The role of IT leaders is increasingly unenviable, as they strive to contend with today’s rapid pace of technological change, as well as the growing responsibility to drive digitalisation within their organisation. A consequence of this is an increase in budgets, with Gartner predicting annual global IT spend to grow by 4.5 per cent this year to $3.7 trillion. Yet despite the fact that 76 per cent of European IT decision makers expect to benefit from an increased budget over the next 12 months, the latest research from Toshiba shows that that investment priorities remain similar today to those of two years ago – most notably with a key focus on data security, cloud-based solutions, and improving productivity through IT.
Then and now
This is testament to the fact that despite IT evolving at an incredible pace, so too are the challenges of addressing problems which may on the face appear unchanged. Data security, for example, is a different beast today to even two years ago, as organisations look to contend with an increasingly mobile workforce, new legislative pressure in the shape of GDPR, and a smarter breed of cyber-criminal and security threats. It is for these reasons, perhaps as much as any others, that investment priorities remain similar.
Over 42 per cent of the global workforce will be mobile by 2022 (1.87 billion people) according to StrategyAnalytics, while SonicWall logged an 18.4 per cent yearly rise in malware attacks in 2017, as well as an over 100 per cent increase in ransomware variants as cyber-criminals shift their tactics. These stats perfectly exemplify why cloud-based solutions – which can address both mobile productivity and security, and data security itself – remain key priorities for 62 and 58 per cent of IT decision-makers respectively.
The rise of IoT solutions
That is not to say, however, that new innovations aren’t also on the radar of organisations. According to Gartner, 95 per cent of new electronic product designs will incorporate IoT technology by 2020. Our research shows that more than one-fifth of companies are already using IoT or M2M technologies extensively, highlighting the fact that such solutions’ ability to deliver game-changing operational advantages cannot be overlooked in this age of increased mobility. The third most important investment priority for the upcoming 12 months is to improve organisational productivity through IT. 43 per cent of IT leaders believe the more innovative use of digital tools – such as IoT solutions – is central to achieving this.
This trend is itself paving the way for a host of new technologies to impact the professional landscape, none more immediately than wearables and, in particular, smart glasses. A ripening of market conditions has driven this long-mooted device to the point of triggering mainstream adoption within the enterprise. The arrival of 5G, the development of Windows-10 based solutions which can easily integrate into existing IT architecture, and continued innovation in the areas of assisted and augmented reality are all expected to heavily drive smart glasses uptake further, with 82 per cent of organisations expecting to deploy such a solution within the next three years.
Gaining an Edge
Windows 10 also brings greater potential for organisations to integrate mobile edge computing into their IT infrastructure, with such strategies becoming more popular as a method of gathering and analysing data in a secure, efficient and mobile manner. An edge-focused approach reduces operational strain and latency by processing the most critical data close to its originating source, which as a result reduces ‘data garbage’ by identifying only the most relevant information to be sent to the cloud. Edge devices also offer enhanced security by ensuring data is locally encrypted before being sent to the network core.
Today’s IT leaders are fighting an ongoing battle to digitally transform their organisations in the age of IoT, mass mobility, and explosive data proliferation. Yet there is no one-size fits all approach, nor just one solution which can achieve the required results to enable a fully productive and fully secure workforce. Organisations must be constantly alert to new threats and challenges, and open to adopting the technologies which can help overcome these and empower the workforce – be this refreshing the hardware estate, integrating cloud and clientless solutions, or turning to new and growing trends such as smart glasses.
