.”
9. Social Media. “Financial institutions will use social media to improve decision making and drive financial results.”
10. Big Data Analytics. “Over 40% of all tier 1 banking and capital market firms gear up to execute big data / analytics business and technology strategies.”

Webinar Recording via YouTube

 

For More Information

• The full report is at:  Worldwide Financial Services 2012 Top 10 Predictions: Thriving or Just Surviving? .  Other reports targeting EMEA and AP are also available at the IDC website
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Financial Insights Predictions 2012: Financial Services.  This is the global predictions call.  Other webinars targeting EMEA and AP are also available at the IDC website
• Slides: To download the conference call slides go to: http://idc-insights-community.com/posts/4a985ecf02.
• Press Release:  IDC Financial Insights To Present Top 10 Predictions for 2012
• Community:  The IDC Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Financial Insights Newsletter: www.idc-fi.com/newsletter
• The IDC Financial Insights main page is at http://www.idc-fi.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.

IDC Health Insights: 2012 Health Industry Predictions

Earlier this week, I attended the annual IDC Health Insights Predictions 2012:  Health conference call.  

This was a global predictions call that covered the entire Health Industry, including health payer, provider and life science sectors.  The team identify major global trends that will impact the has scheduled other prediction calls going into more detail on topics specific to payer, provider and life sciences.  There are also other calls coming up that focus on health industry related predictions in both Europe and Asia.   

Leading this conference call was the IDC Health Insights Group Vice President, Scott Lundstrom.  Also on the call were 8 other members of the IDC Health Insights analyst team

Summary

IDC says significant changes are transforming components of the Health Industry value chain driven by a focus on patient safety, cost containment, quality improvement, and regulatory compliance.  Key topics of importance to business leaders will be EMR and EHR for providers, connected health, healthcare industry reform, and the life sciences value chain. 

Overall, IDC list 5 major technology themes

1. Reform
2. Analytics and Big Data
3. Cloud
4. Mobile
5. Social

IDC is hot on themes 2-5 throughout all of its predictions calls.  

The IDC Health Insights Ten Predictions for 2012

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

1. EHR. “The Majority of U.S. Providers Will Use an EHR by the End of 2012”.
2. ACOs. “Successful Accountable Care Organizations Will Emerge from Private or Public-Private Initiatives” 
3. Re-Branding for Care. “Health Plans Rebrand: Care is the New Core”
4. Integrated Strategies. “Integration of Payment, Clinical Performance and Outcomes”
5. Analytics for Pharma. “Pharma adds "Actionable" to Analytics in 2012”
6. Analytics for ACOs. “The Next Mountain for ACOs to Climb Will be the Development of an Enterprise Analytic Framework Including Clinical Analytics”
7. Outsourcing.  “Outsourcing Best Practices Shift From Vendor to Partner”
8. Mobile. “Bring Your Own Mobile Device Gains Popularity, But Security Risks Abound”
9. Communication Strategy. “Second-Generation Communication Strategies Emerge”
10. Social. “The Next Generation of Consumer Engagement will Leverage Consumers’ Social Graphs”

For More Information

• The IDC Health Insights main page is http://www.idc-hi.com/
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Health Insights Predictions 2012:  Health.   See the IDC Insights Predictions 2012 page for other Health Insights prediction calls coming up.
• Reports: IDC Health Insights Top 10 Predictions for Health Industry (not published yet). Also Asia/Pacific Healthcare 2012 Top 10 Predictions
• Press Release:  IDC Health Insights press releases
• Community:  The IDC Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Health Insights Newsletter: www.idc-hi.com/newsletter
• 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.

IDC Manufacturing Insights: 10 Predictions for Manufacturing in 2012

I attended the IDC Manufacturing Insights Predictions 2012:  Manufacturing conference call today.   I enjoyed this call as IDC highlighted the key 2012 trends within the Manufacturing Industry.

This was a global predictions call and was focused broadly on manufacturing industry wide predictions.  The IDC Manufacturing Insights team has scheduled other prediction calls going into more detail on topics like Supply Chain and Product Lifecycle Management.  There are also other calls coming up that focus on manufacturing related predictions in both Europe and Asia.   

