Clouds will reign in 2011

Brenton Smith, Vice President and General Manager, Australia & New Zealand, CA Technologies, has released CA’s big tech predictions for 2011.  “While 2010 may have been the year of cloud talk, 2011 is the year of cloud action,” he says.

“Cloud computing is changing the way business operates and the way the IT functions. IT is no longer a back-room activity, but rather a major business enabler shaping every aspect of how an organisation operates.”

CA Technologies’ trends for 2011 focus on a “consumerisation of IT” and says that one of the biggest barriers to cloud adoption, security, will be a concern of the past as Identity and Access Management capabilities are offered as a cloud service.

Without further ado:

Clouds will reign

It is not just an incremental advance in IT; cloud computing represents a paradigm shift in the IT industry and for how technology will transform business. In 2010, there was a lot of talk about cloud computing. In 2011, the talk will become a reality, and cloud computing will become the predominate way that organisations operate – either via public, private or hybrid clouds. Organisations will uncover realistic, practical uses that give them the flexibility and speed they require to better meet the fast-changing needs of the business. Service providers will prove to be the guidepost for enterprises, as IT pros look to them for lessons learned.

Additionally, the role that technology plays within the enterprise will shift as cloud computing takes hold. IT will now become a major business driver and become vital to how the business functions – from operations and sales to branding. The new role of the CIO will be to strategically manage an IT supply chain pulling in resources as needed -- everything from complete applications to massive amounts of cloud-based processing capacity and data storage.  Increasingly, the IT department’s role will be less about hands-on technology management and more about bringing together business and IT governance. At the same time, you can expect non-technical executives and managers to become more deeply involved in technology.

Consumerisation of IT … “To the Cloud”

The groundswell of consumer technology is taking over the enterprise. The business now wants speed, choice, secure, and agile technology at its “fingertips.” The cloud, virtualisation and mobile devices are making this possible. The IT professional will need to move quickly in order to provide the necessary infrastructure and services that its users increasingly demand.

Identity and Access Management as a cloud service will shift Security perception from cloud barrier to cloud enabler

Organisations will change their perception of cloud security  as stronger, more advanced security options are deployed as cloud services from organisations that specialise in security.  This specialisation provides a level of security that most organisations cannot reach on their own. In doing so, it increases security confidence and makes security an enabler of cloud adoption. For example, Identity and Access Management capabilities such as advanced authentication and fraud prevention, single sign-on, identity governance and others are offered as a cloud service. They are more easily adopted, deployed and managed by both growing enterprises and very large enterprises, and they give users the confidence that they can control who has access to what. 

Smart Devices Will Displace Laptops

The consumerisation of IT also means that smart mobile devices, like tablets and iPads, will start displacing laptops as the device of choice for employees. While many enterprises have tried to resist the deployment of these devices, user demand has been too strong to resist. As a result, technology and services will be delivered differently and there will be an array of new IT challenges, specifically security and authentication to be managed.

Automation is the Secret Weapon

Most CIOs are still working with budgets that remain flat, or are even down. Meanwhile virtualisation deployments require more skills, more people, faster cycle times, and fewer errors to overcome virtual stall and be successful. Automation is the only way to deal with this conflict, accelerate virtualisation, and build an efficient, cost-effective, dynamic data center. It is also essential to cloud computing. The momentum behind virtual infrastructure automation, and virtual service automation, will therefore continue to gather steam - and deliver results - throughout 2011. It may even overshadow virtualisation itself as one of the hottest topics in IT.

Insider security threats surge

The insider will be the next security attack vector for the enterprise.  The insider is a direct line to corporate data which is high quality, valuable and lucrative . As companies continue to have better and more sophisticated security, it will become easier to social engineer someone on the inside than to continually create new malware.   Now, with companies opening up social networking sites and increasing employee mobility there will be more access points to sneak out classified information.  Organisations will begin using behavioral analysis to predict threats from the inside.