7 ways to Survive the Next Disruption of 21st Century IT

of 11
7 Ways to Survive the Next Disruption of 21st Century IT
Enterprises in the US must tackle a new paradigm of IT in 2013: a cloud-
oriented hybrid IT environment. Read on to reveal seven strategies
executives need to survive the next disruptive IT Paradigm Shift.
U.S. enterprises stand before a technological precipice, overlooking
an uncertain domestic and global economic landscape. Even after
the end of the Great Recession, its financial ripple effects continue to
propagate in unforeseen ways. IT departments face incredible market
pressures to answer the technological challenges of the 21st century.
The rise of cloud, mobile, social and Big Data culminates in what Gartner
consistently describes as the “Nexus of Forces”.
These four factors have collided in 2013, creating many opportunities for
enterprises poised to overcome the current economic malaise gripping
the US. According to Gartner’s recent predictions, market forces in 2014
alone will consume about 20% of the most prolific IT service providers
via mergers and acquisitions.
Thriving -- as opposed to merely surviving -- in the midst of such
economic uncertainty should be the goal of enterprises and C-level
executives in the US. Navigating the churning uncertainties of the Nexus
is a mission-critical priority in 2013 and beyond. Overly timid enterprises
that insist on remaining on the sidelines during the race to solve the
challenges spawned by the Nexus will be left behind.
The seven strategic trends and solutions discussed below will help
business executives survive the upcoming economic uncertainty and,
most importantly, position their enterprises to lead -- as opposed to
following in the footsteps of the bold who unearth opportunity among the
turmoil.

of 11
Along with the continued acceptance of hybrid cloud solutions and
mobile device proliferation, Big Data promises to transform information
into a business-critical asset -- as opposed to a byproduct of increas-
ing volume, velocity and variety of data. If enterprises in the US are to
survive the oncoming crush of Big Data, CIOs must solve the dilemma of
information management.
Since 2011, the escalation of data volume -- both structured and un-
structured – has continued to push the boundaries of currently deployed
information management infrastructures. Silos of data are no longer ac-
ceptable if enterprises in the US hope to establish themselves as leaders
in Big Data solutions. Perhaps, the greatest value added asset of Big
Data remains the technology’s promise to yield data-driven insights into
business processes.
Today, CIOs are approaching a
tipping point in Big Data. One
sobering prediction from Gartner
suggests that by the end of 2015,
as many as 85% of companies will
have failed to deploy the proper
infrastructure to accommodate
Big Data projects. A new para-
digm in information management
is emerging as data warehouses
begin to approach critical mass;
some might say that this previous-
ly unheard of phenomenon has
already arrived.
The bright side of the Big Data
problem is that Gartner expects
companies that successfully fuse
mountains of data with an adapt-
able (i.e. hybridized and scalable)
information management infrastructure to outperform peers by as much
as 20%. The challenge is to quickly deploy the proper tool set that will al-
low more employees to focus on the analysis of the underlying data and
fewer on the architecting, deployment and management of the underlying
infrastructure. The fact of the matter is that social networking forces, the
Internet of Things and mobile proliferation all feed back into Big Data,
which only adds more pieces to the puzzle.
Tackling the problem of Big Data from the perspective of a metadata
management framework is gaining prominence. However, the most ur-
gent Big Data-related problem lies in the fact that there is a shortage of
individuals who possess the skill set to compile, cleanse and analyze Big
Data in a meaningful way.
BIG DATA
IS KEY
1