Leading this conference call was the IDC Manufacturing Insights team of Joe Barkai (Vice President), Simon Ellis (Practice Director), Kimberly Knickle (Practice Director), Pierfrancesco Manenti (Head – EMEA), and Bob Parker (Group Vice President)

Summary

In 2012, the industry could be characterized as having cautious optimism.  Manufacturing is recovering but business will never be the same.  IDC showed spending forecasts for all major sub-industries with manufacturing and all industries show growth with the consumer oriented industries showing the most growth. 

The Ten Predictions

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

1. ‘Engaged’ Organizations. “Success in the intelligent economy will be achieved through “engaged” organizations”.
2. ‘Four Forces’. “IT organizations will make foundational investments in the “four forces” that deliver both IT productivity and business value”  (note:  IDC says the four forces are Mobility, Big Data, Cloud, and Social Business)
3. Supply Chain Alignment. “Manufacturers Focus on Clock-Speed Alignment across the Supply and Demand Sides of their Supply Chains”
4. IT Support of Supply Chain. “The Requirement for Speed and the Ubiquity of Information Creates a New Landscape for IT Support of the Supply Chain”
5. Lean Innovation. “Manufacturers Adopt Lean Innovation Throughout the Product Lifecycle”
6. Product Lifecycle Visibility. “Greater Visibility and Deeper Understanding of All Aspects of Product Lifecycle Enable Context for Innovation”
7. Factory of the Future: Capabilities.  “The Factory of the Future will be Driven by Capabilities to Fulfill Customer Demand Rather than Pure Production Capacity”
8. Factory of the Future: Operations. “The Factory of the Future will Require a New Approach to Operations Applications”
9. Culture of Learning. “Engaged Manufacturers Look Ahead by Creating a Culture of Learning”
10. Sustainability. “Manufacturers Shine Environmental Sustainability Spotlight on the Factory as a Means of Getting to the Product”

For More Information

• The IDC Manufacturing Insights main page is http://www.idc-mi.com/
• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Manufacturing Insights Predictions 2012: Manufacturing.  See press release for other Manufacturing Insights prediction calls coming up.
• Reports: IDC Energy Insights Top 10 Predictions for Utilities Industry (not published yet)
• Press Release:  IDC Manufacturing Insights To Present Top 10 Predictions for 2012
• Community:  The IDC Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc.
• IDC Manufacturing Insights Newsletter: www.idc-mi.com/newsletter
• 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.

IDC Government Insights: 2012 Technology Predictions and Trends

I attended IDC Government Insights Predictions 2012:  Government conference call today.  I look forward to the IDC series of conference calls every year as it helps me understand the critical issues and trends that impact Information Technology decisions.  

The conference call was led by IDC Vice President Thom Rubel, and IDC Research Directors Ruthbea Clarke, Shawn McCarthy, and Adelaide O'Brien 

Summary and Key Themes

IDC says that the Government spending on IT in the U.S. will reach $82B.  The majority of that is Federal, with spending at the Federal level split about evenly between DoD and Civilian initiatives.  IDC expects the majority of this spending will be allocated to improve decision-making, operational efficiency, and citizen services for 2012

Overall, IDC believes there are four overall themes to watch in Government spending for 2012:

1. Operational Efficiency:  Broader strategies are need to reduce operational costs
2. Mobility:  Better management and provision of services are required
3. Smart Government:  Improve the value of information and broaden service channels
4. Economic Sustainability:  Investing to improve quality of life and promote economic growth/competitiveness

Top Ten Predictions for 2012

The 2012 predictions lists are developed from IDC analysts, who draw upon their ongoing discussions with industry clients, vendors, and years of experience.  The list below was sourced from the conference call slides.

