Back to the future: new buzz-phrases, familiar problems

2012 may have been a red-letter year for UK public events, but how has it been so far for the technology sector?

2012 has been a year of unprecedented extremes: economic meltdown and heightened political tensions across the world, combined with national pride, achievement and celebration within the UK. An unforgettable year by any standards, the legacy of which needs careful management as the UK economy struggles to find the path to recovery.

For the technology sector, 2012 has been characterised by some old ideas being repackaged in innovative ways, as new enabling technologies become available. One idea - DNA as a data storage medium - is as old as life itself, but in August 2012 DNA was used to encode the contents of an illustrated book and a computer program - the biggest dataset yet stored in this way.

With costs falling and one gramme of DNA able to store a theoretical 455 billion gigabytes of data, according to the journal Science, the technology may emerge as a viable alternative to conventional digital storage within a decade. Its advantages include remaining readable over thousands of years - not to mention being a technology that has been tried and tested since life began on the planet.

IP, therefore I am

"Old ideas" were also at the centre of multibillion-dollar patent lawsuits in 2012 between Apple and Samsung, Apple and Google, Google and Oracle, Oracle and HP, and numerous others, while a raft of patents owned by former giants such as AOL, Kodak and others changed hands throughout the year.

All of these market manoeuvres demonstrated that intellectual property (IP) is everything in the technology sector - even if the peer-to-peer business models that the industry supports challenge some traditional concepts of IP ownership and licensing.

For the vendors, there is much at stake: Google's search, mapping and online application dominance is being given an own-branded hardware front end with the Nexus 7 tablet, while its Android OS powers market-leading mobile devices. In the commercial marketplace, Samsung's mobile hardware battle with Apple has been tilting in Samsung's favour in terms of market share, although Apple owns the OS and apps as well as the hardware. Meanwhile, the debut of Microsoft's Surface "tablet with a keyboard" - derided by some when it was announced - could yet win the enterprise, thanks to Microsoft's massive installed base within organisations.

Facebook - globally dominant as a social platform - proved to be an IPO in search of a business model in 2012, a self-made stock-bubble that deflated to (at the time of writing) nearly half of its opening-day value.

That said, Facebook remains a dark horse in enterprise technology terms: its App Center launched in summer 2012, with rumours of own-branded hardware to come. A platform that up to one-fifth of the world's population chooses to use every day should never be discounted in terms of business, organisational and networking potential.

In 2012 some age-old technology decisions have once again been on IT leaders' agendas, as platform, hardware and operating system choices moved to the forefront of the enterprise technology buyers' market once more - choices that many IT leaders thought had been made once and for all in the 1990s.

If the switchback caught some UK IT strategists unawares, then it was through no fault of their own. Since the late 1990s, industry analysts had collectively been promising a future of seamless, internet-driven services delivered over platform-agnostic devices - a vision, in other words, in which the application was everything, and the underlying hardware platforms or operating systems were largely irrelevant.

That vision seemed to come to pass in the first decade of the new century when the strategic business focus shifted to the cloud - infrastructure, platforms and software delivered as a service over public, private or hybrid networks. In 2012, these technologies continue to gather momentum.

In the cloud version of enterprise computing, the choice of which hardware device and operating system to use to access on-demand services seemed to be superfluous, given that it was - on the surface, at least - simply a matter of users opening their browsers to access complementary storage, computing power and applications. "The cloud" seemed to be synonymous with the internet, and so promised an end to shrink-wrapped software and all the licensing restrictions that came with it.

Not only that, but well over 90 per cent of legacy enterprise systems had a desktop, Windows-based front end. So what choice was there left to make? That battle had long ago been won by Microsoft and the commodity PC manufacturers, leaving Linux and Apple's MacOS trailing far behind.

Vendor lock-in, cloud-style

Of course, the reality is rather different: there is no one "cloud", but many. And once the vapourware and hype were swept away from on-demand platforms and services, it became clear to IT leaders that most cloud computing services simply represented a new form of vendor- and platform lock-in to rented datacentres. Hardly the free, unfettered access to a world of enterprise-class services that the marketing spiels of Salesforce.com and others had suggested.

Back to the future: new buzz-phrases, familiar problems

2012 may have been a red-letter year for UK public events, but how has it been so far for the technology sector?

