As 2012 comes to a close, IT management faces a broader array of decisions than ever before. At InfoWorld we're in the process of culling the most important choices to consider -- and we're asking for your input.
What are the key technologies that you're considering adopting or phasing out? How will you go about making those choices? Let us know -- either in the comments below, through Twitter, or via email if you'd prefer confidentiality -- and we'll address those questions head-on in an in-depth article set to publish early next year.
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Here's a quick summary of the trends and developments that have led to our current crossroads. This is just a partial list in no particular order, but it may provide some inspiration:
- Technology organizations have felt the sting of the consumerization of IT, where users who can't get what they want from the IT department go get it from Amazon Web Services or a Verizon store.
- New cloud choices are proliferating at an astonishing rate, as major challenges to Amazon emerge and new PaaS (platform as a service) options pop up every week.
- The boom in app dev won't quit. We've gone from worrying every programming job was going offshore to wondering where we'll ever find enough developers. Maybe software really will eat the world.
- Who would have guessed it? New NoSQL choices are making databases one of the hottest areas of technology.
- Network virtualization has arrived, raising the possibility of the software-defined data center.
- Conventional security solutions are proving themselves inadequate and overengineered at the same time.
- The OpenStack consortium gathered steam, as Eucalyptus, Microsoft, and VMware vied to get in on the ground floor of customers' private clouds.
- The big data drumbeat grew louder, but outside of big Web properties like eBay and Facebook and a smattering of verticals, who's going all in?
- Windows 8 landed with a great, big, Vista-like thud.
- Thanks to NoSQL databases, Hadoop, OpenStack, and more, open source has become a greater force than ever in the industry.
Through all of this has been a sense that the "old IT" -- of overengineered solutions, aging technology, and elaborate procedures -- is under siege. But clear alternatives have not necessarily presented themselves, other than disgruntled users finding their own solutions.
Changes in enterprise technology always take longer than you think they will. And yet, an uncertain economy notwithstanding, we're betting you'll have some interesting technology decisions on your plate come Jan. 2, 2013. Tell us all about them.
This article, "Your key technology decisions for 2013," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Eric Knorr's Modernizing IT blog. And for the latest business technology news,follow InfoWorld on Twitter.