1. Cloud Computing.  “Up to 10% of States will have shared cloud hubs by the end of 2012, rapidly growing to 65% of the States by 2015”.
2. Social Media.  “The use of social media for U.S. Local, State, and Federal organizations will begin the move from experimental to systematic information dissemination and collection.”
3. Mobility.  “Mobility will become the number 1 IT governance issue and moves beyond device management to encompass broader business issues.”
4. DataCenters.  “Small datacenters in the U.S. Federal government will hit the endangered species list in 2012 and be reduced by 70% with State and Local governments following suit.”
5. Business Process Outsourcing.  “Over 20% of government IT and business process outsourcing requests for proposals will include service-level agreements tied to internal business and/or program outcomes.”
6. Smart Cities.  “The growing availability of intelligent technology solutions will accelerate global investment in smart city technologies to $40.9 billion in 2012.”
7. Service Level Agreements.   “Due to increased use of cloud computing, CIOs will spend up to 20% of their time in 2012 reviewing the terms and conditions of service-level agreements and mover toward standardization.”
8. Big Data.  “Governments will take small steps to satiate their big appetite for Big Data.”
9. Communication Networks.  “Foundational high-speed communications networks will finally hit critical mass.”
10. Smarter Government.  “Governments will start updating legacy systems and engage in cross-agency collaboration that will move them to a higher stage in smart government maturity.”

The last few minutes of the conference call was spent going over recommendations and guidance to those in governments and those at vendors who serve governments.

For More Information

• Conference Call Replay (registration required): IDC Government Insights Predictions 2012:  Government and  IDC Government Insights Predictions 2012:  EMEA Government 
• Reports:    Asia/Pacific Government Insights 2012 Top 10 Predictions and U.S. Government 2012 Top 10 Predictions, Document # GI231773
• Community:  The IDC Government Insights Community has blogs, videos, forums, resource library, events etc. all designed for those interested in the Government IT industry
• Newsletter:  You can sign up for the IDC Government Insights newsletter
• The IDC 2012 Predictions portal is at: http://www.idc.com/research/Predictions12/Main/index.jsp

IDC: 2012 Predictions for Information Technology Industry

“IDC predicts that worldwide IT spending will grow 6.9% year over year to $1.8 trillion in 2012. As much as 20% of this total spending will be driven by the technologies that are reshaping the IT industry – smartphones, media tablets, mobile networks, social networking, and big data analytics.”  - IDC Press Release

IDC released it’s high level list of predictions for 2012 yesterday.  I attended the annual international conference call which kicks off a series of IDC predictions and trends calls over the next few months. 

The 10 high level prediction areas from IDC for 2012 are:

1. Worldwide IT Spending Growth – Spending growth returns to the industry, fueled by the emerging markets and mobile computing.  European debt crisis could spoil the party.
2. Emerging Markets Growth – China to pass Japan in IT spending as emerging markets grows to 28% share of total global spending.
3. Mobility Devices & Apps – Smartphone/Tablet usage grows and users want these devices to do everything.  Mobile apps explosion continues and the O/S battle rages.
4. Cloud Services Adoption – Spending on cloud services growing 4 times the industry rate.  Apps moving increasingly to the cloud.  PaaS and SaaS wars/acquisitions accelerate.
5. Cloud Services Enablement – Increased cloud services growth will drive huge demand for IT hardware and software offerings that enable those cloud services as well as for technologies that can optimize the cloud data center infrastructure
6. Mobile Networks – IDC says that in 2012 spending on mobile data services will surpass fixed data spending, that growth of video traffic will be an issue, and that telcos are expected to focus on mobile cloud strategies.
7. Big Data Analytics – Digital data continues to grow at an alarming rate (48% in 2012) resulting in focus on Big Data and analytic ‘mashups’ and related M&A activity.
8. Social Business – IDC expects battles to continue between between Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and IBM while Facebook aims to become the B2C platform of choice.
9. Interactive Network of Things – The number of embedded systems, entertainment devices, appliances, and industrial automotive computing devices will outnumber traditional IT input devices by 2014.
10. Intelligent Industry Solutions - Smart Cities related efforts will drive over $40 billion in technology investments in 2012, mainly in Energy, Government, and Healthcare.

The IDC predictions list aligns well with the research I have been doing the last few months.  I will be issuing my own annual trends report in early January. 

The 10 IDC predictions are detailed in the full report IDC Predictions 2012: Competing for 2020 which was authored by Frank Gens, IDC’s Senior VP & Chief Analyst with help from a vast army of IDC analyst teams. 

IDC’s prediction portal for 2012 is at www.idc.com/Predictions12 and it is there you can link to all sorts of content, events, press releases, and complementary research.  I recommend you check out the “Video Commentary” Frank Gens, IDC’s Senior VP & Chief Analyst .  You can also follow IDC on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/idc  for real-time news and updates.

