2012 IBM Tech Trends Report: Fast track to the future

© 2012 IBM Corporation
2012 IBM Tech Trends Report
Fast track to the future
SWG developerWorks and Center for Applied Insights
November 2012

IBM Center for Applied Insights
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Source: 2012 Tech Trends Study, IBM developerWorks and IBM Center for Applied Insights, November 2012.
To obtain a global snapshot of approaches to key emerging technologies we
surveyed
Over 1200 IT and business
decision-makers
• 22% IT managers
• 53% IT practitioners
• 25% business professionals
• Thirteen countries
• Sixteen industries
Over 250 academics and 450
students across these same
countries

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Four pivotal emerging technologies – business analytics, mobile, cloud and
social business - are rapidly reshaping how enterprises operate
 A comparison of adoption and investment data demonstrates past and future deployment
decisions
 Business Analytics is the most well established, while Social Business is lagging
 Mobile and Cloud lead investment priorities

4
However, enterprises are facing two pervasive threats to innovation
IT Skills Gap
Security
Concerns
Demand for IT skills in emerging
technologies outstrips the skills
available
Security concerns are a significant
barrier to adoption of emerging
technologies

A significant IT skills gap is seen across all four emerging technology
areas, and the future is gearing up to be even worse
The IT Skill Gap: Industry and Academia
 In each of the four areas, only about 1 in 10 enterprises have all of the skills they need
 Within each area, roughly one quarter of enterprises report having major skill gaps
 The problem is poised to get worse: Nearly half of surveyed educators and students
indicate major gaps in their institutions’ ability to meet the skill needs of the IT workforce
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Have all the
necessary skills Moderate skill gaps Major skill gaps

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“Technology is changing so rapidly – not just
upgrades, but dramatic changes in the
discipline itself. Keeping pace is a challenge,
not only teaching current technologies, but
also forecasting and trying to guess what is
coming down the pipeline.”
-Professor, Fordham University

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Security concerns are a significant barrier to adopting emerging
technologies, as organizations strive to protect their information assets
Top Three Barriers to Adoption in Each Emerging Technology Area
 Beyond adoption - 62% of decision-makers rated Security as one of the top-three most
important areas to their organization overall in the next two years

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“Security and privacy are not always treated as
first-order problems. Things are deployed and
made widely available without regard for
security and privacy. In a best case scenario,
security and privacy are thought of as add-ons.
Worst case, they’re ignored completely.”
- Professor, Purdue University

Despite the obstacles to innovation, an elite group of organizations are
forging ahead and unlocking the potential of these technology trends
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Pacesetters exhibit three distinguishing traits that help them capitalize on
the potential of emerging technologies
10

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MARKET-DRIVEN: Pacesetters are more motivated by a desire to differentiate,
innovate and serve customers better, placing greater emphasis on
 Deeply understanding their customers using social and analytical means and engaging with them more
effectively through mobile applications
 Identifying new markets via analytics and differentiating their products and services through mobile
 Bringing innovation to market faster using analytical insights, social collaboration, and cloud computing
2.2x
2.7x
2.7x
2.4x
2x
3.2x
2.6x
1.2x
1.4x

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ANALYTICAL: Pacesetters are also more likely to use analytics and
develop analytical skills, especially ones that equip them to handle Big Data
 Nearly twice as many Pacesetters as Dabblers are building “big data” skills, such as statistical and
mathematical modeling and text analytics
 Pacesetters understand the need for experts in math and statistics, but also recognize the need to
blend these skills with business knowledge
2.9x
2.4x
2.5x
3.9x
4x
.4x
1.5x
1.9x
1.3x
1.9x
1.5x

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“Advanced analytics don’t work in silos; you
have to break them down. Business, IT and
mathematical data experts have to work
effectively together to produce relevant
insights.”
- James Taylor, CEO, Decision Management Solutions

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EXPERIMENTAL: Pacesetters are active at the bleeding edge of emerging
technologies
8x
6.3x
7.5x
3.6x
5.2x
4.5x
4.5x

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EXPERIMENTAL: Pacesetters are highly experimental and proactive in their
approach to IT skill development
9x
2x

The future looks bright for Pacesetters, as they are strategically positioning
themselves to capitalize on emerging technologies
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70%
building expertise for
extending social
business solutions to
mobile and
performing social
analytics
70%
building
capabilities in
mobile integration,
mobile security and
privacy, and mobile
application
development
70%
developing skills in
cloud security,
cloud
administration, and
enterprise cloud
architecture
60%
developing
capabilities in
probability, statistics,
and mathematical
modeling, and
56%
building up text
analytics expertise

How do I become a Pacesetter?
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For IT and Business Leaders For IT Practitioners
Think deep and wide when building skills
• Encourage skill development across a range of disciplines, not
just specialization within silos.
• Design diverse teams and use social tools to assemble the
right expertise at the right time.
• Extend skills mission beyond IT. Help business leaders
become smarter consumers of analytics and raise IT security
awareness enterprise-wide.
Concentrate on integrating expertise
 Deepen specialized skills while broadening knowledge across
new areas.
 Combine areas of expertise to deliver more value. For
example, apply security and privacy expertise across platforms.
 Strengthen business acumen. High-impact solutions require
knowledge of the business and marketplace, not just IT.
 Use social tools to solicit and supply needed expertise.
Sponsor sandboxes
 Give IT staff the leeway to “play” with new technologies.
 Provide infrastructure to host experimental systems; consider
cloud computing to experiment at lower risk and cost.
 Fuel innovation by crowd-sourcing ideas from your own staff.
Seek out experiential learning
 Take advantage of opportunities to try new technologies – for
example, check out downloads on IBM developerWorks.
 Experiment “in the open.” Make experimental systems available
internally, allowing quick iterative refinement.
Treat security as a business imperative
 Prioritize investments in security technology and skills
development.
 Develop strong security and privacy policies to protect
information assets.
 Collaborate with other organizations and academia on
solutions.
Make security a personal priority
 Become an expert on security and privacy within your area of
expertise.
 Better understand the global business context. Privacy laws
and cultural expectations vary by country.
 Lead the charge to design-in security from the start, not as an
afterthought.

For additional insight and discussion…
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2012 IBM Tech Trends Report: Fast track to the future

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