With 2012 winding down, we are coming into a forward-thinking time where predictions for 2013 are commonplace.
And, although we face uncertainty with sequestration looming and the “fiscal cliff” still not being resolved, it is safe to say that government IT will experience a period of transformation as cybersecurity, big data, mobility and cloud solutions will grow in 2013 — according to two recent studies.
First, IDC government insights’ recent ‘top 10 predictions” study found that the rapid adoption by government organizations of big data analytics, cloud computing, social business and mobility will propel “smart strategies” into 2013.
Here are the top 10 predictions from the study:
-
Prediction 1 – Infrastructure consolidation will hit its peak as governments accelerate cloud adoption by over 50% over 2012 levels, accounting for over 7% of all government IT spending.
-
Prediction 2 – Tactical deployments of big data solutions will grow by over 30% CAGR and will accelerate broader pervasive analytics deployment, laying the foundation for “smart government.”
-
Prediction 3 – Agencies/organizations/offices will rapidly begin to rationalize and establish baseline costs for IT assets and identify endpoint device choices – PCs, tablets, and smart phones – for “best use.”
-
Prediction 4 – Mobile devices and apps, smart sensors, cloud computing solutions, and citizen-facing portals will create a 48% increase in digital information, creating new records management access and retrieval issues.
-
Prediction 5 – Cloud sharing/collaboration among governments (federal, state, and local) and shared services will account for 18% of the government cloud market and create new business models for IT procurement and provisioning.
-
Prediction 6 – Though they continue to lag behind other industries in investing in social business software, 35% of government organizations will initiate social analytics tools evaluation and/or implementation.
-
Prediction 7 – All levels of government will accelerate mobile application development. In 2013, 35% of new federal and state applications will be mobile and 45% of new local applications will be mobile.
-
Prediction 8 – Over 40% of U.S. local governments will be in the research and evaluation stage for Smart City pilots/projects and 50% of these will begin some level of implementation in 2013.
-
Prediction 9 – Government organizations that promote open data will foster 25% more private commercial activity in apps and services that will facilitate improved outcomes across a range of government goals.
-
Prediction 10 – Public/private partnerships will be redefined based on mutual mission goals and outcomes that create mutual government/commercial partnership and research benefits.
The second study we uncovered was from the Lockheed Martin Cyber Security Alliance, which found that that 85 percent of government technology decision makers at federal, defense and intelligence agencies see cyber security as a high priority – over big data and cloud solutions.
For many in the government IT sector, these insights are not really that new. According to the Market Connections’ government contractor study, contractors with higher win rates are already seeing more opportunities in cybersecurity and cloud computing.
Though, it is nice to find third-party research that validates what we know about the government IT arena.