Tech predictions: think before you act

Marcel den Hartog, Principal for marketing EMEA at CA Technologies, has been writing on the company’s blog about predictions for topics such as Big Data, IoT and Cloud.

Rather than speaking about CA Technologies predictions, instead den Hartog questions the usefulness of these predictions, questioning the connection with the real world.

Marcel den Hartog, said: "In IT, we have seen more and faster progress than in any industry in the history of mankind. We all know it’s changing faster than we sometimes want, but we also know that we have to keep up to compete and survive."

"And somehow, these predictions often describe new technologies as standalone technologies. As if Big Data, or The Internet of Things live in isolation of everything we have done so far. They don’t, and we know this makes adopting new technologies so hard. It’s this complexity that makes IT so intricate, expensive and difficult to manage."

Some of the problems with predictions for den Hartog is that the problems and legacy are not considered, commenting: "But once a technology is ready to be the next big thing in 12 months, I expect more than predictions from visionaries. I also expect them to educate mortals like me how these new technologies can/must work together with what we already have."

One key point to take from den Hartog’s blog post, is to think before you act, which is a sentiment that has been echoed by analysts when speaking about Big Data use.

Marcel den Hartog commented: "So yes, Big Data is something that can bring a lot of value. But pumping your entire (mainframe) production database to a Hadoop cluster without really thinking about what it is you want to analyze is not such a good idea."

"When investing in cloud development, without thinking about APIs, you need to communicate to and from your existing environment, could potentially introduce big problems and maybe even an insecure environment."

So when predictions are being made, den Hartog pleads for those making the predictions to understand the implications of technologies a little better.