of 11
Yet another sobering statistic from Gartner declares that enterprises
may only be able to fill one-third of available Big Data jobs by 2015. In
essence, Big Data will soon become so big that enterprises will struggle
to yield value-added business insights from astronomically huge data
sets. The infrastructure issue alone demands that enterprises adopt a
new paradigm of information management and analytics.
Techniques such as data mining, predictive analytics and visualization
are merely a starting point. Without a skilled data scientist or, more
realistically, a team of data scientists and data specialists, enterprises
will almost assuredly fall into the majority of companies that Gartner
expects to fail in solidifying information management practices for the
long term.
One of the overarching themes in analytics is to facilitate the transition
away from hindsight-oriented, reactive analytical practices and towards
predictive -- if not wholly prescriptive -- practices. Some proponents
of Big Data have already successfully monetized the insights gleaned
from accurate, actionable analytics. Pre-packaged Analytic Appliances
allow executives to perform faster time-to-data analytics than building a
custom analytics engine, which can take months and has a higher risk,
as well.
To prepare their organizations for the crushing tsunami of Big Data,
CIOs ought to vet products such as cloud computing services (both
private and hybrid), low-cost in-house storage initiatives and in-memory
processing, which may be one of the missing components of a new
analytics paradigm. Again, the scalability and alleged cost savings of
the cloud over the long term promises to play a crucial role in analytics
for years to come as in-memory computing technology matures over the
near term and enters mainstream IT.
ANALYTICS
GROWS IN
IMPORTANCE
2

of 11
When searching for solutions to the problem of improving data velocity,
in-memory computing is essential. The concept of in-memory, near-
realtime computing is not new or cutting-edge. Large enterprises that
can afford to deploy state-of-the art hardware have already learned
how in-memory computing can crunch hours-long batch processes into
minutes-long -- or better yet, seconds-long -- tasks.
But in-memory computing
shows particular promise in the
discipline of aligning insights
gleaned from Big Data with
real-world business processes.
Similar to the issues of cloud
and mobile enterprise solutions,
business-oriented end users
continue to demand real-
time, automated access to
proprietary data. Appliances
that utilize in-memory
computing concepts are gaining
acceptance in a hybrid IT
environment; and enterprises
will continue to adopt in-
memory computing concepts to
solve the problem of Big Data
and its analysis.
The pace of adoption of in-memory technologies is on the cusp of a
surge in 2013. Gartner anticipates that reduced memory costs will lead
to a threefold increase in the acceptance of in-memory solutions by
2015. Until recently, cost has been the most prohibitive factor when
considering in-memory computing in the enterprise, but the expected
drop in hardware costs opens the door for more enterprises to take
advantage of the sheer processing and analytical power that in-memory
computing promises. SAP HANA is an example application that warrants
the deployment of in-memory computing concepts. Once again, the
problem of modifying or redeploying infrastructure to accommodate the
speed of in-memory computing is critical. To survive the next evolution
in computing and harness its incredible power, CIOs should identify key
business processes that could benefit from automated data processing
and deploy in-memory solutions accordingly.
IN-MEMORY
COMPUTING
3

of 11
Cloud computing has been locked in the hype cycle for so long that it is
no longer a cutting-edge school of thought. The aggressive marketing
of cloud providers has created a certain amount of unease with cloud
computing in the enterprise. For companies with billions of dollars
at stake, cloud computing is not the silver bullet to slay the beast of
technological upheaval. Security, privacy and regulatory requirements
continue to be a major concern for enterprises pursuing cloud-based
strategies.
On the other hand, end users -- the ordinary professionals, which may
or may not have a deep understanding of the safety concerns of 21st-
century IT -- have embraced the cloud at a much faster pace than
enterprises as a whole. Gartner boldly predicted in 2012 that the use of
the personal cloud would supersede the use of traditional PCs by
2014.
The simple fact that the personal cloud continues to grow so quickly
means that CIOs will have to accept the likelihood of some corporate
data going to the cloud, if not in the wholesale mafnner foretold in 2012
by Gartner. Ready or not, personal cloud computing is here to stay for
the foreseeable future.
Even more troubling from a CIO’s
perspective, Gartner research
anticipates that by
2017, as much as 40% of corporate
contact data will be exposed via
mobile sharing on Facebook alone.
The sensitive nature of enterprise data
trusted in the hands of employees --
and, by extension, contained in their
many social networking accounts
-- demands that companies remain
aggressively proactive in order to
secure corporate data in the cloud.
While solutions such as HP Public
Cloud Services, HP CloudSystem and
Enterprise Security Solutions can help
enterprises stand up to the challenge
of cloud computing, CIO’s should nevertheless urge employees to
embrace the personal cloud and bring private cloud solutions to fruition.
Employees’ private cloud competence will ease operational disruption as
cloud services become more commonplace for all.
4GO TO
THE CLOUD

