The 2011 Tech Trends Report surveyed more than 4,000 Information Technology (IT) professionals from 93 countries and 25 industries who provided their views on future IT trends. The results also show a growing need for technical skills in the areas of business analytics, social business, mobile computing, open source technologies and cloud computing. Read the report at: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/techtrendsreport, share your opinions at #TechTrends and see what IBM experts are saying about the findings at: www.youtube.com/IBMEcosystem

According to the report, business analytics software is the most widely used technology of those surveyed. In fact, business analytics software is being incorporated in almost every business process within organizations. Forty-two percent of respondents believe that business analytics will continue to be in demand for software development. The report also outlines the growing importance of open source platforms such as Apache Hadoop and Linux for business analytics software developers.

The report provides IT and business professionals a roadmap of the technologies and skills that will be in greatest demand in the coming years. Key findings in the 2011 IBM Tech Trends Report include:

• Eighty-seven percent of respondents believe open source and open standard technologies will play a key role in the future of application development.
• During the next two years more than 75 percent of organizations will engage in cloud computing.
• Fifty-one percent of respondents cited the adoption of cloud technologies as part of their mobile strategy.
• Regional cultural differences impact social business adoption. India is strongly embracing social business with a 57 percent adoption rate, followed by the US with a 45 percent adoption rate and China with a 44 percent adoption rate. Russia shows the strongest resistance with a 19 percent adoption rate.

“The results are clear. Mobile computing, cloud computing, social business and business analytics have gone beyond niche status and are now part of any modern organization’s core IT focus,” said Jim Corgel, general manager ISV and Developer Relations, IBM. “IT professionals who can develop the skills needed to work across these technologies will be ready to meet growing business demand in the coming years.”

IBM developerWorks, the company’s online community for IT professionals is the industry’s largest and most visited global site for them to gain technology skills. More than eight million IT professionals have visited the community to gain no-cost access to software tools and code, IT standards and best practices across various industries. Visitors also tap skills training in open technologies, business analytics, cloud computing and mobile computing, among others. In addition, IBM Business Partners and entrepreneurs can access advanced training and resources at IBM’s network of 40 Innovation Centers around the world to further build their skills.

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WebFocus Mobile provides device-specific features for the iPad, iPhone and Android-based phones and tablets, including native menus, controls and gestures, according to a statement.

In addition, the software can automatically detect a device type and screen size, then morph the views accordingly. This feature cuts down on development effort normally expended on supporting multiple device platforms, Information Builders said.

Those features seem aimed at overcoming some of the obstacles to adoption mobile BI has faced.

For one, many smartphones don’t have the right form factor for BI, notes an upcoming Forrester Research report.

“While many BI apps can easily deliver text messages, email based alerts, and even document attachments to mobile devices, truly analytical BI applications require certain amounts of screen real estate to display, interact and analyze all relevant information on a single small screen,” it states.

BI applications also involve “complex interactions” with data, such as “drill across (to another dimension), hierarchy drill down/up, drill through (to another source, to another dashboard, or to a detailed report), filter, group, pivot, rank, and sort,” the report adds. “Tiny mobile keyboards and pointing devices limit such high levels of complex interactivity.”
However, the bigger screens provided by tablet computers will change the game for mobile BI in rapid order, according to Forrester. About 30 percent of respondents to a recent survey by the firm said they have already or are planning to implement business software on tablets, and another 41 percent are interested but have no plans, the report states.

In fact, tablets will overtake standard laptops for mobile BI within three to five years, according to Forrester.

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“Depending on who you ask, there is a shortage of between 50,000 and 100,000 trained health care information technology professionals in the United States that needs to be filled over the next five years,” said Dr. Eric W. Ford, the Forsyth Medical Center Distinguished Professor at UNCG. “In addition, it’s one of the fastest growing professions, not just in the U.S. but around the world.”

The online certificate program in the Bryan School of Business and Economics is designed to meet the needs of two groups: people with clinical experience seeking to move into other aspects of health care delivery, and individuals without clinical training who want to make the transition into the health care industry. For example, there is great need for nurses knowledgeable about health care information technology in order to implement the electronic health records requirements mandated by the federal government. Having health care information technology competencies and experience will be an essential skill set for effective managers in both hospital and clinical settings.

“It’s an opportunity to work in a sector of the economy where you make other people’s lives better,” Ford said, noting it’s also a sector that is recession resistant. “The hospital never closes, so there are always jobs available.”

“Health care organizations often provide tuition support for educational programs such as the certificate to fill the need for HIT expertise,” added Dr. Lakshmi Iyer, director of graduate programs for the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management. “In addition, certificate holders can apply some of the credits earned to a master’s degree in business, information technology or nursing offered by UNCG. It is a great way to advance one’s education and create future opportunities.”

The 12-credit hour certificate, which will launch in the fall of 2011, is a flexible, online program that could be completed in one calendar year. Applicants are not required to have taken the GMAT or the GRE for acceptance into the program. Students interested in pursuing a master’s degree in information technology management can apply the certificate credits.

For more information, visit http://www.uncg.edu/bae/online/certificates.html or contact Dr. Eric Ford at ewford@uncg.edu.

