Top 10 IT Stories of 2008

 

For about the last 25 years or so I like to pronounce with boring regularity that the survey business (and by extension the research business) is increasingly about smart, strategic use of IT. In that vein I have reproduced below CIO Magazine's Top 10 IT Stories of 2008. They have better graphics.

1. It's the Economy, stupid. The financial crisis and recession created the lens through which all other stories—including IT stories—will be viewed, looking back and looking forward.
2. The first Internet Campaign. Barack Obama integrated technology into every phase of his campaign, leveraging the Net as a tool not just for communications but organization. Politics, governance, and business will never be the same.
3. The Smartphone Revolution. As iPhone mania swept the consumer market and began to seep into the enterprise RIM pushed back with its hot new models. The age of mobile computing is here.
4. Forecast: Clouds. Cloud computing became so mainstream that Dell tried to copyright the term. IT shops, big and small, stopped asking if the cloud was real and started integrating it into everyday operations.
5. Vista Missed-a. Early disgruntlement at Microsoft's latest operating system didn't go away, but after another lukewarm year, it looks like Vista will.
6. 2.0 Everywhere. Most companies still aren't so good at public facing blogs and social networks, but the technology has permeated the culture, inside and outside the firewall.
7. The Greening of IT. High energy costs made Green the color of the year
8. Globalization and its discontents. Business slowed for big outsources, who responded by moving up the value chain and purchasing western companies; terror attacks in Mumbai made companies wonder how safe the flat world really is.
9. Media unravels. The Net continued to remake the media marketplace, with major implications for advertising, marketing, and corporate communications.
10. Big deal. HP swallowed EDS to create a global competitor for IBM.

Take heed and plan 2009 accordingly.