Gartner: Mobile Development, Social Media and Cloud Computing Disrupting IT

In a conference in Orlando, Florida, Gartner Inc. revealed that the central focus of IT consisting of social media innovations, mobile devices, web information, and cloud computing can disrupt the whole IT environment. Addressing at least 10,000 participants, Gartner Vice President David Cearley said that at the rate things are going the mobile experience is overshadowing the desktop experience. Cloud computing, together with mobile devices, is set to alter the modern corporation’s primary architecture of computing. Instead of focusing on client-server, IT shops must now set their sights on cloud-client architecture.

With this new type of architecture, it is also possible for skill sets necessary for enterprise software development to be altered significantly. The front-end interface must have better designs and development teams must gear towards HTML5 Web browser opportunities aside from the usual mobile device operating systems. Cearley also claimed that consumers have fresh expectations. As such, application developers and architects must obtain new design skills to meet these new expectations.

According to Kii Inc. Senior VP for platform marketing and developer relations Miko Matsumura, the result of mobile development has caused traditional architecture to evolve and a new breed of developers has turned their mobile perspectives to the cloud. According to him, the client cloud is not something different from a programming platform, programming language, or programming model. On the other hand, Gartner VP for research Jim Duggan said that the alterations in application lifecycles and development are signs that by 2015 mobile applications will be greater than static deployment by 400%. This means that focus should be on developers training as well as outsourcing.

According to Gartner analysts, there will come a time when each corporate budget will be an IT budget and that businesses will have a Chief Digital Officer in their payroll. Gartner further predicts that by 2015, around 25% of businesses will have Chief Digital Officers.

Cloud security is also expected to triple in size. This is primarily because of regulatory compliance. According to Gartner analysts, IT leaders must be able to plan for the upcoming government regulations and interventions. Towards the end of 2015, Gartner expects bigger service providers to acquire cloud-based identity access management solutions. The analyst group also believes that administrative error or user management will comprise about 80% of cloud security occurrences in 2013. Those businesses which require basic security environments can rely on the security provided by the public cloud service or structure. Gartner also expects that 60% of large firms will limit network access connectivity of mobile devices personally-owned by their staff.