Cloud will remain the biggest factor of any IT strategy to 2018 (video)

8 Aug 2014

Tanya Duncan, managing director, Interxion Ireland

Interxion Ireland managing director Tanya Duncan discusses the challenges and opportunities for tech professionals in 2014 and the trends that will shape the next few years.

Interxion has 34 data centres in 11 European countries, including Ireland.

Duncan believes without question the No 1 challenge facing IT managers and CIOs right now is sourcing IT skills and developing talent within the organisation.

“I think that’s something that is echoed in the Irish market with 75,000 people now employed in the Irish IT market and Forfás has pointed out that a further 45,000 will be needed up to 2018. This is definitely a challenge not only for Ireland but globally, as well.”

IT strategy

Interxion’s Tanya Duncan talks about challenges and opportunities for CIOs and IT managers in 2014

Other challenges include making sense of big data and deploying data analytics in such a way that match and reward business processes.

However, from an IT strategy viewpoint, Duncan believes the biggest influencer is cloud computing and cited Gartner studies, which suggest the lion’s share of IT spend will be in the area of cloud computing up to 2018.

“It can’t be ignored. The extent to which that is done will depend on what business you are in or what the strategy of the company might be.

“But there is no question that the model from a cost perspective, moving to operational spend rather than a big capital expense at the outset, cloud is definitely the way forward.”

Interxion is a sponsor of the Enterprise channel on Siliconrepublic.com

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com