Publishing end-of-year predictions has become de rigueur for anyone with an opinion and a blogging platform. Few of these predictions are founded in any scientific analysis with any degree of statistical confidence. They’re raw, intuitive reflection, expression and judgment based on unique experience and points of view.
But as we’ve learned in the age of social everything, there’s wisdom in the crowds.
If you were to analyze the hundreds of predictions for IT that will hit the blogosphere over the coming weeks, the truth for 2011 would probably emerge.
That’s why I think this is an exercise worth continuing—not because you uniquely value my point of view or because I’ve cornered the market on vision—but because it contributes in a small but equally important way to our insights for 2011.
It’s also why I look forward to this time of year—to offering my predictions and, more importantly, reading those of others.
So, as my contribution to the crowd, here are my IT predictions for 2011:
Prediction #1. Private cloud proliferates – The second half of 2010 was all about the private cloud. The rise of the public cloud brought new clarity and focus for the CIO, who recognized that, without a transformation in its delivery models, IT organizations would be disrupted and perhaps disintermediated by the speed, flexibility and economy of public cloud services. In 2011, we’ll see widespread investment in private cloud projects, as IT leadership defines the reference architecture for next-generation IT delivery models.
I’ll post my second prediction tomorrow. In the meantime, what do you think?
