12-20-12 | Blog Post
As 2012 comes to a close, we look with optimism to 2013 as Gartner predicts that worldwide IT spending will surpass $3.7 trillion dollars next year. According to Peter Sondergaard, senior VP at Gartner, we will see a new trend of spending outside of IT departments. “Every budget is an IT budget,” said Sondergaard during the annual Gartner Symposium/ITexpo.
The major influencers are corporate-wide adoptions of cloud computing, big data projects and use of mobile technologies. Sondergaard gives the examples of how sales departments are using cloud-based CRM packages and marketing departments are increasing social media use. This trend will only accelerate as different departments adopt more and more cloud and mobile technologies.
With growing technology demands, Gartner analysts also predict that 1.9 million IT jobs will be created in the United States by 2015. Sondergaard believes that only one-third of job positions will be filled due to a lack of skilled applicants. So in the upcoming years, CIOs will be tasked with both supporting cloud and mobile technologies while developing their workforce.
These predictions solidify the importance for CIOs to look at outside data centers for colocation, managed servers and cloud hosting. If outside department demands accelerate as Gartner thinks, IT departments will be challenged with trying to support multiple departments as well as their own demanding IT projects – and doing all of this with a lower skilled workforce.
Outsourcing your data center allows your IT team to focus on your business support needs and not focusing on managing a data center. You automatically can have a fully knowledgeable support team that is in charge of your managed dedicated servers.
Colocation providers have the staff that understands data security, high availability, and the strict HIPAA and PCI policies, procedures and compliance regulations. With someone else managing your data center, your IT staff team can spend time developing applications and supporting corporate wide needs and initiatives.
As we come to a close on 2012, do you agree with Gartner predictions for 2013? What are your 2013 trend predictions?
