If you were to ask observers of the information technology industry what the most important trends shaping IT are, a standard answer would be based on what might be called a classical analysis. This analysis would start with an evaluation of trends in microprocessor technology, the basic building block of systems, which would yield insights using Moore’s Law.
The analysis would then proceed in linear fashion — the direction of operating systems, database technology, and storage systems; the extension of computing access to more and more individuals as a result of price/performance improvements as well as such developments as wireless mobility; and the growth of bandwidth to enable greater and greater connectivity. Eventually, you would be talking about delivery models such as the cloud and software as a service.
This analysis is certainly sound and one that can offer reasonable predictions. But there are other ways to look at trends in IT that can perhaps shed a different light on where we need to go with this increasingly pervasive influence on individuals, organizations, and market behavior.
In a recent blog posting on the Hewlett-Packard website, HP Fellow Kas Kasravi suggested that three of the most important trends in IT are visibility of information, automation of routine tasks, and the simplification of systems. Visibility, of course, has to do with enabling greater access to information, and, according to Kasravi, touches such things as bandwidth, security, and content management. The automation of mundane tasks, he notes, has resulted in self-healing systems, policy-based management, and machine learning.