of 11
As of the summer of 2013, no single solution, deployment or list of best
practices exists to allow escape from the vortex of the Nexus. The only
currently feasible solution to such an impossibly intertwined problem as
the Nexus is to develop a hybrid IT approach, which leverages private
and public clouds as required based on an enterprise’s business needs
and market pressures.
Hybrid IT is a conceptual framework that does not rely on any
one deployment. As of 2013, there are no solidified hybrid IT best
practices, and no single consultant exists who can solve the problem
of establishing a foolproof framework for hybrid architectures. CIOs
must be able to break through the fog obscuring hybrid IT concepts.
Proprietary solutions such as VMware Hybrid vCloud and Open Stack
Solutions such as HP Cloud System and HP Public Cloud Services can
both provide value to customers. Also, third parties with knowledge of
both can assist with positioning solutions relative to the specific hybrid
computing use case.
One example of a currently
available hybrid IT deployment
is IaaS for extending data center
agility in a scalable manner. Hybrid
rollouts can mean a lot of different
things to different stakeholders
as, in 2013, “hybrid” is more of a
school of thought that promises
leaner, more agile IT and improved
business agility, too. Enterprises
can now take advantage of
the alleged cost savings of on-
demand application improvements
and services optimized to
operate flexibly in a hybrid cloud
environment.
Executives should reconsider the use of hybrid IT today. First of all,
hybrid IT can potentially create a shift to improved operational expenses
as companies consume IT services as needed. The evaluation should
ideally fall along the lines of data constraints, workloads and real-time
business benefits. Governing such a system becomes the next concern,
which is why Gartner recommends that IT departments transform into a
services broker for the entire enterprise.
To narrow the focus even further, enterprises must carefully choose
which cloud services brokerage (CSB) is best based upon aggregation,
integration and level of customization available. Ideally, this services
brokerage would take place in-house, but as enterprises establish
clear baselines for interoperability among hybrid IT systems -- such as
software-defined networking in a cloud-oriented data center -- the use of
several third-party CSBs may be unavoidable.
HYBRID
COMPUTING
5

of 11
The Internet of Things is another technological force that adds another
layer of complexity to the challenges created by the Nexus. Similar to
the impact of cloud computing in the enterprise, this evolution in IT
promises to disrupt even the most agile architectures. Many analysts
have commented on the nuances of the Internet of Things -- and by
extension IPv6 -- but the crux of the trend revolves around the current
mass influx of Internet-enabled sensor data. For instance, today a single
cross-country flight generates over 2 TB of sensor data.
Connected smart devices continue to expand the volume of data
available via the Internet. House sensors such as lighting controls,
thermostats and refrigerators change what end users can control
remotely -- often controlled with an inexpensive commercial smart phone
application. To leverage the expansion of Internet-enabled devices,
enterprises need to think through what innovations in mobile applications
and remote control of devices can guide their company through this
disruption. Mobile devices are already a business-critical asset as
end users demand more interoperability among and within enterprise
systems and applications, particularly when considering the issue of
auditing the effectiveness of BYOD practices.
With the rise of the Internet of Things, the problem of mobile device
management (i.e. the near-viral proliferation of smartphones and
tablets) becomes even more worrisome as data streams from billions of
temporospacial sensors, RFID technologies, wearable electronics and
myriad previously “dumb” machines compound the issue at hand: what
to do with the cosmic array of Web-based data that these devices will
create. Analysts already anticipate the Internet of Things to make the
mobile/remote device issue even more disruptive.
Accepting Gartner’s
predictions with a grain of
salt, wearable, Web-enabled
devices used in fitness and
medicine will create a $10
billion industry by 2016. Given
the anticipated breakthrough
of the Internet of Things in
the general healthcare arena,
managing risk is paramount
when developing long-term
strategies -- not only from
a liability standpoint, but
with respect to the ever-
present three-headed hydra
of security, privacy and
government regulations.
THE
INTERNET
OF THINGS
6

