In with the new.....

As one year comes to pass, I thought it would be timely to consider what could lie just around the corner as 2015 beckons.

Ovum has predicted enterprise mobility to be top of the CIO agenda.

The analyst organisation adds that consumerisation (i.e. the impact of technology designed first and foremost for consumers) has driven the enterprise mobility market over the past few years, and Ovum has identified a number of key trends in mobile consumerisation that will likely have the biggest impact on businesses in 2015.

One of these is that the ‘mobility mismatch’ between employers and employees will persist, even as enterprise IT departments get to grips with consumerisation. For example, the rate of bring your own device (BYOD) behaviour (i.e. employees using personal devices to access corporate data) continues to grow, but it is not being embraced by IT at nearly the same rate.

Ovum also comments that more businesses will increasingly think beyond BYOD – the distinction is formal versus informal and managed versus unmanaged. Informal (unmanaged and largely unrecognised) BYOD usage is expected slowly to be displaced by a more managed approach, due to the introduction of more formal support models for employee-liable connections and devices in larger companies, as device management solutions for smartphones mature.

On a more negative note, Forrester findings predict that 60 per cent of brands will discover a breach of sensitive data during 2015. According to the analyst, at least 60 per cent of brands will discover a breach of sensitive data in 2015, with the actual number of breached entities being as high as 80 per cent or more. What's more, most firms are also anticipated to botch the responses, and we could quickly see substantial fines and lawsuits become the norm. Why? Forrester finds that only 21 per cent of global security technology decision-makers report that improving incident response is a critical priority.

However, there is some good news within the realms of data security. In the battle to win, serve, and retain customers, data security and privacy can be a key competitive differentiator, according to Forrester. The analyst organisation comments that privacy abuses and intentional or accidental breaches of sensitive data undermine the trust relationship between an enterprise and its customers. It adds that if your customers don't trust a brand to rigorously protect and genuinely respect their sensitive data, they will take their business elsewhere.

Another anticipated development over a slightly longer timeline, highlighted by Gartner, is that more than 50 per cent of users are expected to use a tablet PC or smartphone first for all online activities by 2018. Mobile devices are increasingly becoming the first go-to device for communications and content consumption, according to Gartner. In the emerging economies, users are adopting smartphones as their exclusive mobile devices while in developed economies, multi-device households are becoming the norm, with tablets growing at the fastest rate of any computing device. As such, Gartner predicts that, by 2018, over half of users will go to a tablet or smartphone first for all online activities.

And there can be little doubt that we will continue to hear about further developments from the world of Big Data. Indeed, this has become such a keen area of discussion that we have dedicated eight pages of the December edition of Manufacturing & Logistics IT to investigating this phenomenon in depth.

Moving on to more festive thoughts, it only remains for all of us at Manufacturing & Logistics IT to wish you an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas and New Year.