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Gartner issues its own 2012 prediction: end of IT as we know it

By | January 13, 2010, 1:59pm PST

Which will come first: the end of the world on December 21, 2012, or one-fifth of organizations dumping their IT assets?

I don’t know about the first item, but the Mayans certainly didn’t seem to see the cloud computing wave coming. But Gartner says it did, and issued a prediction that by 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets. Gartner says this is a result of cloud and virtualization, and extends to client systems as well — employees will be using their own personal desktops, notebooks, and devices on corporate networks. In other words, all third-party ownership:

The need for computing hardware, either in a data center or on an employee’s desk, will not go away. However, if the ownership of hardware shifts to third parties, then there will be major shifts throughout every facet of the IT hardware industry. For example, enterprise IT budgets will either be shrunk or reallocated to more-strategic projects; enterprise IT staff will either be reduced or reskilled to meet new requirements, and/or hardware distribution will have to change radically to meet the requirements of the new IT hardware buying points.

No IT assets in two years?  That prediction seems pretty extreme, even for the most enthusiastic cloud-embracing enterprises. Perhaps one out of five companies will be running a majority of their applications in the cloud by then.

It’s a very plausible scenario for startups and small companies, however. As noted before at this blogsite (see “The $80 data center: cheap computing or head in the cloud?“, small companies can tap into data center power for just a few dollars a month. That’s disruptive. And, perhaps larger organizations with a lot of IT will even start making services available to outsiders. But there’s a lot of IT out there within organizations, and we’ll continue to see more, not less.

(Thanks to InfoWorld’s John Brodkin for the pointer to this release.)

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Joe McKendrick is an author, consultant and speaker specializing in trends and developments shaping the technology industry.

Disclosure

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an independent consultant, editor and speaker.

Joe has performed project work (white papers, articles, blogs, research and presentations) for the following companies in the IT marketspace:

  • CBS Interactive/CNET/ZDNet (this blog)
  • ebizQ
  • Evans Data
  • Gartner
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  • Informatica
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  • Unisphere Reseach, a division of Information Today, Inc.
  • WebLayers

Joe has also performed research work for the following sponsoring organizations in partnership with Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc.

  • IBM
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  • Oracle Corp.
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Biography

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an author and independent analyst who tracks the impact of information technology on management and markets. Joe is co-author, along with 16 leading industry leaders and thinkers, of the SOA Manifesto, which outlines the values and guiding principles of service orientation. He also speaks frequently on Enterprise 2.0 and SOA topics at industry events and Webcasts, and serves on the program committee for this year's SOA & Cloud Symposium in London. As an independent analyst, he has also authored numerous research reports in partnership with Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc. for user groups such as SHARE, Oracle Applications Users Group, and International DB2 Users Group. In a previous life, Joe served as director of the Administrative Management Society (AMS), an international professional association dedicated to advancing knowledge within the IT and business management fields. He is a graduate of Temple University.

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Umm, no ....
kingtj 25th Jan 2010
The *problem* is, people "in the know" in I.T. (EG. the people actually DOING the technical parts of I.T. like the "support specialists" and "network administrators") have LONG regarded the Gartner Group as, basically, "a load of B.S.".

They make a killing selling their opinions to management types, who like the "watered down" information they push off as facts. (It's easy to read and understand.) Gartner's track record is pretty poor, if you compare reality to their past predictions. (Didn't Gartner, just recently, proclaim the Apple iPhone as unsuitable for business use? Umm, ok... Then why do I see more and more upper-level management people carrying them around, linked up to corporate Exchange servers? Guess what? Gartner was wrong, again, on that one!)

I've worked in I.T. long enough now to confidently make my own prediction. Gartner will be DEAD WRONG on this one, too. There are simply too many variables involved in maintaining reliable connectivity for your typical home user. Businesses would rather provide the hardware, properly configured and maintained for THEIR needs, than count on employees to do so themselves.
0 Votes
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end of IT as we know it - Done!
pauldavidgilligan Updated - 13th Jan 2010
Agree but I think it has been going on for some time. Remember all that panic and cost associated with Y2K? I think business learn't then that I.T. as it was is a waste of money.

This is all linked to I.T. wastage and the questions of why I.T. projects fail that have been raised on this site.

Got people who can't do I.T. but want to keep themselves in work ? Got I.T. projects that fail and fail ?

Answer = get rid of the problem and the people.

To quote a very recent I.T. project manager friend of mine:

"I am very happy to be doing project management work with the local government on NONE-IT projects, I.T. people just get in the way. Feels go to be doing projects that actually do something."
0 Votes
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Regarding Y2K
Fred Fredrickson 13th Jan 2010
It has become popular to pour scorn on Y2K efforts because it ended up being a non-event. Anyone who worked on a Y2K project should know that it was a non-event precisely because so much time and effort was spent fixing the two year date issue.