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IT Management

Microsoft is among the 120 companies located in Cairo’s Smart Villages , an office park created in 2003 to be Egypt’s “prime” information technology park. It includes a health club, swimming pool, video conferencing services, a conference center and a pyramid-shaped restaurant called the “Think Tank Caf.”

Egypt’s move to block Internet access prompted Microsoft to respond. Asked about the situation in Egypt, Microsoft said in a written response to a query that it “is constantly assessing the impact of the unrest and Internet connection issues on our properties and services. What limited service the company as a whole provides to and through the region, mainly call-center service, has been largely distributed to other locations.”

Another tech firm with a presence in Smart Villages is Hewlett-Packard, which has asked it employees to stay at home .

President Barack Obama and other administration officials are urging the Egyptian government to restore Internet services and see access as a human right. “It is our strong belief that inside of the framework of basic individual rights are the rights of those to have access to the Internet and to sites for open communication and social networking,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at a briefing Friday.

Egypt’s decision to cut Internet access was apparently intended to disrupt the ability of protestors to use social networks to organize . But hi-tech companies have similar flip-the-switch abilities and can shift services in response to a natural or manmade disaster. It is almost certain that tech companies in Egypt will respond to the current uncertainty much the same way Microsoft did — if they haven’t already.

Phil Fersht, the CEO and head of research at Horses for Sources, an outsourcing research and advisory firm, said top-tier providers rely on Egyptian resources largely for call center work and software support and development. For these firms “it’s a massive, massive concern when the government shuts off the internet and all hell is breaking loose,” he said in an e-mailed response to questions.

“Egypt has proven capable as a good quality resource location for the Middle East, Africa and European regions in areas such as IT, BPO and call center services and has invested significantly in promoting its capabilities worldwide,” said Fersht. “The country has invested millions to promote its capabilities — and now that investment is looking under threat.”

Not surprisingly, the government agency responsible for hi-tech development in Egypt, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency, (ITIDA), has been offline. Efforts to reach officials by telephone, e-mail or through a Facebook account have been unsuccessful.

Fersht suggested that the current problems in Egypt could prompt hi-tech firms to re-think the risks they face in other regions.

“If situations, such as what is currently happening in Egypt, proliferate to other countries with sourcing support services, the first reaction of governments now seems to be to ‘shut off the Internet,’” said Fersht, “You have to question how this impacts ITO/BPO services that are hugely reliant on the Internet to succeed.

“The Egypt situation is a serious blow to many of the developing nations seeking to take their share of global services [that] have potentially questionable political stability,” said Fersht.

Smart Villages said that by the end of 2009 there were 28,000 professionals working at various companies in the office, and that by 2014 it expected that more than 100,000 would be working at some 500 companies.

Microsoft is one of numerous tech firms with a presence in Egypt’s Smart Villages hi-tech park. (Image: Smart Villages)

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld.

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IT Outsourcing Services

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said that on the x86 architecture, Intel and AMD will “continue their work on low-power SoC designs that fully support Windows, including support for native x86 applications.”

Microsoft made the announcement during the 2011 CES in Las Vegas. Here’s more from Microsoft’s statement.

Microsoft said it would demonstrate “the next version of Windows running on new SoC platforms from Intel running on x86 architecture and from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments on ARM architecture. The technology demonstration included Windows client support across a range of scenarios, such as hardware-accelerated graphics and media playback, hardware-accelerated Web browsing with the latest Microsoft Internet Explorer, USB device support, printing and other features.”"Intel and AMD continue to evolve and improve the x86 platforms, including new low-power systems, and advance new designs such as the recently announced 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family and AMD’s Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs). NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are joining Microsoft to provide ARM-based designs for the first time.”

Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky told conference attendees that today’s press conference was just a demonstration, so the company did not show off any new user interface, pricing, or scheduling. He said it was just a display of “hardcore engineering work.”

The news that Microsoft planned to demonstrate Windows running on ARM wasn’t much of a surprise. TechFlash previously reported agreements were in place between Microsoft and the chip makers. Mary Jo Foley over at CNET’s sister site, ZDnet, reported today that her sources tell her that Windows 8 “is just around the Milestone 2 mark, which is the second major internal build for the operating system. A public test build of Windows 8 isn’t expected by most until later this year.”

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Managed IT Support Services

Venture capitalists are bullish about the information technology sector in the new year, with investments expected to be on the rise.

But technologies focused on energy efficiency and medical devices — two areas that have gotten a lot of buzz in recent years because of Washington’s policy focus — are not the subject of as much optimism as in previous years, according to a survey released Tuesday by the National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones VentureSource.

Federal agencies have used funds designated for direct pioneering research and development in NIT for alternative purposes, such as the creation of information technology products and infrastructure expansion in support of research in other fields, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) noted.

This failure to properly prioritize NIT research and development “could seriously jeopardize America’s national security and economic competitiveness,” the Council cautioned.

“We’re investing less than we think and less than we need,” said PCAST member David Shaw, chief scientist at D.E. Shaw Research. “If America is to retain its historical position of international leadership, its funding priorities must include high risk, high reward research with the potential for producing unanticipated, truly transformative advances.”

