Big Data and BYOD (bring your own device to workplaces) are the most prominent trends cited by India’s CIOs that will be seen this year, according to a recent survey released by Dell (News - Alert). The survey shows that almost 60 percent of CIOs cited these two areas when looking at 2014.
The results are not surprising. BYOD is a challenge for businesses throughout much of the world. Late last year, Gartner (News - Alert) predicted that through 2018, BYOD will lead to a doubling or even tripling of the size of the mobile workforce. This means organizations need to enact/update policies on employee-owned hardware. The policies will need to address such concerns as flexibility, confidentiality and privacy, Gartner said.
When it comes to Big Data, it is a lucrative and promising field for many businesses globally. CSC (News - Alert) predicts that this year new Big Data infrastructure found at many companies will be put to use. Given the explosion in the amount of data, businesses will increasingly want to analyze that data to make better decisions. It is especially useful when businesses want to spot trends in a market, about their customers, or even about the company itself.
Meanwhile, back to the CIO survey, when it comes to significant challenges, budget concerns were not at the top of the Dell survey. Instead, lack of talent was the most significant challenge faced by CIOs in India. Some 21 percent of those taking the survey listed it as a major challenge. That same concern has been cited in places like the United States – and has been one of the reasons for a renewed U.S. emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) instruction at high schools and colleges.
Second in the CIO survey were security threats and changing business priorities (which both had 19 percent.) Third were lack of budgets and businesses not brought into technology (which both had 14 percent).
Among the other significant trends for this year identified by CIOs were data center transformation (cited by 19 percent) and desktop virtualization (cited by 19 percent).
The survey results are an important tool for companies to plan their tech needs for this year – and could have an impact well beyond India. “We make it our business at Dell to understand the individual requirements of our customers and thereby enable them to do more with the products and solutions we offer,” Ravi Bharadwaj, executive director, APJ-End User Computing & India Marketing, Dell India, said in a statement. “The ‘India’s Best CIO Mega Trends 2014’ survey is an initiative in this direction aimed at deriving a better understanding of the challenges and priorities of CIOs in today’s complex IT environment.”
The survey included over 50 CIOs from the retail, insurance, infrastructure and pharma sectors. Dell and the CIO Association of India conducted the survey.