of 11
From an enterprise-wide point of view, the growth of the Internet of
Things presents a unique opportunity to enhance and build new solutions
that take advantage of the ability to monitor and gather data remotely. In
particular, HP’s new HAVEn is a platform that can assist companies as a
platform to develop new applications leveraging data from a multitude of
sources.
If enterprises use the success of proprietary BYOD policies as a
benchmark, the forthcoming evolution of the Internet of Things demands
that companies take a second look at the mobile security issue. After
all, Gartner expects that in 2014 BYOD practices will enable malware
to compromise employee-owned devices at twice the rate of business-
owned devices. Adding millions of Internet-connected sensors and
devices to the challenge of mobile security only compounds the
challenges facing executives today.
Enterprises must continue to vet which security policies facilitate
business needs and which practices prove to be too restrictive. Here,
the problem of social networking steps forward as business personnel
expect improved mobile agility in the workplace, coinciding with the
perceived benefits of the public mobile/Internet of Things services that
employees already consume. To thrive, CIOs should take a closer look at
cloud computing as an enabler of mobile/Internet of Things solutions.
THE
INTERNET
OF THINGS
6

of 11
In 2013, all aspects of a new enterprise IT deployment must work
together. If CIOs cannot achieve full integration, walled gardens of
operations within an enterprise will continue to bog down the proper
functioning of IT. Certainly, perfect integration is a myth, but full
integration is possible if enterprises keep an eye on the long-term
challenges of the Nexus.
For instance, Gartner expects application integration projects to spur a
33% increase in spending among medium to large-sized enterprises by
2016. This statistic coincides with the growth of hybrid cloud computing
solutions, social networking, mobile device management and Big
Data management and analytical tools. With respect to mobile device
solutions, data integration could consume as much as 20% of spending
on integration, according to Gartner’s long-term expectations.
To survive -- and thrive -- when striving to achieve full integration
throughout the enterprise and among strategic partners, CIOs must
consider the possibility that setbacks in integration can potentially derail
rollouts of externally sourced systems.
Here, the issue of integration and coordination among disparate cloud
providers steps to the fore once again. The entire purpose of hybrid IT
is to yield savings over the long term and increase enterprise agility,
so consistently delayed and over-budget integration projects may
cannibalize these two important cost benefits.
Enterprises should strongly consider deploying platforms such as HP
HAVEn which is fully integrated and supported as an appliance, software
defined data centers, high-powered appliances such as SAP HANA and
simplifying reference architectures. In short, enterprises in the US can no
longer afford to rely on best-in-breed or build-your-own practices.
A new IT paradigm is forming in 2013. In the near future, the challenges
of the Nexus will surely continue to grow in complexity and scale.
Enterprises must be able to survive the battle.
Cloud and hybrid IT can provide the right infrastructure if properly
deployed. In fact, the solutions to the problem of the mobile device/
Internet of Things phenomenon and Big Data directly relate to cloud-
oriented, hybrid IT environments, so analytics is critical to governing all
of these components. Simply modifying current infrastructure is not wise
for forward-thinking enterprises that wait for the turmoil to settle.
FULL
INTEGRATION
7

of 11
Enterprises should also take a serious look at in-memory computing and
the importance of full integration in 2013. Each of these technological
approaches can create opportunities to align the goals of IT with the
goals of business decision-makers.
In 2013, the state of IT in the US continues to take small steps forward
in the face of global economic upheaval. Enterprises that delay
implementing the seven strategies discussed above may not survive the
fray.
To thrive, enterprises should adopt bold yet ever-pragmatic hybrid IT
solutions in order to rise above the melee and lead. Armed with the skills
and expertise to navigate the disruptive IT paradigm shift, IIS assists
enterprises in deploying solutions to answer the challenges of the next
evolution of IT.
For more information, contact IIS to find out how today’s cloud, mobile,
Big Data and high-performance computing solutions can enable
industry-leading success.
FULL
INTEGRATION
7

7 ways to Survive the Next Disruption of 21st Century IT

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to 7 ways to Survive the Next Disruption of 21st Century IT (20)

More from IIS International Integrated Solutions (7)

Recently uploaded (20)

7 ways to Survive the Next Disruption of 21st Century IT