IT “super themes” for 2012 highlight start-up ideas

The IT “super themes” of 2012 highlight business opportunities for start-ups, experts say, including improved data security and third-party applications for new social enterprise platforms.

According to technology analyst firm Ovum, big data analytics, security and cloud computing will be three of the most significant drivers of technological change in 2012.

Ovum chief analyst Tim Jennings says the adoption of new smart devices and web services is accelerating, widening the gap between user expectations and the services being delivered.

With an increase in the number of employee-owned devices being used in the workplace, data security and best practice will remain a top concern for businesses in 2012, Ovum says.

Organisations will need to protect and secure corporate information, whilst also providing access to corporate data on self-provisioned devices.

“Only businesses considering the opportunities that each trend presents, and the challenges that exist, will ensure that they remain at the forefront of their respective industries,” Jennings says.

Ovum’s key IT predictions for 2012 open up opportunities for start-ups:

2012 will be the year of PaaS

Organisations’ approach to cloud will shift from a low level infrastructure-as-a-service/cost-cutting discussion to a higher level platform-as-a-service discussion.

Access to innovative mobile, social and collaborative apps, underpinned by analytics and management reporting, will drive adoption.

New data sources create transformation opportunities

Applying analytics to social media, machine-to-machine and location data will create new business opportunities, and drive investment in BI and data warehousing infrastructure.

Mobility multiples data leakage points

The use of employee-owned devices will continue to grow the number of data leakage points for enterprise.

This will continue to drive the need for more rigorous penetration testing and advanced MDM capabilities.

Rapid growth in social enterprise platforms

The social networking market will not see any major disruption to its current growth trajectory in 2012. Facebook will continue to drive the evolution of employee communications.

However, as Facebook has turned its social networking service into a platform, there will be a growing focus on the development of third-party applications for new social enterprise platforms such as Jive and Yammer.

Ovum expects to see innovative new services pushed into the enterprise through this channel by new market entrants.

Mobile apps continue to prosper

Consumers’ ever-increasing reliance on mobile devices will see mobile apps in both the commercial and public sectors mature to become a lever for change and innovation in 2012.

The debate over native apps versus browser-based apps will continue to be driven by the growing exploitation of HTML5 and CSS5.