Where I live, one bank's systems decided on new year's day that it was actually 2016. All their EFTPOS terminals and ATMs refused to work as all cards presented were considered expired - it took them several hours to realise and a day to fix it.

You can imagine the cost to thousands of retailers who couldn't process any EFTPOS payments for that day, the first for new year specials. And the inconvenience to those who tried to use their ATMs.

And that was just one small regional bank. Imagine the cost of pretty much every financial system in the world going belly-up on new years day. That is the scenario that Y2K avoided.

PS. I still have stock certificates from the troubled Merrill Lynch dated January, 1687. Clearly their Y2K effort wasn't thorough (though I still wish I'd bought MS stock back then happy ).
0 Votes
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I am rolling on the floor.
D T Schmitz 13th Jan 2010
Dietrich T. Schmitz
Amazon Web Services Provider
Well, since Google just got hacked, I still believe cloud computing is not ready for prime time.

No consumer based exit strategies for when a cloud company gets sold or goes out of business.

Security may be better implemented but it is not guaranteed so the consumer is left with somehow being blamed for a security breach but the consumer has no control of the security.

Content ownership right are still not settled.
(the stock market, aka a gamble even more ludicrous than Vegas)

It's a shame Google got hacked...
0 Votes
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I don't care much for Gartner.
CobraA1 13th Jan 2010
I don't care much for Gartner. They've got an agenda. I
consider them biased.
0 Votes
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Shoot the messenger
IT_User 14th Jan 2010
Sure, they have an agenda. Summarize and report the trends from extensive interchange with their customers. Their income is dependent on value to their clients.

Sure, you don't like what they see. I don't always like what my doctor sees.

If you like, you can discontinue the service
0 Votes
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Umm, no ....
kingtj 25th Jan 2010
The *problem* is, people "in the know" in I.T. (EG. the people actually DOING the technical parts of I.T. like the "support specialists" and "network administrators") have LONG regarded the Gartner Group as, basically, "a load of B.S.".

They make a killing selling their opinions to management types, who like the "watered down" information they push off as facts. (It's easy to read and understand.) Gartner's track record is pretty poor, if you compare reality to their past predictions. (Didn't Gartner, just recently, proclaim the Apple iPhone as unsuitable for business use? Umm, ok... Then why do I see more and more upper-level management people carrying them around, linked up to corporate Exchange servers? Guess what? Gartner was wrong, again, on that one!)

I've worked in I.T. long enough now to confidently make my own prediction. Gartner will be DEAD WRONG on this one, too. There are simply too many variables involved in maintaining reliable connectivity for your typical home user. Businesses would rather provide the hardware, properly configured and maintained for THEIR needs, than count on employees to do so themselves.
the SMBs will regret handing over their data to entities whose terms of service agreements give them a helping hand to everyone's intellectual property...
0 Votes
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You just did
IT_User 14th Jan 2010
The terms of service are inflexible. Your data is yours exclusively.

Enjoyed your fiction, by the way.
The City of Orlando recently implemented a switch from
internal e-mail to Google G-Mail. That is a great example
that clearly supports this post.
0 Votes
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There are somethings that can go
happyharry_z 13th Jan 2010
but as usual, Gartner is far too optimistic about the direction they've backed. Now a good article would be a look at the history of Gartner predictions and how they turned out.
0 Votes
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thats an excellent idea!
Been_Done_Before 13th Jan 2010
Someone should get on that. .... ZDNET!
The big guys want control over their stuff. They dont want to be subject to a buyout of their cloud hosting company to a competitor. They dont want their data anywhere it can be accessed without their permission.

Most health companies will never go for this because of the liability and i imagine any company that can be held liable will not either.

Gartner has lost its mind this time. Maybe they are correct for 10-15% of the market and i would attribute that to small businesses who dont have the funds to hold their own. I dont blame those companies, IT equipment is expensive.

I do agree with virtualization though. Through consolidation via virtualization, the server market will shrink. A SAN that fills a rack and a rack of servers is all it will take to run hundreds of virtual servers. IT closets may shrink that way. Costs will plummit from the savings due to electricity and A/C use.

Virtualization is the future and anyone not looking into it now that is in IT, will be out of it sooner than later.
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Data Issues
pauldavidgilligan 13th Jan 2010
I do of cause agree with your comment on data, but what you can see happening is that companies and governments collect more and more data but care less and less about it.

A business is there to make money and if that means off-shoring data to save money on I.T. wastage it will happen.
0 Votes
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Wow, seriously
theo_durcan 14th Jan 2010
I see the future give shills to someones, but we know the future is there, er, actually THE PRESENT is there, all banking, personal & enterprise financial data, credit information is already online & connected, replicated & cloudified at various stages.

ANYBODY CONCERNED ABOUT PRIVACY ISSUES SHOULD STOP USING EMAIL, because email is the most prevalent path of all we do, eat & love in life & our activities!

