Each time a new IT industry term comes along, World Wide Web, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), it marks a new period in the Digital Transformation game.
Rewind to 1994 and proceed to about 2003. The Digital Transformation game started around the time that Tim Berners-Lee finally left CERN to start W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium).
At the time, Digital Transformation was a matter of business process redesign, reengineering and improvement (BPR/I). We were all focused on the PC, browser and office suite wars. We dove into e-mail, Web search, e-commerce and e-business.
On a high level, some folks look back at those times and really don’t care about those milestones. But all that infrastructure set the stage for Digital Transformation’s next era.
By 2004 or so, we saw Web 2.0’s emergence. The Digital Transformation game roughened. Enthusiasm and scepticism often clashed, but eventually Digital Transformation convincingly scored with the notion and practice of Social Business.
From 2004 on, developments accelerated: smartphones and tablets kicked in from 2008 as app stores began to flourish.
But let’s look ahead to 2016, when the cloud is bound to become truly silver-lined. Indeed, most IT spends will be in leased computing assets. And finally, an Internet of Things (IoT) or Everything (IoE) is scheduled to be up and running by 2020. And it will potentially impact every consumer and industry.
What does all that mean, for data managers right now?
We’re 20 years into the Digital Transformation game. The five SMACT forces (social, mobile, analytics, cloud, technology) are predictable enough to have a lasting impact on the economy and on our lifestyle.
Does that mean the Grand Digital Transformation game is over? Far from that! New milestones and developments constantly alter the SMACT landscape.
Essentially, the all-encompassing Internet of Things/Everything vision is firmly rooted in philosophy, whereas technology should be understood.
Everything old is new again. IoT is real. But it can be called the Innovation of Technology.