Gartner: 2012 Information Technology Predictions and Trends

Gartner, Inc. issued a press release announcing it’s 2012 list of top predictions and trends for IT organizations and users.  Highlighted are key trends like Cloud Computing, Social Business, Big Data, Security, and Mobile.  The predictions and trends made by Gartner align closely with the research I am conducting for my HorizonWatching 2012 Trends report due out in early January.

The eleven predictions from Gartner are as follows

1. Cloud Services:  By 2015, low-cost cloud services will cannibalize up to 15 percent of top outsourcing players' revenue.
2. Social & Collaboration Platforms.  In 2013, the investment bubble will burst for consumer social networks, and for enterprise social software companies in 2014.
3. Enterprise Email.  By 2016, at least 50 percent of enterprise email users will rely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client instead of a desktop client.
4. Mobile Apps.   By 2015, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1.
5. Cloud Security.  By 2016, 40 percent of enterprises will make proof of independent security testing a precondition for using any type of cloud service.
6. Public Clouds.  At year-end 2016, more than 50 percent of Global 1000 companies will have stored customer-sensitive data in the public cloud.
7. IT Budget Management.  By 2015, 35 percent of enterprise IT expenditures for most organizations will be managed outside the IT department's budget.
8. Asia Sourcing.  By 2014, 20 percent of Asia-sourced finished goods and assemblies consumed in the U.S. will shift to the Americas.
9. Cybercrime. Through 2016, the financial impact of cybercrime will grow 10 percent per year, due to the continuing discovery of new vulnerabilities.
10. Cloud & Sustainability.  By 2015, the prices for 80 percent of cloud services will include a global energy surcharge.
11. Big Data.  Through 2015, more than 85 percent of Fortune 500 organizations will fail to effectively exploit big data for competitive advantage.

Gartner has issued a full report titled "Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2012 and Beyond: Control Slips Away," which is available on Gartner's website at www.gartner.com/predicts. The report apparently has links to more than 70 Gartner ‘predicts’ reports broken out by topics, industries and markets.

Gartner also announced an upcoming webinar, "Gartner Top Predictions for 2012 and Beyond," at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. EST on December 21. To register for the webinar, go to  http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=202&mode=2&PageID=5553&resId=1842125&ref=Webinar-Calendar.

10 Cloud Computing White Papers From IBM

Cloud computing continues to be a disruptive trend in the information technology industry so I like to keep up to date on the IT and business issues related to the adoption of this trend.  

Cloud computing promises a new approach to IT economics—but also presents new challenges.  All IT users have come to expect a new standard from information technology, including masking complexity, providing enterprise-class security, delivering “dial tone” reliability, and wrapping it all in a friendly, easy to use self service package.  Fulfilling these expectations is a monumental task for IT departments.

I recently visited IBM’s Cloud Computing page looking for content about the cloud computing trend.   Here are some cloud computing white papers that are featured on the ibm.com site that discuss the key issues involved in adopting cloud computing technology and services. 

Get started with cloud through the right business based IT strategy (May 2011).  This is a 4 page Solution Brief written by IBM’s Strategy & Transformation Services team.  Cloud affects all dimensions of your organization, from business and operations, to technology, organization design and communication.  IBM’s Strategy and Change Services for Cloud Adoption uses proven methods to address these dimensions in creating your end-to-end cloud strategy.

Capturing new cloud business opportunities – with the right strategy.   (May 2011)  This 4 page solution brief from IBM’s Strategy & Transformation Services team says now is the time to act. Market leaders see the potential of cloud and are moving fast to get there first. Partnerships and alliances are quickly taking form. Those who are the last to move risk being excluded from this new, networked world. '

Getting cloud computing right: “The key to business success in a cloud adoption is a robust, proven architecture”.  (April 2011)   Making full use of an integrated  public compute cloud depends on how well customers can leverage the software assets they already own.  This 7 page white paper, written by IBM’s Global Technology Services team, acknowledges that CIOs and business leaders face a big challenge making sense of all the vendor offerings in the marketplace about cloud computing.   The white paper points out that it is important to remember that cloud computing is not just about data center technology. It’s about streamlining business processes to make organizations and people more strategic, more responsive to change and more oriented to service delivery.