More Transparency

The report was based on the performance of a coalition of 14 agencies participating in the federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program (NITRD). These agencies target US$4 billion annually for NIT research and development. However, much of that spending goes to NIT-related projects that support research and development in other fields.

One example cited by PCAST is the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Less than 12 percent of its top 100 funding awards totaling $600 million was spent directly on NIT research and development. The remainder went to NIT components of biomedical research projects.

The panel concluded that the absolute level of federal NIT research should be boosted by at least $1 billion per year over the current level on a variety of initiatives that would benefit such sectors as energy, healthcare, transportation and national security. Some of that funding could come from redirecting the current pattern of investment to more cutting-edge purposes, both in hardware and software, according to the report.

One reason for the imbalance in research funding is that the agencies themselves have flawed systems for properly tracking expenditures. However, a program is under way to monitor funds better.

“We committed in February of this year to improving the transparency of these programs, and we will have that up and running by next February,” Aneesh Chopra, the federal government’s chief technology officer, told TechNewsWorld at a briefing on the report.

The improved transparency will lead to better analysis and better investment decisions, he said.

Public and Private Sector Roles

The report triggered a discussion about the role of the public and private sectors in IT research. Several panelists at the briefing stressed that federal-level spending for NIT research is essential for the future development of appropriate technologies. While private sector firms can contribute somewhat in the research effort, they are not geared to investing in pioneering research and are interested in more practical research investment in NIT, they contended.

The crossover between public and private sector investments in IT research actually involves more of a balance between the two, according to one business observer.

“There is a constant challenge in finding the synergies between government and private sector research. Private companies invest a lot in IT research and most of it is related to applications whereas government has the ability to go beyond that,” Mark White, chief technology officer at Deloitte Services, told TechNewsWorld.

“But there is a connection between the two in that the private sector can utilize the results of government research, which enhances the return on investment,” he said. “The value of the NITRD program and the report is that helps to create an awareness of the roles of each sector for the greatest benefit.”

Another close observer of the federal IT research program agreed that government investments have an impact far beyond the government agencies that direct those investments.

“The private sector benefits from these investments,” Peter Harsha, director of government affairs for the Computing Research Association, told TechNewsWorld. “First, the research helps to advance technology generally — and the support to academia helps to develop the workforce needed by the IT businesses.”

Whatever the direct role is for the private sector in funding IT research, the government values the contributions that business can make in shaping the direction of research, Chopra said.

“There is a significant role for the private sector here, just as there is for the reforms the administration is initiating in information technology and procurement across the federal government,” he said. “We will be conducting outreach and seeking feedback from the private sector on the future direction of NIT research.”

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Percento Technologies: Managing Buisness IT Networks across the United States of America

Growth of online applications to replace the large capital investment, maintenance and labor to support an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure is becoming more accepted. Initial concerns a few years back about information security, system availability and reliability have been addressed. The same consumers who have become more comfortable with online banking, online shopping and social networking are the same people making IT decisions for companies. Online applications and cloud computing provide a way for companies to take small steps toward migrating from the traditional in-house data center model. Some cloud computing providers offer application hosting and fully-managed IT services for the users to provide a complete turn-key offering.

These online services generally mean that the client is free to choose their device and operating system because the service provider has to build the systems such that they are technology agnostic. Companies can make business choices based on what application is best suited to their needs rather than having to compromise due to a limitation of the technology. Web-based applications or use of applications like Citrix or Microsoft’s Virtual Desktop (formerly Microsoft Terminal Services) provide on-demand applications to any user, anywhere, on any device. Keeping up with hardware maintenance, operating system licensing, patch updates, security patches, etc., are no longer issues. These are included as part of the infrastructure provided with cloud computing.

You may be asking, “What about my disaster recovery and business continuity?” With nearly all of these offerings it’s like Prego’s motto, “It’s in there.” The data resides on secured systems that are usually mirrored for hot stand-by for on-line redundancy and then backed up in at least one other remote location in the event of a catastrophic event. These data centers are generally in secure facilities with multiple levels of redundancy for power, cooling systems and network access. The cost to build systems individually for a company are usually cost prohibitive. In addition, there is support personnel available to provide assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year – including Christmas and New Year’s Day – for a fraction of what it would cost to hire a dedicated staff.

 Each company has to evaluate its own situation and decide for itself if this is the path it wants to go. More and more, they are choosing to “get out of IT” to focus on their core business. They also see the flexibility and engrained functionality of online services that can lead to better overall profitability and happier employees. Your choice of a solid IT provider who partners with your business for the long-term is the first and most critical decision in the process. Look for one that has been in the business a while, has a strong reputation in the industry, and has strong references with companies that are of similar size or business model so you know they understand how to best align with you.

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For info on Percento’s Managed IT Services….Click

Located in the heart of the modern business environment at Smart Village, the six hundred acre business park on the outskirts of Cairo, ITIDA is a self sustainable entity that drives the IT industry in Egypt and raises awareness among the Egyptian people of the benefits and use of ICT to advance socio-economic welfare of the whole community.

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