By Dhaval Valia
 It gives the CRN team great pleasure in presenting the Outlook 2010 special edition. We have tried our best to bring you views and perspectives from a wide range of IT vendors, across various technology areas and end-user segments.
Our effort is to help the channel assimilate these insightful perspectives, and apply them to formulate their business strategies for 2010 and beyond.
Year 2010 has opened on a very optimistic note for the Indian economy, and the IT industry in particular. The growth prospects look brighter than 2009 and key economic indicators are pointing at a 9 percent GDP growth in the next fiscal.
In the year gone by, the IT industry saw the emergence of several new concepts that promise to bring about a paradigm shift in the way technology solutions and services are delivered to customers.
I clearly foresee information technology emerging as a core infrastructure sector over the next five years, and assuming the same importance as other core sectors such as roads, airports and railways.
The Unique Identification (UID) project is an important first step in this direction. The project has the potential to galvanize massive investments in e-governance at both the state and central level. If well executed, UID can be the pivot around which other e-governance projects will evolve.
The other big transformation in the offing is the shift from IT Capex to Opex. This will change the rules of IT business forever. Products will give way to services and bring in a strong element of financing in the business. Aiding this transition will be cloud computing. Call it by whatever name—infrastructure-as-a-service, utility computing or managed services—cloud computing will forever change the IT business. It will enable both consumers and enterprises to use IT in the same way as electricity and telephony is consumed.
Another major revolution will be led by smartphones. Fostered by faster processing power, speedier connectivity like 3G, rise of new form factors and smarter applications, smartphones have the potential to emerge as the preferred device for day-to-day (basic) computing needs.
Already, availability of enterprise e-mail on mobile handsets has led to a large number of data interactions and transactions moving from the PC to the phone. This trend will be further accentuated with faster and smarter phones, and would lead to a dramatic change in computing patterns.
These and many such trends and insights have been shared by eminent industry leaders in this special edition. Happy reading!
And in this new year, may success and prosperity be upon us. |