CA Technologies Top 5 IT Predictions for 2013

The predictions are:

1. Big data grows up There will be an emergence of big data administrators, who will play a critical role in using new technologies and processing power to take a cold, hard (and useful) look at data and its business application.

   In 2013, Big Data projects will begin to show a demonstrable return on investment. As with cloud, definitions will mature, enabling better focus on delivering business value. This infrastructure, which integrates with data from social media and open data sources, will dramatically increase the demand for management and security. Decisions taken using Big Data carry less risk, and the insights Big Data provides will increase IT's leadership on innovation.

2. Enterprises adopt public cloud. Enterprises will adopt public cloud services, spurred by the expansion of offerings from service providers like established telcos, who have already earned their trust. In addition, as service providers franchise their business models and technologies, cloud services will surge outside the United States.

   Additionally, the buzz of "the cloud" will dim as people realise that it is just the way business is done. Vertical industries such as health care will lead this trend, realising its impact on security, the value of specialised community cloud services and the ability to address compliance while driving down costs. Mainframe will move more rapidly to the cloud as companies that already have a mainframe will adopt cloud technologies and processes to get the most out of them. Externally hosted private cloud adoption will also increase in the next few years.

3. Identity is the new perimeter Enterprise users know no bounds of time and space. As they adopt cloud services and collaborate globally with external customers and partners from multiple devices, they erase the traditional IT perimeter. Security professionals today find themselves in a borderless war on multiple fronts and one common ally: identity. Strongly authenticated identity is the new perimeter.

   This places emphasis on reducing risk at the authentication point, signalling the end of the password as we know it today. As such, we expect to see advanced authentication models expand. We will see more risk-based authentication coming into play based on the device, transaction, location and more. The industry will move towards more intelligent methods of authentication such as pattern creation, image recognition, mobile phone-based authentication, audio and biometrics. But this is not enough. We will see more content-driven security based on what the data is, or how it is classified; that information, plus user identity and role, will be used to guide access rights.

4. The seventh sense. There will be increased exploitation of the sensing technologies available in most modern mobile devices as the "Internet of Things" takes hold. Everything will become intelligent as sensors are embedded into a wide array of devices from the home to those that drive applications that span disaster management, health care IT, transportation networks, smart grids, utility computing and more. These technologies will drive additional demand for IT to manage, store, analyse and secure data traffic, privacy and end points.

5. Mobile/social first in the enterprise. Companies will start to build applications not just with mobile/social platforms in mind, but primarily for mobile/social platforms, with traditional platforms secondary or not supported at all. Consumerisation will accelerate as we see the enterprise embracing the rich, immersive user experience consumers are used to from mobile applications.

   In parallel, the management of mobile/social IT will become less about managing and securing the devices themselves, and more about managing and securing the mobile applications and mobile data, all while preserving the user experience.

Runner up: the rise of DevOps is imminent: Intelligent computing in every piece of equipment is driving the world towards environments so complex that operations need to be taken into consideration before the first line of code is written. As the move to agile brings developers, testers and business closer together, we see DevOps driving the rise of experience-led design. The CIO will be less worried about managing devices and more concerned with managing apps. As services are moved to the cloud, consumers will be less interested in monitoring infrastructure themselves. DevOps will necessitate the reconstitution of traditional frameworks like IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), extracting their most valuable concepts and adjusting them for modern, agile development. In this reality, cloud, mobility and DevOps are becoming one movement.

"In 2013, IT will drive business competitiveness. CIOs need to achieve an end-to-end service delivery model, tying in all the required elements and technologies to create an integrated user experience. To stay relevant, CIOs will function as business service innovators and integrators, managing diverse services and service aggregations that differentiate business offerings," says Andrea Lodolo, chief technology officer of CA Southern Africa.

"IT must begin to act as a trusted advisor, service broker and as quality assurance in this brave new world of complex IT."

The proliferation of smart mobile devices and BYOD (bring your own device), cloud computing, Big Data and security have brought a new level of complexity. Historically, technology was transactional and IT-defined. However, in this networked world, technology is evolving beyond simply enabling operations to being a truly intelligent driver of business innovation.

More than ever before, IT is so well primed to begin its transition from technology ownership and management to becoming the broker of business services. As SaaS, PaaS and IaaS provide turnkey, infrastructure-less access to computing capacity, IT will increasingly focus on composite business applications-rather than the buy-build-manage model-to achieve new levels of speed, innovation, performance and cost/risk efficiencies.