Oracle had long understood the hard(ware) reality behind the cloud, but in 2012 even its famously anti-cloud CEO Larry Ellison uttered the "c"-word and rebranded a range of hosted Oracle applications as "Oracle Cloud", firing the latest salvo in a long-running war of words with SAP, Salesforce.com, HP and others.

These cloud skirmishes were backed with billions of dollars of cash as rival enterprise giants went on an acquisition spree in 2011-12 for a range of cloud pure-plays in the CRM, talent management, HR and social media management spaces. These included RightNow, Taleo and SuccessFactors.

With Oracle not just throwing its hat into the ring but moving the entire ring towards itself, some uncomfortable facts about enterprise cloud applications, platforms and infrastructure services became apparent: for IT leaders, it was all going to be about lock-in and old-fashioned licensing terms once again.

Oracle's battles aside, the underlying choice facing IT leaders in 2012 remains a significant one, which has been complicated by pressure from the consumer technology sector - pressure that is now being felt both outside and inside the enterprise.

The idea of vendor lock-in is at the core of this choice, given that a broad range of operating systems and hardware platforms is again available, with each representing, in effect, a "walled garden" of computing platform and hosted applications.

A plethora of platforms

In short, the desktop PC and Microsoft's Windows family of operating systems and applications (together with its cloud-based services, including the new Outlook.com, launched in summer 2012) are no longer the only game in town.

Also on the block are: the rejuvenated Apple with its Mac and iOS operating systems, its AppStore, cloud storage platform and extensible family of mobile and desktop devices; Google's platform, hosted applications, Android operating system and (since 2012) own-brand hardware; and enterprise dark horse Amazon's ecosystem of enterprise cloud infrastructure services, given a low-cost, hardware front end in the form of the Kindle and Kindle Fire.

This potential to shift away from Windows and the desktop did not begin in 2012, of course. It had been gathering pace outside the organisation for years as the increasing availability and affordability of mobile devices, high-speed broadband to the home, domestic Wi-Fi, and 3G and 4G networks allowed data-intensive applications and communications to shift away from the old Microsoft-enabled desktop model.

As Computing has covered throughout 2012, the debate about whether fibre to the home (FTTH) or fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) offered superior broadband networking speeds - and which represents the right solution for UK plc - remains ongoing.

Some analysts expressed the view that the UK has been tinkering with its legacy tele-coms infrastructure rather than truly investing in its future. In either case, the intensity of the debate reveals how important high-speed networking is for both the enterprise and for the domestic consumer - who is, after all, also the enterprise's customer.

But back to the choice facing IT leaders. This shift back to questioning which computing platform to choose gathered pace with the advent of the iPhone and its Windows and Android-powered rivals, and then intensified further as the iPad popularised the tablet concept - variations of which had been around for almost as long as the laptop.

Factor in the availability of ultra-low-cost, ultra-portable Linux netbooks and suddenly the computing landscape looked very different to the "dumb terminal, free internet" future that many analysts had been predicting.

Business devices get personal

In 2012, the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon in many organisations revealed the extent of the change that had been taking place outside the enterprise. Indeed, in 2012 BYOD brought it right to the desk of many employees in the organisation, as some favoured using their own smartphones, Android devices, iPhones or iPads - technologies they felt comfortable with - in preference to (or in addition to) their corporate desktops.

Included in this scenario are other technologies such as hosted virtual desktops, HTML5 and silicon anode batteries, according to an August 2012 report published by analyst firm Gartner. Although all these technologies and trends "need to mature for the scenario to become the norm", said Gartner, HTML 5, hosted virtual networks and silicon anode batteries are "particularly strong tipping point candidates".

Back to the future: new buzz-phrases, familiar problems

2012 may have been a red-letter year for UK public events, but how has it been so far for the technology sector?

The spread of mobile working, flexible work-ing and working from home have fur-ther blurred the distinction between "home" and "office" in 2012, with many employees fielding work calls and emails while commuting, travelling to meetings, or checking their messages in cafés. It is inevitable that employees will use their own devices at some point to access corporate communications and, in many cases, applications.

