Posted on
More from News
IT professionals must regularly adapt to an ever-changing operating environment, so what overriding trends and developments should they be mindful of as 2017 approaches?
Automation
With data centres having to manage increasingly large and complex data sets, and organisations needing to stay as agile and responsive as ever, IT managers cannot run the risk of avoidable errors creeping into the process. While upskilling is inevitably required in the face of technical advancement, businesses are also moving towards automating as many processes as possible, so the workload is more manageable and mistakes are less likely to occur.
Data segregation
With more and more people using their own smartphones and laptops to work remotely, the IT department has to keep up with the technology available on the consumer market and ensure personal and business data and applications can be kept wholly separate. Otherwise, there is a problem related to the next issue we'll cover…
Security
Security now means more than simply ensuring laptops are password protected. With innovations such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and many gadgets all being linked to a single network, technology has to be hackproof, so it can't be misused and sensitive data won't fall into the wrong hands. This can be tricky in light of the number of people who will be accessing corporate data and applications on their own devices, so a tight security procedure needs to be put in place and enforced.
More IoT
This market is only set to grow, with billions of devices set to be web-enabled in the next few years around the globe. The data they will be able to gather could be invaluable for so many reasons, but this means whoever is collecting and interpreting the information must improve their storage and maintenance infrastructure accordingly.
Big data skills
As we alluded to earlier, organisations are gathering ever larger data sets and using technology to identify patterns and trends that could inform their next actions. After all, understanding human behaviour and interactions can be critical when determining what to offer people and how best to engage with them. Businesses must therefore do more than install new data architectures that can cope with information updating in real-time. They must also ensure they have the necessary skills in house to analyse big data and extract meaningful insights from the mass of statistics on offer.
Technology never stands still - so no IT department can afford to do the same.
