IT trends in the 2014 financial year

In summary, we see the new financial year as another transitional year, as incremental advances in a number of areas make their marks on the IT industry and the broader economy.

Here's our prediction on the Top 10 Technology trends to watch in the coming financial year:

1. Progress Along the Innovation Learning Curve Pays Dividends. Companies that embrace new technology will achieve real profit growth through both increased sales and productivity gains.
2. Expectations Reset: The Push for Faster, Larger, Easier and Safer. Technologies that show even a hint of being slow, cumbersome, difficult to use or lacking in the ability to play nice with other technologies will be replaced.
3. Open and Transparent Further Displaces Closed and Hidden. Technologies that easily link up with one another to provide increased functionality at a cost-effective price will continue to replace expensive legacy systems that trap customers into the one solution.
4. The Distributed Economy Deepens. Technology will continue to serve as both a driver and an enabler of the distributed economy, bringing together investors and buyers and sellers in ways not possible in previous marketplaces.
5. Technology Continues its Transition from Supporting Tool to Strategic Driver. Rather than simply providing back office infrastructure and point tools, technology is now deeply ingrained in the initiatives a business must undertake, and slow adopters will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
6. Mobility Becomes a Way of Life. Those companies that have been quick to provide mobility solutions for their employees will expand their efforts to optimize all Internet services for mobile consumption.
7. Companies Begin Taking Cloud Computing for Granted.  Rather than focusing on individual cloud projects, companies will view their entire IT infrastructure holistically and assume that cloud components will be used wherever they make the most sense.
8. Convergence Creates Strange Bedfellows. Previously discrete industries such as traditional IT, audio/visual and consumer electronics, telecom services and physical security are blending.
9. Communication and Collaboration Get a Boost from the Cloud. Companies had quality and availability concerns in using new technology for real-time telephony communications, but these fears are being laid to rest as expertise in VoIP grows.
10. Managed Services: Upping the Game. Customers now expect all IT support firms to provide high quality services as a given - they are used to the idea of service agreements and are looking for more value-added services from their IT Partners.

Our thanks to CompTIA for the basis of this article, which we've localised to the marketplace in Australia. CompTIA is the voice of the world's information technology (IT) industry.