So where does this leave IT strategists? Considered against the double-dip recession in the UK and the likely double dip across continental Europe, few organisations can afford to abandon their massive Windows installed base and legacy and simply go with the flow - not to mention risk the security of core data. This means that, while Microsoft has lagged a long way behind in terms of consumer technology innovation in recent years, its huge estate within the enterprise means it can bide its time and release technologies into it at commodity prices.

Redmond's riposte

Support for Windows XP is being discontinued in two years' time, and so many organisations face the choice of which version of Windows to upgrade to: the familiar-looking 7, the soon-to-be-launched 8 - or neither.

Inspired by the success of Google's Android and Apple's iOS-powered iPad and iPhones, Microsoft plans to use a combination of its Modern UI (formerly Metro) mobile interface and Windows 8 to unite its desktop and mobile operating systems - a key benefit for corporate device management within the enterprise.

The device at the epicentre of the move - the Surface - aims to combine the portability and flexibility of a tablet with the keyboard interface of a laptop or desktop. This is hardly an innovation; ultrabooks with detachable keyboards already exist, while third-party peripherals have long been available for the iPad, but the Surface makes the keyboard integral.

The concept, and others like it, will appeal to many enterprise buyers for two reasons: the price points are typically low and, despite their popularity, the touchscreen interface and lack of physical key-boards makes other tablets unsuitable for standard office tasks. Hybrid tablet/laptop devices are an attractive third way - and Windows 8 may be the enterprise clincher.

Linked with this choice is the question of how far IT departments should go to (officially) sanction and support collaborative tools, remote working, mobile computing, social platforms and BYOD. The question has strategic social elements as well, given that the next generation of school leavers are all children of the internet, mobile and social media ages.

Getting down with the kids

For young people still at earlier stages of their education, the small, ultra-low-cost Raspberry Pi computer debuted in 2012, and is being positioned as a way to "switch on the lightbulb" for the next generation of potential programmers - a generation for whom computer science is being rethought in terms of how and why it is taught.

In 2012, the government opted (as with other parts of its policy-making) to leave computer science education decisions up to local innovation. This met with mixed reactions from the technology community. Some saw it as signalling a much-needed move away from teaching office-related tasks, while others saw it as creating a division between schools that could afford to teach computer science and those that could not - a move that could leave the UK adrift in terms of its future high-tech competitiveness.

But mobile computing truly came of age in 2012, with the extent to which rich media content is being consumed on mobile devices revealed by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The BBC reported that 12 million, out of a total of 106 million, requests for online Olympic video content in the first two weeks of August were from smartphones, along with 30 per cent of all weekday browser activity on London 2012 websites.

At weekends, the browser percentage increased to 40 per cent - nearly on a par with desktop and laptop PCs. Tablets, games consoles and smart TVs together formed 13 per cent of weekend browser activity on London 2012 sites, added the report.

The much-reported emptiness of London during the first two weeks of August also revealed the extent to which people were working from home.

The implications of all this are clear: IT leaders need to address the strong trends towards BYOD, mobile and flexible working, both operationally in the short term and strategically in the medium to long terms.

Thinking big about data

Big data and analytics have also been big talking points in 2012, with analysts at Gartner identifying both as being among the fastest-movers along their Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies.

Gartner's Hype Cycle concept has been used since 1995 to highlight what the analyst firm calls common patterns of "over-enthusiasm, disillusionment and eventual realism" that accompany incoming technology innovations. The tipping-point technologies in 2012 that will make an overall "big data" scenario accessible include cloud computing and in-memory database management systems, says the report. A variety of in-memory innovations debuted in 2012, including SAP HANA.

However, Computing's inaugural Big Data Summit in June 2012 found that big data is far from hype and far from being a mere technology problem requiring technology solutions - at least, according to a broad range of private and public sector speakers, including leading academics, entrepreneurs and CIOs.

The defining aspects of big data are the "three Vs": volume, variety and velocity. From a technology standpoint, in other words, big data is characterised not only by its size, but also by the numerous types of data, together with the speed at which they are acquired and analysed.

However, for business there is a fourth "V", and it is the overriding one: value. For IT leaders, therefore, the core challenge in 2012 is what is has always been for the IT department: adding real strategic value to the business, and not just being an enabler, a patcher, and a maintenance team.

An old idea, but as with so much in 2012, one that has been given a radical new context.