IDC Directions 2010
I attended IDC’s Direction event this Wednesday. If you have ever been there, you know how interesting and insightful those presentations are. I have always enjoyed that show. I was quite impressed last year with a set of general sessions that really set the bar pretty high. This year was even better. In particular the break-out sessions were outstanding. That is quite an endorsement… And for those that know me, I do not give anyone a free pass.
I enjoyed seeing our “regular” analysts, that cover Decision Management — Steve Hendrick, Dan Vesset (1) and Henry Morris. But in this post, I will focus on the “other” stuff that was presented by the other analysts.
General Sessions: where we are at, where we’re headed
I missed some of the general sessions due to parking overload. I got a few nuggets though out of those presentations.
The Cloud stuff was pretty expected of course. Cloud is the big thing. If you’ve not been lots on a remote Pacific island without any kind of communication, you know that. The particularly interesting validation exposed by Frank Gens was the market readiness. He emphasized how ready the market was for Mainstream Markets. We have partially crossed the chasm — many if not most vendors have a Cloud strategy, technology has matured significantly. The other half now is the wider customer adoption. Although Cloud represents only 10% of the 2013 worldwide IT revenue projections, according to IDC, the expectation is that it will represent close to 25% of the growth during that period. In a nutshell, it is not IF, it is WHEN! If you do not want to be obsolete, jump in the bandwagon.
Rick Nicholson (2) painted also a very exciting picture of Smart Cities.
“The 19th century was a century of empires, the 20th century was a century of nation states, the 21st century will be a century of cities”
— Wellington Webb, former Mayor of Denver
Rick went over an impressive list of city services or activities that will expand dramatically thanks to intelligent technologies and business models. He justified the interest in that topic with the expected sustainably argument but he added compelling arguments regarding economic development and research opportunities. Each aspect (Energy, Communication, Transportation, Financial Services, Retail, etc.) was discussed with drivers and concrete examples of opportunities. Austin and Amsterdam were featured as good examples of smart cities. This Urbanization talk was quite compelling and may indeed remain on the agenda for a few more years if not more.
Outstanding break-out sessions
I could not possibly attend all sessions of course… With 8 different tracks, Directions was full of options. The most outstanding track, given my current interests as a Twitter addict and Facebook regular, was obviously Social Media.
In the IDC Prediction post (3) I mentioned earlier, Mike Fauscette covered the Social Transformation. The sessions in track 6 were as good. Karsten Weide (4) provide numerous “just off the press” stats about social media around the world and some suggestions on how to approach it. That was quite entertaining. Mary Wardley’s presentation on Employee, Customer and Partner relationships (5) provided many datapoints on usage of consumer or corporate social media technology. I particularly enjoyed her emphasis on transparency and trust. Cause or consequence, I agree that social media is a contributor. Once again, the message was that we are crossing the chasm. Although there is a lot we do not know and as a result we should be ready to adapt, Social Media is, like Cloud, a must-have.
Tweetup
The day ended with the new standard tweetup of modern shows. We certainly had a great time, as well as fantastic company — among them Mike Fauscette and the infamous Carter Lusher (SageCircle)(6). The highlight of the evening may have been the Bump (7)application for iPhone. Have you tried? A lot of fun!
Links:
- http://bit.ly/ciq9RZ
- http://bit.ly/cexwug
- http://bit.ly/cw41l6
- http://bit.ly/ayBFpT
- http://bit.ly/bTrh1k
- http://sagecircle.com/
- http://bit.ly/dr1ODw
I cover more about IDC in IDC Software Predictions for 2010
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