Usually I am just reading in several blog posts or articles about IT trends, but this year VMware asked to write some of my predictions – so here we go. Instead of writing about all IT trends I will try to focus on end-user computing and enterprise IT.
- Mobility is still the top driver from an end-users perspective and device and app fragmentation will continue to grow in 2014.
- Hence Enterprise Mobility should be #1 focus for IT. This includes Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Mobile Content Management (MCM) which leads into Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM).
- As the market for EMM continue to grow we will see more market consolidation in 2014. Citrix bought Zenprise in 2012, IBM bought Fiberlink (MaaS360) 2013 and I guess there is more to come in 2014.
- Mobility is a driver for Desktop Virtualization, because of the installed base of Microsoft applications within the enterprise. So I believe there will be further releases for VMware Horizon (View, Thinapp, Mirage), Citrix XenDesktop and Microsoft (Server 2012 R2, MDOP etc.) to fulfill the need to bring business critical software to mobile smart devices.
- 2014 might be the marketing hype year for DaaS (Desktop as a Service). After the acquisition of Desktone from VMware in 2013, Amazon offered their own service AWS Workspace. There are plenty of different services like tuCloud even smaller ones in Germany Tocario. Citrix still lacks an own hosting, but bets on their partner ecosystem and blueprints for AWS – will see what happen in 2014 with them.
- The PC is no longer dominant, but I believe there might be a stop in the decrease of PC sales in 2014. I still believe in the value of rich clients, it is just postponed due to purchasing smart mobile devices and the misleading Microsoft strategy and Windows 8.x UX. Once this is solved we will see a constant growth in the PC market.
- As Enterprise Mobility and DaaS put high pressure to enterprise IT to become more transparent to their services. This might be a momentum for ITaaS (IT as a Service) and Workspace Aggregation which will include the shift to new cloud services like SaaS.
Overall I believe there won’t be a revolution in 2014, more an evolution of what’s already in use while improving existing technology to the next stage.
My 2cents for 2014. Additional or different thoughts? Please let me know via comments.
Patrick Sauerwein | @virtual_patrick 