Crystal ball question: Top three IT challenges in 2009?
The current economic climate has clearly taken its toll on business this year, including IT spending (HP lays off 28K workers, Dell and Ingram warn of decreasing global demand for IT products, etc.). On the other hand, IT hosting providers predict increased spending on hosted services and are launching products, services, and datacenters to address the forecasted demand.
I'm curious to learn what, if any, IT challenges you anticipate for 2009 - SaaSifying core apps? DR/Business continuity? Storage? Mobile access to apps? Finding/retaining talent? So then, two questions:
1) As you plan for 2009, what are the top IT challenges for your organization?
2) Do IT hosting providers (Rackspace, Savvis, OpSource, etc.) play a role in addressing these challenges?
I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks!
Good Answers (4)
Duane A
Technical Support Specialist, Web Designer & Writer
Best Answers in: Computer Networking (1), Information Storage (1)
With the economy in a bit of a slump, many companies look at I.T. budgets (including personnel) to see what can be cut out or reduced in order to generate or maintain healthy profit margins. The challenge will be to scale down on I.T. spending while still making sure the company has the tools and resources it needs to meet its goals and objectives.
1) I believe I.T. personnel have to do more than just support technology. We have to be able to understand the company in which we work for and the products and services our company provides. We have to morph ourselves into users of the technology allowing ourselves to become "backup" personnel in other departments. We have to show our versatility and our benefit to the company in which we work for. If we have multiple facilities to support then remote support will need to be promoted because travel expenses will likely be cut
2) We need to re-analyze our 2009 budgets, prioritizing the projects that absolutely have to be done versus the ones that are important, but can wait. When cutting budgets, the main key is to make sure our data recovery plans are solid just in case an old or obsolete systems that are still running is backed up properly in case of failure. Redundacy plans will have to be implemented as well. Companies will probably stress the importance of auditing so making sure maintenance agreements and software licensing are kept up to date is key within I.T.
3) Hosting providers have to be considered when looking to minimize cost but there also has to be some analysis done to see if the pains of getting timely support from these providers are worth the headache when systems are down or connectivity issues occur. Because I work in technical support I will always side on the side of having in-house tech support.
Suresh S
Information Security Manager
Best Answers in: Information Security (4), Organizational Development (1), Computer Networking (1)
Hi Marc,
You have already received some good answers in this regard, here's my two cents on the same. I believe the following three points shall be the biggest challenges that IT leaders shall be facing in the forthcoming years:
1. Persistent and Reliable Long-Term Storage:
Current technologies are hard-pressed to perfectly preserve Dr. Francine Berman’s 2006 estimate of 161 Exabytes (x10 to the 18th power) of digital information on digital media for more than 20 years. The barriers to long-term archiving (in excess of 100 years) that must be overcome include format, hardware, software, metadata, information retrieval, just to mention a few.
2. Increase Programmer Productivity 100-fold:
As business and society’s demand for software development increases, and the apparent decline of students pursuing software engineering and computer science degrees intensifies, removing uncertainty from meeting future demands will have to be met by increasing the output, or productivity, per programmer. While the exploration and development of tools to enhance productivity continues to capture attention, it would appear that effectively and efficiently exploiting reusable code is one of the most encouraging rays of hope to yield more output per programmer. But many challenges exist there as well. Minimizing the time required to find the perfect software module and avoiding the need to modify reusable software are among the many challenges.
3. Identifying the Financial Consequences of IT Investing:
One of the most perplexing challenges faced by IT leaders has been to convey the business value of IT in terms readily understandable by business executives. As a discipline that conveys the business performance and results to internal executives and personnel only, management accounting could offer business advice and recommendations that would quantify the consequences of a particular IT deployment. Unlike financial accounting measurements which are standard across public companies, the particular management accounting metrics could be different for each company.
I am trying to complement the answers that you have already received, instead of putting the same wine in a different bottle. I hope it was helpful.
Best Regards,
Suresh Srinivasan
Bill K
Vice President at Centurion Data Systems, where we have been meeting our customers business technology needs since 1990.
Hi Marc...
Hopefully I can add to the great insight you've already received from everyone here. We are seeing many of the same IT management challenges that we experienced after 9/11. As budgets get squeezed it becomes more important for IT to be able to communicate their ROI to decision makers. Management typically cuts what they don't understand or cannot quantify, especially with other departments are competing for resources. It is critical for IT to "bang the drum" so to speak. If IT effectively communicates ROI they are likely demonstrating accountability and identifying +/- financial consequences.
With respects to hosting providers playing a role in future IT challenges we see some businesses moving away from hosting and some moving towards it depending on what resources they posses in-house and what they cost. We have seen clients more receptive to SaaS and web based apps in an effort to lean out.
