Fred Dillman, Unisys: Disruptive Technologies Drive 2012 Enterprise Predictions

January 30, 2012

Based on its work with clients around the world, Unisys expects that disruptive technologies – cloud computing, mobility, social computing, big data and smart analytics, IT appliances, and cybersecurity – will become more tightly woven into mission-critical systems and processes as organizations look for ways to innovate and operate more cost efficiently.

“Innovation and integration continue to be the key watchwords for IT investments in 2012,” said Fred Dillman, Unisys chief technology officer. “In 2011, we saw organizations beginning to make productive use of key disruptive technologies such as cloud, mobile, and social computing, but the work was largely done in secure, protected silos, and has yet to become pervasive across the IT organization.

“Enterprises are now realizing they cannot afford to keep these technologies at the periphery of their organizations,” Dillman said. “To compete effectively, they must integrate these technologies into the core of their customer-facing systems and applications. This means aggressively using these technologies to provide new, innovative, more convenient, and cost-effective ways to interact with today’s mobile, tech-savvy customers.”

The following highlights are taken from Unisys’ 2012 IT Prediction blog series. For more information and in-depth discussion, click the specific disruptive IT trend.

Cloud Computing

Unisys expects cloud computing to continue to be the top IT investment priority for organizations in the year ahead, as evidenced by the company’s recent poll.

Private cloud implementations will continue to accelerate in 2012, with enterprises gaining confidence in the technology and moving to leverage it across their infrastructure to drive both improved organizational responsiveness and cost savings, while still maintaining the security of an on-premise infrastructure. Unisys expects to see increased interest in enterprise-class cloud management software, with the ability to manage both public and private clouds as an integral part of an overall data center environment.

Additionally, Unisys expects that both government agencies and businesses in 2012 will accelerate their use of cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) for email and collaboration solutions, to further reduce costs and simplify operations.

Finally, Unisys expects organizations to begin the process of broadly assessing their applications portfolio to take greater advantage of cloud computing opportunities. These assessments will provide companies opportunities for consolidating applications and for taking advantage of a growing suite of SaaS offerings to simplify their IT operations and improve their flexibility.

Mobile Computing

Mobile devices are proliferating throughout the enterprise and are increasingly becoming the new computing platform of choice for employees and customers, as mobile becomes the preferred channel for doing business. The rapid adoption of consumer mobile technologies is challenging the traditional model of managing and securing IT endpoints within the enterprise, forcing organizations to alter their approach to device management.

In 2012, Unisys expects IT organizations will devote significant resources towards developing new applications and reengineering business processes to take advantage of this growing opportunity, as they look to connect with clients and improve employee productivity.

Additionally, Unisys expects organizations will make greater use of new mobile device and application management tools to better manage, secure, maintain, and deploy mobile devices and applications within their organizations.

Social Computing

With the continued spread of social computing in the consumer world, more organizations are realizing the potential power of social networks to enhance employee collaboration and productivity within their enterprises, and better connect with customers, partners and other stakeholders.

In 2012 Unisys expects that organizations will accelerate the trend towards socially enabling their client-facing channels and contact points, to gain greater connection to consumers and drive insights into client behavior that can improve service and client loyalty. Organizations will rapidly integrate social technologies into the fabric of their core enterprise applications in areas such as customer relationship management, case management, exception handling, and other transactional systems.

Unisys also sees greater use of advanced social networking technologies to enhance employee collaboration in geographically distributed enterprises -- helping to improve efficiency, employee satisfaction, and overall client service levels.

Big Data / Smart Computing

Enterprises are struggling to manage the flood of data being generated and stored within their organizations in addition to new data streams that have become available from external sources. The ability to gain insight and competitive advantage from this data is both an opportunity and a competitive threat, and businesses and government agencies alike are adopting advanced analytics technologies to build innovative new services, improve service levels, and drive greater efficiency.

In the next 12 months, Unisys expects a greater focus by organizations on identifying which streams of data can provide the greatest payback via real-time decision-making. Unisys also expects conversations to shift away from the technical attributes of “big data” technologies to how organizations can use this information to better serve customers, open new markets, and reduce costs.

Finally, as these growing data streams drive up storage costs, Unisys expects organizations will look to rationalize storage strategies to keep data costs under control.

IT Appliances

In recent years, enterprises have made growing use of so-called IT appliances – turnkey combinations of packaged hardware and software that handle specialized functions – to jumpstart new technology initiatives and avoid complex, lengthy systems integration efforts.

In 2012 Unisys expects such IT appliances to take on increasingly sophisticated functions such as management of IT infrastructure, cloud computing, intelligent analytics, and cybersecurity. In the area of cloud computing, Unisys expects that highly scalable cloud appliances will appear on the market, allowing IT managers to more quickly deploy and scale their private cloud implementations.

CyberSecurity

In 2011, the world witnessed some of the most intricate and costly cyber breaches ever experienced – from the hacking of a major gaming company to the theft of credit card information from well-known corporate and financial institutions.

As cyber threats grow in number and sophistication, Unisys predicts that in 2012 more organizations will implement predictive security operations, consisting of dedicated analysts and advanced data analytics software, to identify threats before they cause significant damage. Unisys also expects that organizations will create protected silos within their data operations to prevent access to sensitive information in cases where their network perimeters have been breached.

Organizations will also work to create greater integration of their security technologies, such as intrusion detection, malware / antivirus detection, and data loss prevention to improve their overall security operational models, and better react and respond to the growing volume and sophistication of security threats.