IBM’s 2012 Tech Trends Report: Skills, Skills, And More Skills!

Across the four technology areas covered in the 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report – mobile, business analytics, cloud and social business – only one in ten organizations has all the skills it needs. These shortages are not trivial or isolated. Within each area, roughly one-quarter report major skill gaps, and 60 percent or more report moderate to major shortfalls.

Okay boys and girls, it’s that time of year.

No, not the time for Saint Nicholas to come shooting down your chimneys to deliver lots of tablets and smartphones for Christmas.

That time will come soon enough.

No, I’m referring to the results from IBM’s third annual Tech Trends Report, where we talk to an extended sample of technology decision makers to find out what’s on their minds.

In 2010, I explained from the results that it was all about mobile and the cloud.

Last year, the headlines centered on IBM’s Watson technology and business analytics.

This year…while we wait for the drum roll, let me first tell provide you with some background about this year’s study.

About the 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report Study

The 2012 Tech Trends Report is based on a survey of more than 1,200 professionals who make technology decisions for their organizations (22 percent IT managers, 53 percent IT practitioners, and 25 percent business professionals), and who come from 16 different industries and 13 countries (which span both mature and growth markets).

IBM also surveyed more than 250 academics and 450 students across those same countries in order to better understand how tech trends are impacting future IT professionals.

The Headlines This Year: What’s Old Is New, And What’s New Is An Emerging Skills Gap

According to this year’s survey, what’s old is new. Mobile technology, business analytics, cloud computing, and social business continue to be emergent key themes. What’s new is this: Though new and exciting business possibilities are emerging from these new capabilities, significant IT skills shortages, combined with lingering security concerns, are threatening adoption and business progress.

By way of example, the survey revealed that only one in ten organizations has all the skills it needs, and within each of the four areas previously mentioned, roughly one-quarter of respondents report major skills gaps, and 60 percent or more report moderate to major shortfalls.

The skills shortage is more acute in mature markets, with roughly two-thirds of respondents indicating moderate to major shortages versus roughly half in growth markets.

With respect to security concerns, they consistently rank as the most significant barrier to adoption across mobile, cloud computing and social business.

The report observes that IT security is not just a technology concern, however. It’s a broad business issue with far-reaching policy and process implications, and notes that moving into mobile means organizations must address the increased risk of data loss and security breach, device management challenges, and complications introduced by the growing trend toward “bring-your-own-device” (BYOD).

In cloud computing, it calls for policies on employee use of public cloud services, segregation of data within shared or hybrid cloud solutions, and ensuring the right data is in the right place subject to the right controls.

In social business, organizations need to consider customer privacy expectations, regulatory compliance, and employee guidelines on confidentiality, acceptable use, and protecting the corporate brand.

Pay Attention To The Pacesetters

So with all this in mind, which organizations are better positioned to create competitive advantage? Early adopters or late arrivers? Those focused on strategic impact or tactical implementations?

The data suggest it’s those companies forging ahead faster (in spite of adoption hurdles) and using mobile, analytics, cloud, and social technologies in more strategic ways.

The so-called “pacesetters” believe emerging technologies are critical to their business success and are using them to enable new operating/business models.

They’re also adoption ahead of their competition.

What sets them apart from the “followers” and “dabblers” are three key factors: They’re more market driven, they’re more analytical, and they’re more willing to experiment.

And where they say they’re headed next also provides a learning opportunity.

More than 75 percent of pacesetters are increasing investments in mobile and cloud computing over the next two years, and they’re betting heavily on business analytics and social business (two to three times as many pacesetters are raising those investments by 10 percent or more).

With respect to skills, 70 percent of pacesetters are building capabilities in mobile integration, security, privacy, and mobile application architecture, design and development.

Twenty-eight percent have already developed business analytics expertise in probability, statistics and mathematical modeling (and another 60 percent are eagerly developing those capabilities).

In cloud computing, more than 70 percent are developing skills in cloud security, administration, and architecture.