Private Clouds Float with IBM Systems and Software (February 2011).  This white paper was written for IBM by IDEAS International.  The primary challenge for most IT departments is to stage the gradual adoption of private clouds in a way that allows the benefits of cloud computing to be accrued as quickly as possible. By methodically addressing the operational requirements at every level of private cloud infrastructure, IBM provides the necessary foundation to fulfill much of the economic promise of cloud computing.

How IBM is shortening the gap between customers and development value (February 2011).   Cloud computing will be a journey for IT departments, not a destination.  This 9 page white paper, written for IBM by Allan Krans of TBR Software Practice, examines the challenges CIOs, IT managers and  application development managers face as they attempt to select a cloud computing vendor that can help them address development and test requirements.

How IBM Smart Business Cloud can be a catalyst for IT transformation (January 2011).  This paper was written for IBM by Stuart Williams of TBR Software Practice.  This white paper examines the challenges CIOs and IT Managers face as they attempt to select a cloud computing vendor that can help them address their immediate requirements, as well as address their long-term needs for a holistic computing strategy.

Strategies for assessing cloud security (November 2010).  This is a 5 page Thought Leadership White Paper from IBM Global Technology Services.  Although the benefits of cloud computing are clear, so is the need to develop proper security for cloud implementations—whether public or private.  Cloud computing introduces another level of risk because essential services are often outsourced to a third party, making it harder to maintain data integrity and privacy, support data and service availability, and demonstrate compliance.  Embracing cloud computing without adequate security controls can place the entire IT infrastructure at risk.

Cloud computing insights from 110 implementation projects (October 2010).  This is a 12 page white paper from IBM’s Academy of Technology.  The survey represents the findings from 110 case studies of cloud computing implementations in a survey conducted in August 2010.  The case studies are mainly from mature markets and mainly from companies with more than 5,000 employees. With the exception of the chemical and petroleum industry and industrial products, virtually every industry is represented.

Integrated service management and cloud computing: More than just technology best friends (September 2010).  This is a 12 page white paper from IBM’s Global Technology Services that discusses the importance of an integrated service management strategy to a successful cloud computing implementation.  Integration is crucial to success in cloud environments because of the need to orchestrate the actions of partners, vendors and customers in keeping with the firm’s strategic intent for IT. The requirements are clear: Integrated Service Management is more, not less, important in a cloud environment. In fact, it is indispensible.

Leveraging security from the cloud:  The who, what, when, why and how of cloud-based security services (July 2010).  When it comes to delivering information security, cloud computing provides several advantages relative to on-premise security software and appliances.  This 6 page white paper reveals how security can be used to reduce risk, optimize resources, improve flexibility and address regulatory requirements—without breaking the bank.

For more on IBM and cloud computing, go to it’s main cloud computing website: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/cloud/

Storage Trends in 2011 Focus On Cost and Efficiency

Our appetite for creating, gathering, and storing data continues to grow and grow and grow. The huge growth of videos, pictures, audio, social media and other unstructured data is taxing the storage systems of many data centers.

In addition other trends are impacting storage, including Cloud computing, virtualization, energy costs, economics and performance.  Businesses also are increasingly needing to keep multiple copies of data for regulatory compliance. These trends continue to put pressure on the storage infrastructure. As a result, CIOs and IT departments are looking to storage vendors to help them store more data in a smaller footprint, store more copies of data in different locations, and keep more copies of data for longer periods of time. 

Let’s face it, CIOs are focused on cost reduction. The cost of storage for most enterprises remains a high component of the overall cost of a datacenter, even though the cost of storage per gigabyte continues to drop.  More storage means more drives, which consume more datacenter space, power, and cooling resources, as well as human resources.  In this environment, CIOs will be interested in solutions that help reduce storage costs or improve efficiency of existing storage assets.  

In 2011, storage vendors must continue to seek ways to deliver storage more efficiently while reducing acquisition and operational costs, improving time to market, and reducing complexity. Storage vendors will be pushing CIOs to purchase technologies such as Thin provisioning, Data deduplication, Automated tiering, Flash technology, Solid State drives, and Virtual tape.

Analyst Perspectives

A review of analyst sites provides some analyst perspectives on the importance of storage as a trend.

