It’s hard to peer into a crystal ball and predict what will be the top trends for government technology, but that’s exactly what the experts at IDC Insights have done.
Thom Rubel is the Vice President for Research at IDC Government Insights. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that 2013 will be an interesting year.
Operational Efficiencies: “Government is focused on getting the costs down around the business of government. Having less money in your IT budget is the new normal and agencies should get used to it. In the last 10 – 15 years there has been tremendous investment in IT infrastructure. Now the budget is more focused on services. Services like the cloud and software as a service. These efficiences will help bring costs down and streamline the process,” said Rubel.
Mobility: “The question for mobility in 2013 will be, ‘what are mobile devices doing to change government both for the workforce and for citizens?’ Technology is really pushing the business and proliferation of smartphones and tablets. Agencies are going to be focused on an engagement strategy. Not everyone needs to travel with a full laptop so there will also be a focus on who needs what,” said Rubel.
BYOD
- Stop over-investing in technology people don’t need. Field workers might just need a tablet and not a full laptop.
- Keep people happy and engaged. Apps are often more robust than the technology they have on their desktops.
Cloud Computing: “Cloud permeates almost everything. Government is still trying to figure out data center consolidation. But from an agency standpoint cloud is growing faster than many experts expected. They just see the value of even using cloud for apps and devices and proliferation of big data,” said Rubel.
Cybersecurity: “Cyber has been ramped up tremendously over the past year, particularly around mobile devices. The other big area of growth is in managed security service. And I know what you are thinking that is heresy for government. But getting security services from vendors is more an option now than ever before,” said Rubel.