The 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report data suggests an opportunity for organizations everywhere to help close the large and expanding technology skills gap. Is your organization prepared to take these important and often necessary actions?

And nearly one-quarter of them have already built the expertise needed to extend social business solutions to mobile and to perform social analytics.

Their intent to combined technologies — mobile and social, social and analytics, etc. — are helping drive even greater business value for their organizations.

The 2012 IBM Tech Trends Upshot?

CEOs understand the external factors impacting their organizations most: Technology and skills.

But one without the other is a recipe for innovative decline, and to effectively address these interconnected imperatives, business and IT executives need new approaches for bridging skills gaps and helping their organizations capitalize on the strategic potential of emerging technologies.

The figure to the right demonstrates specific actions that can help you as a leader move your organization into a pacesetting position.  And IBM is also stepping up and offering some new skills-building initiatives as well.

Bridging The Skills Gap

On the heels of this study, IBM has announced an array of programs and resources to help students and IT professionals develop new technology skills and prepare for jobs of the future.

The initiatives include new training courses and resources for IT professionals, technology and curriculum materials for educators and expanded programs to directly engage students with real-world business challenges.  You can learn more about those here.

TurboTech: Technological Romance For Dummies

Scott Laningham and I, having entirely too much time to ourselves over the holidays to ponder all things technology, spent a good 26 minutes one late December day discussing likely future tech trends: Everything from the absurdity of code names for mobile operating systems to our having our own technology reality TV show someday — but one in which nobody could give Scott and I a rose.

That just simply wouldn’t be appropriate.

I also provide a shout out to the IBM Connections event, which starts a week from today in lovely Orlando, Florida.  It’s not too late to register for it, and for Lotusphere. Go here to learn more.

I’ll be arriving in Orlando early Sunday evening and plan on bringing all the blogging coverage my little Turbo hands can handle (And Scott assures me in the video below he’ll do some remote podcasting, since he won’t be there live and in person.  Make sure you provide some comments and try to hold him to it!)

TurboTech: A Humorous Look At 2011 Technology Trends In Review

It’s not many people who have the opportunity to be able to say that they’ve worked with a true broadcasting professional like Scott Laningham.

Blogger's Note: No dolphins were harmed during the making of this video. Green pigs who stole bird's eggs, well, that's a whole other story!

It’s even less people who would take the opportunity to actually come clean and admit to having done so, especially on more than one occasion.

Because I’m neither a true professional nor someone who likes to allow the skeletons in his closet to begin to accumulate, instead of facing as many of them as I can take head on like some egregious out-of-control episode of “Walking Dead,” or, worse, a full-on “Angry Birds” like assault come to life (but only if it’s the ad-supported version, as we’re too cheap to actually buy a copy), it is with great pleasure that I feature for you my readers the latest episode of “TurboTech,” another fine example supporting the postulation by Gartner and others that broadband video is here to stay…even if Scott and I are not destined to be ourselves.

The following is video documentary evidence of what happens when nature cannot simply abhor a vacuum, but instead must attempt to fill it with technology forecasting tripe at the end of another grand year of massive technological disruption.  In our case, the year 2011, which was filled with much technological wonder and wonderment, not the least of which included fabric-based computing.

It shall also not go unnoticed by somewhat regular (assuming there are any of you) viewers that Scott continues to look and sound much, much better than me in these episodes, indicating once again that Scott continues to have better technology than me.

This, too, must change.

New TurboTech Episode: Scott and Todd on IBMers Tweeting About Stuff IBMers Say…& The IBM 2011 Tech Trends Survey

So Scott Laningham and I haven’t seen one another lately, seeing as we saw so much of one another at Information on Demand 2011 in Vegas that, well, we probably just got plain sick of one another. Actually, that’s not true, but it makes for good drama as you try to figure out just why we hadn’t done a TurboTech episode lately.