“Data growth is the biggest data center hardware infrastructure challenge for large enterprises. Sixty-two percent of respondents reported that they will be investing in data archiving or retirement by the end of 2011 to address the data growth challenge.” - Gartner (link)

“Despite technologies that will increase storage efficiency, enterprise data will continue to expand by more than 40% a year. Enhanced performance requirements, coupled with the need to reduce power and capacity costs, will drive the creation of new storage technologies and services.” – Gartner (link)

“The emergence of cloud-based application and computing services is already having a profound impact on the storage industries” – IDC (link)

“Three Key Trends in Storage

• Migration to smaller (2.5in.), more energy efficient enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDDs)
• Greater utilization of existing storage capacity;
• Continued adoption of solid state drives (SSDs) and various other storage efficiency technologies (e.g., data deduplication, compression, and thin provisioning).”  - IDC Oct 2010 (link)

Tony Pearson’s “Future Storage Trends” Deck

Tony Pearson is a Master Inventor and Senior Managing Consultant for the IBM System Storage product line at the IBM Executive Briefing Center in Tucson Arizona.  Tony blogs regularly at “Inside System Storage”.  Here is Tony’s deck on future storage trends.

Future Trends in IT Storage

View more presentations from Tony Pearson.

Drivers of this Trend

• Data and content creation growth continues
• IT organizations are keenly focused on reducing costs.
• Power, cooling and space efficiency challenges.
• Compliance and litigation support.
• Risk mitigation.

Inhibitors/Challenges

• Utilizing available capacity
• Cutting power and cooling costs
• Reducing redundancy of data
• Reluctance to experiment with online storage

Implications

• Technologies that help reduce storage costs or improve efficiency of existing storage assets will be in demand
• Technologies to watch include Thin provisioning, Data deduplication, Automated tiering, Solid State drives, Virtual tape and Flash Memory

For More Information

• CIO.com:  Storage
• Forrester:  Storage (search) and Storage Hardware
• Gartner:   Servers and Storage
• IBM:  System Storage
• IDC:  Storage Systems and Storage and the Cloud
• InfoTech:  Storage
• InfoWorld:  Data Explosion  and Storage
• Wikipedia:  Data Storage Device and Computer Data Storage and Solid-State Drive

Virtualization Continues To Be An Important IT Trend

Virtualization, while not a new trend, is an important IT trend for 2011.  It will continue to transform IT infrastructures, impacting servers, storage, desktop, and applications in 2011.

Virtualization is one of the best ways to get more business value from an IT infrastructure. Virtualized infrastructures are 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.  By decoupling logical resources from physical assets, virtualization can empower an exceptionally swift response to changing business conditions or changing business strategies.  In addition, a highly virtualized infrastructure is a prerequisite for private clouds (See Cloud Computing In 2011: Private Clouds Are An Important Trend) so CIOs will continue to focus on virtualization.   

Adoption Drivers: 

• Desire to reduce IT operational costs,
• Desire to move towards cloud model.
• Networks and servers are better equipped to handle this technology.

Inhibitors to Adoption:

• New roles & responsibilities,
• Security of virtualized environment,
• Requires more sophisticated virtualization Management and Utilization techniques

Implications:

• IT Departments must understand their environment completely and this requires good communications between IT and Business Leaders
• Security becomes more complex in a virtualized environment. It become more difficult to manage and make sure every asset is utilized efficiently.
• Enterprises should thoroughly evaluate how business processes, administrative rights, capacity planning, performance monitoring tools and security strategies will need to change.

Analyst Quotes

“The next "big thing" will be automating the composition and management of the virtualized resources”. - Gartner (Link)

“Server virtualization is the 'killer app' for the datacenter and has forever changed IT operations” - IDC (Link)

“Virtualization will continue as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through 2015, changing how you manage, how and what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan and how you charge.” - Gartner (Link)

For More Information

• BusinessWeek: Virtualization Solutions and Virtual Servers
• CIO.com  Virtualization
• Forrester:  Virtualization (search)
• Gartner:  Virtualization
• IBM:  Virtualization Solutions and Virtualization overview (video)
• IDC:  Virtualization
• InfoTech:  Server & Storage Virtualization and  Desktop Virtualization
• InfoWorld:  Virtualization
• Wikipedia:  Virtualization

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 2011.