I hope I have been helpful....
Sincerely,
Bill King
Hi Marc
As most of the other responses have alluded, cost savings, not only within IT departments, but throughout the company, will be a major focal point in 2009.
I feel that the best way for our IT group to achieve this is to take a step back and realize the existing talent we have on hand. Identify our individual strenghts along with our team strengths. I believe we will be able to sustain our current budgeted project targets while promoting an exciting and rewarding culture for our IT folks at all levels.
Recognizing and maximizing our existing strengths will also help us to retain those individuals who may be on the bubble with regard to job satisfaction and/or career path.
I am a big fan of SaaS (formerly Application Service Provider, formerly Hosted Solutions, formerly Managed Services) and I see us creating value by utilizing SaaS solutions who provide us with Web Services and/or API hooks that allow us to integrate various systems. We spend an enormous amount of time trying to "get a report". Integration, whether Saas or not, will be a major contributor to cost savings in both dollar amounts and efficiencies.
Regards,
Jeff Ewing
Business Applications Manager
More Answers (5)
In my business we see the IT departments becoming more involved in Security/Surveillance. As technology turns from analog-hybrid-IP type Security/Surveillance Systems, it becomes easier to merge into the IT department. We constantly have people from the IT world adding this on to their current services or their current responsibilities.
Ryan Temple
www.pcsurveillance.net
www.store.pcsurveillance.net
ryan@pcsurveillance.net
Thank you for asking a great question; you beat me to it. I would also like to know if IT departments are looking to continue their status quo in their infrastucture or are most companies budgeting now for hosting options?
Our company has met and has decided to increase our promotion of our virtual hosting environment as it would save companies thousands per month on maintenance, manpower, energy, etc....in this very difficult economic time. There are many other advantages to moving to a managed environment especially a virtually hosted environment.
Here are a few reason to make such a move:
Significant cost savings: the capital-intensive costs of purchasing and managing an equivalent infrastructure in our Data Center or on your LAN are no longer a factor.
Capacity: Fully managed disk-quotas allow for easy scaling. FCG is able to increase your disk-space quotas on short notice. A virtual management system informs you when you are running out of disk-space and we are able to provision additional space immediately as needed.
High Availability: A robust HA (high availability) infrastructure eliminates downtime; the SAN storage infrastructure has no single point of failure by means of multipathing (active/active failover), fibre switches, and redundant power supplies ensuring seamless automatic re-routing of connectivity.
Security: Each customer gets their own isolated segment.
Protection: We give you the keys to your environment and you allow us any level of access you require.
Continuity: Copies of data on the SAN can be efficiently migrated from one location to another; also enabling server-less backup and easier data mirroring across different physical storage sites, improving your continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.
Sustainability: Virtual hosting allows for the use of Pano Logic's zero client (see our products section on our website) by accessing the VM's in your environment; therefore allowing you to receive all the benefits of desktop replacement.
Erik Slapp
eslapp@fairwayconsulting.com
Links:
Angelos K
Internet Architect && IT Strategist
Best Answers in: Telecommunications (2), Conference Planning (1), Government Policy (1), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Advertising (1), Inventory Management (1), Starting Up (1), Computers and Software (1), Computer Networking (1), Information Security (1)
I will be pithy.
a) Remove license fees from operations by using open source wherever possible. I do sometimes feel responsible for the lay offs because of my attachment to Open Source ...
b) Not at the time , but it is a possibility.
I am predicting the role of the IT Department will expand by taking responsibility for driving cost reduction thoughout the entire organisation. This will be achieved through improved process and smarter use of technology and outsourcing. Mature IT departments will also take increased responsibility for increasing growth by working on improved marketing chanels and more efficient supply chains.
Consolidation in the IT Sector is a near certainty. The hardware providers will have to expand even further into services as revenue from 'tin' continues to decline. This will mean pure service providers becoming increasingly squeezed by Telco's on one side and the likes of HP on the other.
Yaseen K
1st Generation Entrepreneur
Best Answers in: Job Search (2), Starting Up (2), Computers and Software (2), Risk Management (1), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Corporate Governance (1), Quality Management and Standards (1), Small Business (1), Information Security (1)
I think top few chllenges in IT would be to contain cost and better align with the business,there is going to more focus on efficienct than effectiveness and the businesses try to recover from thr aftermath of the big financial blow.
There will be massive scrutiny on offshoring of anything and an expectation of passing any compliance audits will continue to exist.
There would be datacenter consolidation and elimination of all redudancies and inefficiencies.Data protection and information security would continue to the spend and grab mindshare from the top brass.
All in a all a very challenging and tough year for IT in 2009 with mounting expectations, less offshoring and budget containing.