There really was no good reason, except that we’ve just both been so busy with our “day” jobs that we hadn’t gotten in touch.  Well, that all changed yesterday, when one of our colleagues started a trending theme on Twitter called “StuffIBMerssay” that probably witnessed a $200 million productivity hit to the IBM company as hundreds of we IBMers, former and otherwise, stopped what we were doing and stared in fascination as the hilarious Tweets about being an IBMer scrolled by. I’m guilty as well, having provided several contributions.

Just use the hashtag #stuffibmerssay and I’m sure some doozies are still rolling by.

We also just haven’t had much to say, Scott and I, but with the recent launch of the 2011 IBM Tech Trends report, that all changed.  So, click on the play button below, and you, too, can lose 15 minutes of your day.

But you also might just learn something….that’s doubtful, of course, but there’s always the possibility.

IBM 2011 Tech Trends Report: And The Survey Says…!

So how many of you remember last year’s IBM Tech Trends Report?  Nobody?  Well, here’s a quick refresher of the key headlines:

• More than half of all IT professionals – 55 percent — expect mobile software application development for devices such as iPhone and Android, and even tablet PCs like iPad and PlayBook, will surpass application development on all other traditional computing platforms by 2015.
• Mobile applications sales will undergo massive growth over the next three years (as if they haven’t already!), with estimates of mobile application revenues expanding from $6.2 billion this year to nearly $30 billion by 2013!
• 91 percent anticipate cloud computing will overtake on-premise computing as the primary way organizations acquire IT over the next five years
• Mobile and cloud computing are followed by social media, business analytics and industry-specific technologies as the hottest IT career opportunities beginning in 2011

So flash forward one year. Today, IBM released the details from this year’s study, and the lead this year is this: Developers around the world believe that IBM Watson’s sophisticated analytics capabilities will transform industries that are managing massive amounts of data, with education and healthcare being two areas could benefit most.

IBM 2011 Tech Trend survey respondents were asked which skills they needed to develop and/or deploy business analytics solutions. (Note: "Conocimiento" translates into Spanish in this instance as "knowledge with a subject")

But developers also expect that financial services, life sciences, and government also rose near the top of the list.

The Survey Said…!

The 2011 IBM Tech Trends Report surveyed more than 4,000 IT professionals from 93 countries and 25 industries. Those who provided their views on future IT trends demonstrated a growing need for technical skills in the areas of business analytics, social business, mobile computing, open source technologies, and cloud computing, providing a clear line of continuity in key issues year over year.

The majority of respondents believe that business analytics will continue to be in demand for software development, and also outlined the growing importance of open source platforms like Apache Hadoop and Linux for business analytics developers.

The report provides IT and business professionals a roadmap of the technologies and skills that will be in greatest demand in the coming years.

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Key Differences from 2010 to 2011

LAST YEAR (2010)	THIS YEAR (2011)
2000 developers in 87 countries	4000+ developers in 93 countries
Mobile devices replacing traditional computing	The mobile revolution has begun, 3 in 4 developers already working on mobile solutions with Enterprise App development as priority one
The survey shows that 91 percent believe cloud computing will overtake on-premise computing as the primary way organizations acquire IT by 2015	The shift is on. 60% of organizations are already using cloud computing. Development of new apps and virtualization are the top ways the technology is being implemented.
Mobile Computing was overwhelming focus	Mobility continues to be a major focus. This year we saw the emergence of Business Analytics as another major driving force in the IT Landscape. Cloud computing held steady ranking near the top in both years.

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Key findings in the 2011 IBM Tech Trends Report include:

• When asked why they selected Watson respondents said they thought the technology would: help with the development of customized learning plans for students, equalizing resources for remote areas and change the approach academics use to solve problems by enabling more creativity and analytical thinking versus memorizatio
• Eighty-seven percent of respondents believe open source and open standard technologies will play a key role in the future of application development.
• During the next two years more than 75 percent of organizations will engage in cloud computing.
• Fifty-one percent of respondents cited the adoption of cloud technologies as part of their mobile strategy.
• Regional cultural differences impact social business adoption. India is strongly embracing social business with a 57 percent adoption rate, followed by the US with a 45 percent adoption rate and China with a 44 percent adoption rate. Russia shows the strongest resistance with a 19 percent adoption rate.

