Making the correct investment is crucial

The trends that Insight believes will shape the IT sector in 2016 are:

1.       The role of the CIO will transform

2.       Greater agility will reduce the gamble of IT investment

3.       Workplace tech will evolve even faster

4.       The global race to the cloud will slow

5.       Cyber breaches: preparing for the inevitable

1.      The role of the CIO will transform

The rise in importance of business IT has placed the CIO’s role as the heart of this space - at risk. In many organisations, responsibility for IT innovation is diluting across different business teams, taking away the most innovative and important parts of the CIO’s role. The result? It leaves their main responsibility as maintaining legacy IT infrastructures unless they drive changes required.

Emma de Sousa, Managing Director at Insight UK commented: “CIOs must continuously transform to reinvent themselves in 2016. They need to take the lead in introducing new technological solutions to meet their business’ demands and represent the technology needs of the business in the boardroom. This way, CIOs can balance their responsibility for IT maintenance with strategic technology innovations that deliver real value for their organisations.”

2. Greater agility will reduce the gamble of IT investment

New models of IT investment will reduce not only the risks taken by organisations, but the level of technology debt that they face. Traditionally, businesses have followed a monolithic model of investment, making large IT purchases for 3-5 year periods, with the risk of failing to realise the full business value of their investment. However, the growth of subscription-based IT and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is giving businesses greater flexibility to customise their computing environments based on ongoing business needs, as and when desired.

Adrian Ah-Chin-Kow, SMB Sales Director at Insight states: “The growth of SaaS will continue to change the way that organisations invest in IT in 2016. The flexibility of these agreements enable organisations to match their IT with business developments and adjust capacity according to ongoing consumption. These shorter term investments also reduce the level of risk and technology debt, but a lack of understanding of cloud solutions in businesses will hinder their uptake in 2016. Most businesses will continue to maintain some on premise solutions, although there will be a greater mixture of SaaS - and CIOs will need to educate their board and employees to encourage greater uptake of cloud.”

3.      Workplace tech will evolve even faster

Pressure on businesses to provide more modern workplace solutions for their employees, including working from home, remote access and flexible working hours, will increase the blurring of lines between workplace and personal technology. This will result in employees frequently using their own devices in a work context; users are resorting to using a personal device to access files remotely because their company didn’t provide the tools required. Companies are struggling to keep up with these developments and not only modernise their own IT landscape, but keep their data secure in the process.

Lee Nolan, Solutions Sales Director at Insight adds: “The current trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is presenting significant security challenges to IT departments, as employees are working across a variety of devices, connected to a variety of networks. Employees want consistent access to the data and applications they need to perform. Next year businesses will continue to bridge the gap between personal and workplace technology because the advantages are clear: improved employee satisfaction and retention rates, as well as boosting  employee productivity”

4.      The global race to the cloud will slow

Cloud has been the fastest growing part of IT over the last few years. In 2016 this is likely to continue, with CIF research predicting by early next year 86% of UK-based organisations will formally use at least one Cloud service. However, this means the global rate of cloud adoption will slow albeit at a slower rate. This is partly because cloud based software and storage has become much more widely established, but also due to the continuing perception that the cloud is not secure.

Alex Guillen, Go-To-Market Manager at Insight comments: “First time cloud adoption will continue to increase in 2016, though this will likely be at a slower rate than we have previously witnessed. There is still some reticence to adopt cloud based solutions by businesses, partly due to the lack of open central management available to IT departments - something which should be a focus for vendors as the market matures. There is also a continuing perception that cloud is not as secure as on premise solutions, and more highly regulated industries, such as finance and the public sector, will take more time to move over.”

5.      Cyber breaches: preparing for the inevitable

Cybersecurity has come to the forefront of business consciousness in 2015, with high profile hacks including TalkTalk and Amazon heightening consumer interest – and concern. Organisations are now more aware of the threat of breaches, but are not necessarily taking action to protect their assets. Cybercrime has become a well-organised, well-run machine and threats will continue in 2016.

Stephen Love, Security Architect at Insight: “Businesses will need to accept that they are likely to have a security breach – it’s time to prepare for the inevitable. In 2016, organisations will need to take steps to identify their most valuable data and protect it; for example, encryption will ensure that even if data is stolen, it is effectively useless to hackers. However, it’s not enough for organisations to be prepared for an attack; they must have a contingency plan in place for when it happens - including any public statements needed to maintain customers’ trust. TalkTalk was a clear example of the damage that can be done to a company’s reputation if it fails to respond to an attack effectively.”