5 IT trends to watch

According to Steve Jobs, the tablet computer will replace the desktop computer in the near future. Though I doubt that prediction, he’s right about one thing: The world is trending towards mobile computing.

The obvious trend towards mobile computing leads to one question: How will this affect IT and the business as a whole? This article in techrepublic.com entitled, "The changing face of IT: Five trends to watch," highlights this topic very well. In fact, 3 of the 5 trends mentioned in the article pertain to mobility.

While it’s a good article, I do think it left out one big trend. I think the biggest change headed towards IT is a real-time revolution. Yes, this is driven in a large part by mobile computing, and we’re already seeing it creep in to the business. However, I've noticed many companies falling behind, ignoring the obvious signs that the business is moving towards real-time. I believe in the coming years, those who don’t keep up with the real-time movement will struggle.

What do I mean by “real-time?” It's simple: Real-time means instant, accurate data at any time. For example, can you view dashboards with real-time data applicable to your job? Can your salespeople check current stock levels at any time from any place? Can customers log in and check their data in real-time?

Waiting days for reports or data will no longer be acceptable. Offering 24-hour turnaround is too slow these days. With technology available today, there’s really no need to wait. Customers know that. It’s up to IT to make it happen.

If your company doesn’t yet operate in real-time, let us know. m-Power will let you build applications that interact in real-time with your database. Best of all, m-Power builds them roughly 80% faster than traditional methods. Try it out for yourself with the m-Power test drive.