Focus areas for mobile computing as identified by 4,000+ developers in the 2011 IBM Tech Trends Report.

“The results are clear. Mobile computing, cloud computing, social business and business analytics have gone beyond niche status and are now part of any modern organization’s core IT focus,”said Jim Corgel, general manager ISV and Developer Relations, IBM. “IT professionals who can develop the skills needed to work across these technologies will be ready to meet growing business demand in the coming years.”

More About IBM developerWorks

IBM developerWorks, the company’s online community for IT professionals is the industry’s largest and most visited global site for them to gain technology skills. More than eight million IT professionals have visited the community to gain no-cost access to software tools and code, IT standards and best practices across various industries. Visitors also tap skills training in open technologies, business analytics, cloud computing and mobile computing, among others. In addition, IBM Business Partners and entrepreneurs can access advanced training and resources at IBM’s network of 40 Innovation Centers around the world to further build their skills.

The complete IBM 2011 Tech Trends Report and the data gathered as part of the survey are available at ibm.com/developerworks/techtrendsreport

SXSW Interactive 2011 – On The Ground Day 2

Greetings from the Social Media Club office here in lovely downtown Austin, Texas.

Scott Laningham, along with our IBM social media partner in crime Kathy Mandelstein, just finished IBM’s lead social business evangelist, Sandy Carter, on the topic of social media, SXSW and IBM, meeting 167 complete strangers in Mumbai late night at her hotel after a single tweet, and much, much more.

Scott and I also did a podcast recap of day 1 at SXSW Interactive, which you can find here.

Our social business buddy Rawn Shah joined us for that one, where we discussed the Jason Calacanis/Tim O’Reilly interview, and all that the other sessions that are now a vague remnant of neurons in my overstimulated mind.

Day 2 is swinging into full gear.  More later…

 

IBM Industry Summit: The Podcast Recap

Though my partner-in-crime Scott Laningham wasn’t able to join me live and in person during my recent trip to Barcelona, he was certainly there in spirit, and he was also gracious enough to join me for a recap discussion earlier this week for developerWorks.

In the 13-minute recap, Scott and I walked through some highlights of the trip and the first-ever IBM Industry Summit — and even sneaked in a few holiday shopping tidbits to boot.

Enjoy our short walk down IBM Industry Summit memory lane, and for those of you in the U.S., I hope you enjoy a restful and thankful long holiday weekend.

You can find the podcast here.

2010 IBM Tech Trends Survey: All About The Mobile And Cloud

I’ve been in NYC much of this week attending IBM meetings as well as meeting with key IBM partners.

I had the opportunity to attend a Google Tech event at the NYC Googleplex on Wednesday, and got the lowdown on their view of the current interactive marketplace, including the continued and ridiculous growth of the smartphone market.

One Google exec indicated that 200,000 Android smartphones are being sold every day, and that Google had witnessed a 50% increase in mobile search queries in the first half of this year alone.

Well, it seems as if an audience of you IT professionals out there are agreeing on the growth and importance of mobile (among other key areas) in a new survey IBM developerWorks recently conducted, the 2010 IBM Tech Trends Survey.

The headlines? Mobile and cloud computing will emerge as the most in-demand platforms for software application development and IT delivery over the next five years.

Developers and IT specialists polled by IBM around the globe indicated that the mobile market would emerge as the hottest software development realm by 2015.

And The Survey Says…

The 2010 IBM Tech Trends Survey provides insight into the most significant enterprise technology and industry trends based on responses from 2,000 IT developers and specialists across 87 countries.

According to the survey, more than half of all IT professionals – 55 percent — expect mobile software application development for devices such as iPhone and Android, and even tablet PCs like iPad and PlayBook, will surpass application development on all other traditional computing platforms by 2015.

