News

IT Predictions for 2009: The Economy Dominates

We set forth to find out what industry analysts and insiders are forecasting for 2009

By Nancy Weil, IDG News Service

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Cloudy days
Well, last year we wanted to resist an entry on virtualization; this year, it's cloud computing we'd like to deny, the two being kin and all. We agree with Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison that the jargon is "complete gibberish" and the definitions encompass that which already exists and doesn't actually need a label. But we digress -- the point is that companies will keep moving toward software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud storage models as they aim to cut costs. SaaS and cloud-based vendors will haul in new customers and post profits. Meanwhile, "private clouds" will loom on the IT horizon as companies that are less comfortable with letting someone else manage their data and provide related services set up clouds behind their corporate firewalls. Some of the more headline-grabbing merger-and-acquisition news of 2009 will occur with vendors focused on the cloud and with SaaS providers. Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. will continue to be particularly aggressive and will target smaller players in acquisition deals.

Always a step ahead
Cybercriminals will find ever more malicious ways to vex us in 2009, what with the success of infecting PDF and Flash files with malware. Ever-more-sophisticated Trojan horses will emerge in 2009 to swipe data and wreak havoc. Along those lines, sometime during the year, a major online retailer will be nailed with a serious security breach that exposes credit card numbers and personal data of thousands of customers because some people just never learn from the past.

Security vendor Finjan predicts that the number of people participating in cybercrime will continue to rise -- no surprise there -- but in a more alarming twist, it also says the increase will occur "with an increasing number of unemployed IT professionals joining in." To that end, more news headlines involving networks being held hostage by disgruntled former employees are in the offing.

About President-elect Obama
Assorted industry groups have inundated President-elect Obama with lists of what they think he should aim to accomplish as far as technology issues go, and even though the man surely has plenty on his plate to deal with, we're going to buck the notion that not much will be accomplished regarding technology or cybersecurity and the like as 2009 unfolds. We predict that a more technologically savvy president will push such issues more to the forefront than they have been. He'll trust in the first-ever U.S. CTO to run with the ball and get some real work done. Along those lines, a top priority will be shoring up U.S. federal cybersecurity defenses, and real, serious improvements will happen within the first six months of the year.