IT 2012: It's All About Control of the Data

How data enters a system, where it resides, how it is processed, who can access and manage it, and who can store and archive it-that's where the power in IT will be next year.

If yesterday is an archive and today is a real-time view, then tomorrow is an idea that encompasses both history and present-day experience. That's the concept behind the following eWEEK articles, which look at technology trends for 2012:

• Cloud Computing Seeks a New Identity
• Five Key Enterprise Development Trends
• Network Breaches Herald More Advanced Attacks in 2012
  
• RIM, Microsoft Bets Hint at Radical Change

The overriding theme for 2012 is control of data: how data enters a system, where it resides, how it is processed, and who can access and manage it, as well as who can store and archive data. That's where the real power is. Those who know how to control both the archival and current views are most often the ones who come up with significant new ideas and promote business progress.

IT that is progressive is already well-established and will gain even more ground in 2012. These critically important technology trends include cloud services and systems; data centers that use less electricity; the larger-than-life workloads and storage capacities we call "big data"; the increasing use of automation in systems of all kinds; the integration of business intelligence into just about everything; and the ever-growing volume of stored data in all its formats.

Important developments that we will see-and that eWEEK will examine-in 2012 enterprise IT include:

• Full automation of major IT systems will continue as a major trend
• The availability of more cloud-based software and services than one can imagine
• The rapid ascendance of hybrid cloud systems
• Exabyte-scale storage systems (thousands of petabytes!)
• Data center systems that use less electricity, yet churn out more and larger workloads
• Vastly increased usage of data analytics deployments-and not just inside large enterprises
• New and improved unified data center controls that include monitoring of data flow and storage, as well as all the physical facilities.

One of the most interesting developments around enterprise applications is a new cloud-based security control layer for browsers that will enable airtight utilization of any personal connected device for secure business use. Equipped with startup Authentic8's cloud service, any browser can be secured by enterprise policies ahead of time based on the needs of the business and the employee. So any connected device can be used at any time to do the work.

This has broad implications for a whole range of use cases. Since the vast majority of crimeware, rootkits, spyware, viruses and other Web-transported malware enter a device via the browser, this effectively cuts the head off all those problems. eWEEK will be covering Authentic8 as it comes out of semi-stealth mode and brings its service to market in early 2012.

This new development may cause some consternation in the virtual desktop world, a sector that has succeeded in some markets but has been spinning its wheels in others for more than a decade. It has yet to gain the widespread adoption that its proponents had expected.