10 trends relevant for IT-companies

Today we will introduce you to the article by Matt Murphy - the general partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Matt specializes in mobile and cloud investments.

His recent article on 10 trends relevant to IT companies has become quite widespread. We hope you find it interesting too.
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The ways in which companies buy, create, manage, optimize and maintain information technology are constantly changing. From cloud computing and big data analytics to the ubiquitous mobile communications, enterprise IT systems are becoming faster, more economical, cheaper and easier to use. Sometimes a new wave of IT-companies even challenges experienced players.

We offer you to get acquainted with the 10 most current trends of IT companies:

1. Cloud computing

According to Morgan Stanley, almost a third of the entire workflow is now based on cloud technologies. Cloud computing is such a powerful technology due to the ability to easily scale up the resources allocated to the application, without the need to purchase additional equipment. Need more power? The cloud center provider will provide it to you without any problems.

2. Absolute Virtualization

Virtualization turns a set of disparate servers into a single center of computing resources, which can be easily configured. Server virtualization was so successful that some IT departments decided to visualize everything else in the data center, including networking , security and storage.

3. New type of IT buyers

Now purchase decisions are understood not by information technology directors and IT-personnel, but heads of sales, marketing, finance and other departments. This introduction of upstream technologies, which has supported the growing popularity of smartphones and cloud computing, opens up new opportunities for IT providers, who now have a much wider circle of customers with a larger budget and a desire to experiment .

4. Increase domestic and online sales

Motivated by the emergence of an increasing number of online sales channels, many companies are building their business without the participation of managers, who are given planned sales targets. This allows them to quickly transfer their product to the user and discuss all requirements without the involvement of sales staff.

5. Sales model “pay only for what benefits”

Enterprises imitate software development companies by offering free trial periods or working on a freemium price model, which allows customers to experiment with the product without large upfront cash investments. A simple registration process, payment only for what brings real benefits, focus on the "right customers" - it all works not only for suppliers, but also for buyers. Open source resources like MySQL laid the foundation for this model — and the growth of Puppet Labs, DataStax / Cassandra, and MuleSoft proves that the open source model continues to be effective.

6. Rethinking the process of the enterprise

The widespread adoption of mobile devices has led to a more efficient workflow in the enterprise. Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff recently noted that he manages the business with his phone. It gets easier every day. Whether it is a quick transfer of business documents using the DocuSign e-signature application or planning and optimizing routes for people using ServiceMax, mobile applications can simplify and automate many processes in the enterprise, which allows you to work faster and more efficiently.

7. Security is paramount

As Ted Schlein rightly noted, security threats are becoming more and more common. As a result, companies should take care of security at every level of the network - from servers to endpoints, as well as between them. Companies often shift their focus from protecting borders to securing data. As attacks are becoming more frequent, a new generation of security companies, such as Ionic Security, Illumio, and Bromium, have emerged that are capable of fighting new cyber attacks.

8. Data is a new competitive advantage.

A feature of big data is their ability to shed light on new ideas. Improved analytics allows you to get new, non-obvious ideas about how a business is developing. For example, InsideSales.com found that if a sales representative calls a potential customer within 5 minutes after requesting more detailed information, then the probability of a successful sale increases 10 times. Through the use of large data sets, companies will be able to detect features like this and use them to their advantage.

9. Who has better speed, he will surpass competitors

If your application is faster, you will be the winner in the fight for the best customers. As Walmart and Compuware research shows, a one-second delay in an application can reduce a company's revenue by 10%. That is why all developing enterprises are focused on speed: Instart Logic speeds up the application, AppDynamics controls the speed of the application response, PernixData and Fusion-io efficiently use Flash data storage so that the service runs several times faster.

10. User Interface Design

Users spend tons of time using applications that are attractively designed and intuitive. The same people want from the applications needed for work. Applications with a friendly interface and smart design are beginning to slowly push out their competitors with a more complex design.

Here are 10 trends that are relevant today for IT corporations - many technologies are democratized and updated. Some of these trends may not please some software vendors, but they offer many new features for users.

PS We recommend another useful article on trends - What professional skills will become significant in the coming years?

The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, the founder of the TESTutor company.