1165RA CES Underscores Maturity of Cloud+Mobility, Spotlights Changing Roles for IT Popular
Authors: Bruce Guptill, Charlie Burns
One result of the continual consumerization of IT, including Mobility, BYOD, and Cloud, is that the Annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas often is an indicator of significant change or improvement in IT.
Last year, we examined how core CES trends, especially as regards usage of technologies, are a leading indicator of enterprise IT and business change (1008RA, Live From CES: Four Usage Trends Shaping Enterprise IT Right Now, 12Jan2012).
This year, the majority of announcements and demonstrations that we see at CES are what could be considered “marginal” or “incremental,” rather than game-changing or even game-influencing. The most significant trend we see is that of consolidation, maturation, and stabilization of technologies, devices, and services. And that’s mostly good news for enterprise IT and the providers serving enterprise IT groups and users.
The “mostly good” part is that a lack of significant technological changes in consumer electronics indicates a plateau, or perhaps more accurately a breathing period, for enterprise IT and for the providers supporting and enabling significant change drivers like Mobility and Social IT. Such a breathing period will be very helpful in helping to learn, and improve their ability to manage, the amazingly disparate swath of user-led IT devices, services, and other innovations that has proliferated in enterprise IT over the past few years.
The perhaps not-quite-good news, especially for enterprise IT groups and leaders, is that the lack of news doesn’t mean that the user/consumer-led revolution is over. It’s just catching its collective breath. So IT leaders and providers have to work fast over the next 12 to 24 months to organize, coordinate, learn, and especially to optimize the business value of what’s already been unleashed.