Is happening because there is ENORMOUS economies to be done, Like Orlando & many cities that are realizing that most processes can be cloudified & run at a fraction of the cost.

Bad news for the old guys!
0 Votes
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gartner?
bannedfromzdnetagain 14th Jan 2010
you mean the payed for shills which have constantly been
wrong with their predictions for more than a decade now?
pay them and they will predict what you like.
0 Votes
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Exactly!
ddmattison 14th Jan 2010
Gartner is crap! Why do they even get any press
any more?
0 Votes
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Contributr
No IT assets? I guess that means that employees will be forced to supply their own laptops, desktop systems and mobile devices. I'm not sure that will work as broadly has they suggest.

Dan K
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If they don't own the assets, ...
Spats30 14th Jan 2010
Then I'd also say they have no right/permissions
to the data held in them. That would make it
harder for companies to fire someone for having
porn on their work computer.

On the other hand, it may release the company
from the liability of saving/retrieving all
kinds of emails/data as requested by lawsuits
and subpoenas. If they don't own the hardware,
then would that force the suing company to issue
individual subpoenas to employees?
0 Votes
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You could say it
IT_User 14th Jan 2010
But it would be untrue.

Those organizations that currently own no PCs, but obtain their use by outsource "seat" contracts, rigorously enforce their use policies and respond to lawsuits, etc. They own the data, with all rights and liabilities thereto. Remember, they are paying for the use of the hardware, as you would in leasing an automobile. You don't escape responsibility by claiming no ownership.
0 Votes
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And WiFi routers and wires. (nt)
Bruizer 14th Jan 2010
NT
0 Votes
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Which one of these prediction have a better chance of coming true?

The world ending in 2012, or the end of IT as we know it in 2012.

I guess we should live it up now, cause the world ending get my vote of having a better chance.
0 Votes
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It's the End of I.T. as We Know It...
WarhavenSC 14th Jan 2010
... and I feel fiiiiiiiiiine!
Since I am scheduled to retire in 2013, all this talk of the world/it/western civ ending in 2012 is depressing the h*ll out of me!
What kind of predivtions are these?


Tracy, Velocity Fulfillment
0 Votes
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I think someone was listening to the REM song and got the lyrics mixed up. IT's role will undoubtedly change over time, but saying it will vanish is just plain silly. Come on.
0 Votes
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Maybe their new business plan is to provide support services for all the SMBs that will be using their employees' personal, malware-infested computers for their business-critical apps. Let us know how that works out for you...maybe by Twitter from your mobile phone, after all your computers are compromised and your LAN is taken offline by your upstream host happy
0 Votes
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Their employees' personal computers?
IT_User 14th Jan 2010
Please share some of what you're smoking.

The companies that currently outsource their personal computing seats don't allow employees to bring their own machines into the office. There is virtually no difference in policy between those firms that own and manage their IT assets from those that use outcome-oriented seat management contracts. Where in this article did anyone state/imply that personally-owned computers would find their into the mix?
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Don't buy it.
Bruizer 14th Jan 2010
Now, if they mean Jim's hot-dog stand counts as one
business and Microsoft counts as one business and Boeing
counts as one business, then perhaps.

But if you are talking 20% of medium to large businesses?
Not a chance. For one, have you used Google Docs? OK if
you are doing love letters.

And corporations allowing personal computers (as in
employee owned) on their networks? Lets see, in many
companies, you get fired for that right now.
0 Votes
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Yeah, this could happen
crazydanr@... Updated - 14th Jan 2010
People use their own equipment - people who have to buy their own work equipment will buy junk - $350 Dell PCs - who's going to support them when it fails? When people have questions on how to use software? When their third party software won't install and throws some cryptic exception?

And will the phone / voicemail system magically work by itself? The network too? Or does Gartner think everyone will run around on the AT&T network, uploading gigs of data.

And no customization of applications or data will occur, nobody ever does that. Permissions and accounts will be handled by HR, because they understand technology really well.

We'll all rely on the cloud for backups, business continuity and disaster recovery, security, meeting regulatory standards, and the like.

I worked with Gartner a couple years ago, they didn't have a clue then, and it seems they haven't found one yet.
0 Votes
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Note that many of the big companies, while extremely complex, have already outsourced their IT in bulk. So while this is not SaaS or Cloud, it is still a transfer of assets and operations to a 3rd party. The article, doesn't state what the starting point is today. Perhaps we are only a few percent away now.

For less complex environments, the transition to Cloud Computing will indeed happen quickly -mostly in alignment with refresh cycles. This is the low hanging fruit that is fairly easy to accomplish.

Then we really get into the mid-size, fairly complex environments. These companies typically are successful because they know how to do a niche very well and have unique systems. They also don't refresh their unique systems frequently. We could still be 'transitioning' these companies many years from now.

The bottom line:

20% is a safe bet, the other 80% could take a very very long time.


Kim Terry
www.terrosatech.com

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