Technology Trend Throwback: In 1983, young David Lightman was rockin' the sweet IMSAI 8080 computer. Other notable tech trends of 1983? The WOPR, of course.

Technology Trends That May Affect Your Company

With the new year approaching, technology trade magazines write about coming trends.   Sure, they are predictable and sometimes cliché, but people keep on reading them.

In one of these IT Trends articles there were some interesting trends that were a bit different from what you traditionally see.

• Browser-Based Enterprise Email Clients – With a growth of collaboration services, instant messaging, social networking, shared workspaces and web conferencing will come increased pressure to accommodate it. It follows that some will use browser-based  email solutions.
• Private Data on Public Storage – It looks like there will be a trend of more businesses storing data on public storage.  In fact, as many as 500 of the Fortune 1000 companies will store customer sensitive data on public storage to reduce costs and streamline systems. This is no joke.
• Rise In Cyber Crime Costs – Going forward there will be new vulnerabilities. That is the nature of the beast. When you have rapidly growing, expansive technology there are both rewards and risks. With increased risks often come increased costs. It is also thought that there will be more targeted attacks. Furthermore, some economic trend forecasters speculate a rise in cyber crime. These are all things to keep in mind.
• Energy Surcharge For Cloud Services – That’s right. In the future be prepared for energy surcharges for cloud services. It is anticipated that these energy costs will be a new and separate cost to manage. Keep this in mind when making plans for the future.
• Shift in IT Budgets – Many IT budgets going forward will see significant reductions often reallocated to other business areas. In other cases, the projects will be defined differently (as business projects) and will be overseen by managers of the lines of business. This trend may apply to a wide variety of businesses. It could be based on industry trends, company circumstances or the economic conditions going forward. Would you be ready if this happened to you? If it does, how will you adapt? Will you have a strong network up – costs down strategy in place? Something to think about.

- For more trends please see this article

If these trends get legs, will they affect you? Some of these are areas where you need to play defense. Others are the kinds of things that you have to think about and ask, “Is there a way for us to capitalize on this trend? If so, how?”

In either case, this is a good reminder to keep looking forward and regularly think about future trends.