While 2013 will present an array of interesting IT challenges and opportunities, Australian businesses will continue to grapple with security issues and concerns but begin to do more with enterprise mobility and Cloud technologies, according to Dimension Data solutions director, Neil Campbell.
Security is layered among all elements of a business, and Campbell expects it to be one of the biggest risks for businesses as the new year rolls in.
“I think we could see a ‘Code Red’ incident for at least one of the mobile device platforms in 2013,” he said.
Security will maintain much of it prevalence on the back of the growth of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) as the trend complicates security for businesses.
“[Businesses] are racing to support a wide variety of consumer devices in the workplace, and that will inevitably increase security incidents because of poorly controlled user-owned devices connected to the network,” Campbell said.
He said that it is harder to manage data loss and leakage prevention in the BYOD environment, and as such, both malicious and unintentional data loss incidents will increase.
Enterprise mobility will continue as a key focus area for business, and there will be priority places on reducing operational costs. Campbell said that this can be achieved by reducing carrier costs with telecommunications expense management. In addition, he advises businesses to reduce real estate and develop a well-equipped mobile workforce to shrink cost while delivering productivity benefits.
“It is important that users have positive experiences with enterprise mobility, and that end-user devices and applications are well supported,” he said. “Expect to also see an explosion in form factors next year, as key players continue to innovate to create new niches.”
Cloud will present businesses with interesting questions. Campbell expects to see the Cloud battleground move from infrastructure-style applications to Cloud development platforms for custom applications.
This is because businesses are seeing through the Cloud hype, and as a result are beginning to understand the difference between true Cloud and hosted technology.
Social media has undoubtedly gained traction in 2012 moreso than previously, and 2013 will see a further defining of its use and market.
“Social media is under used now but likely to be over used in the near future,” Campbell said. “In a year or two it will settle between where it is now and where the hype thinks it will get to. There will be a clarification of the definition of external social and internal social, even if those are not the names that will be used.”
“Internal social is being more and more coupled with the traditional definition of UC&C as PBX get replaced by IPTel, email traffic decreases and social activity streams increase, and the demand increases for analytics around social media usage patterns and employee behaviour.”
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