By 2018, adoption of 3rd Platform IT technologies will redefine 90% of IT roles, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
The 3rd platform is regarded as the next phase of the IT revolution. The first includes the mainframe computer, the second included the Personal Computer (PC), while the 3rd Platform is being built on mobile computing, social networking, cloud services, and Big Data analytics technologies.
The IDC hosted a webinar "IDC 2014 Predictions: CIO Agenda – Embracing 3rd Platform Leadership Challenges as IT Transitions from Technology to Service Delivery" highlighting the top 10 market predictions for the year ahead.
Featuring analysts David McNally, Joseph Pucciarelli, Dr. Ron Babin and Fred Magee, the session provided insight on long-term industry trends along with new themes that may be on the horizon that will most impact the role of the CIO.
The IDC noted that while the 3rd Platform of mobile, social, big data, and cloud services is just beginning to mature, it will require an entirely different set of IT skills and roles — many of which are yet to be invented.
Fred Magee, adjunct research advisor with IDC's Research Network, said: "We believe there are clear indicators that the existing role of technology management will evolve in a few short years to a set of roles that includes management of innovation, information intelligence, customer experience, and digital business presence. It's going to be an exciting decade."
The Top 10 Predictions include:
- In two years, over 70% of CIOs will change their primary role from directly managing IT to become an innovation partner;
- Before 2017, only 40% of CIOs will rise to the challenge from CxOs to partner in strategic planning;
- 70% of CIOs will increase enterprise exposure to risk;
- Enterprise business mobility will require 60% of CIOs by 2017 to support an agile architecture;
- The demographic shift to young and mobile customers will require 80% of CIOs in consumer-facing businesses to integrate IT with public social networks by 2015;
- By 2015, 3rd Platform requirements will drive 60% of CIOs to use enterprise architecture (EA) as a required IT tool, but only 40% will deploy EA effectively;
- By 2015, 60% of CIO security budgets for increasingly vulnerable legacy systems will be 30-40% too small to fund enterprise threat assessments;
- By 2017, the transfer of 3rd Platform investments from IT to line-of-business budgets will require 60% of CIOs to reduce the cost of infrastructure and operations;
- By 2016, 80% of the IT budget will be based on providing service integration;
- By 2018, adoption of 3rd Platform IT technologies will redefine 90% of IT role