With the proliferation of mobile devices, industry analysts are predicting mobile applications sales will undergo massive growth over the next three years (as if they haven’t already!), with estimates of mobile application revenues expanding from $6.2 billion this year to nearly $30 billion by 2013!

Supporting the growing number of software developers creating new applications for mobile devices, IBM now offers no-cost mobile computing technology resources, through IBM developerWorks, for application development on mobile platforms such as iPhone, iPad, HTML5 and Android.

IBM also today launched the first developerWorks mobile application for the Apple iPhone, providing developers around the world with mobile access to build skills and network with colleagues using the professional social networking platform, My developerWorks, built on IBM Lotus Connections.

Additional headlines from the IBM Tech Trends Survey include:

• 91 percent anticipate cloud computing will overtake on-premise computing as the primary way organizations acquire IT over the next five years
• Mobile and cloud computing are followed by social media, business analytics and industry-specific technologies as the hottest IT career opportunities beginning in 2011
• 90 percent believe it is important to possess vertical industry-specific skills for their jobs, yet 63 percent admit they are lacking the industry knowledge needed to remain competitive
• Telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, and energy and utilities rank as the top four industries in which respondents identify as having the greatest opportunity to expand their careers.

The online survey, conducted by IBM developerWorks of its eight million registered users in August and September 2010, includes responses from IT professionals with expertise in areas such as enterprise and web application development, system and network administration, and software testing and architecture.

IBM developerWorks Announces New Resources for IT Professionals

IBM today announced additional resources, through IBM developerWorks, to help professionals build skills to prepare for the next generation of IT and application development opportunities. The no-charge resources include:

• New cloud computing resources including online workshops, skills tutorials, cloud computing technical resources, and social networking tools that enable users to build online relationships, share content, and grow a worldwide network of peers to drive innovation.
• Cloud Computing for Developers virtual events this October, with four dates when IT professionals can learn how to solve business and technical challenges in the cloud. Through real-world examples of specific challenges and solutions as well as live demos of techniques and products, attendees can learn more about how to use and build cloud-based applications such as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) using IBM and open technologies.
• An online Industry Resource Site that provides technical resources, collaboration forums, articles, podcasts and tutorials on key IBM and open technologies-based best practices in banking, energy and utilities, healthcare, government and chemical and petroleum industries
• Technical information on the IBM Industry Frameworks, a combination of software and hardware that bridges the gap between general purpose middleware and industry specific business applications to help organizations apply technology more easily to their unique industry.

Today, developerWorks is the largest and most visited global site to gain technology skills.

Over four million IT professionals visit developerWorks each month to gain no-cost access to software tools and code, IT standards and best practices across various industries. Users also tap skills training in IBM software and open technologies including Linux, Java, XML and cloud computing.

I am proud to say I’ve personally been affiliated with developerWorks for several years now through my blogging efforts, and in my partner podcasts with developerWorks podcasting guru and all-around media star, Scott Laningham.

You can go here to learn more about IBM developerWorks, which, by the way, just celebrated its 11th birthday.

Happy birthday, developerWorks!

SXSW Interactive 2010: Day 2 Recap Podcast

Scott and I took our weary bones (and minds) into the front foyer yesterday, found ourselves a table, and had a nice twelve and a half minute recap of the day’s topics, including the disruption of business models, privacy, influence, education, and more.

Go here to check it out (12:30 MP3)

SXSW Q&A Podcast w/ Google’s Lisa Kamm and Alex Cook on Long Distance Management

Scott and I had the opportunity to sit down and interview Google User Experience Manager, Lisa Kamm, and Alex Cook, Google User Experience Designer, after their timely panel discussion, “Long Distance UX” yesterday afternoon.

Both Alex and Lisa work with teams situated in locales ranging from Brazil to Boston to Mountain View, and points beyond.

In the podcast (8:15, MP3), Scott and I queried them about best practices for remote project and team management, including asking them about tools (they use Google!), communication, and processes.

It’s a must listen for those of you who spend your days jumping time zones.