Information Technology Predictions for 2013

I also predict that the economy will remain flat in 2013. No set of predictions  would be complete without an economic prediction. The outlook by a  preponderance of economists predicts a flat economy for 2013. We will continue to see unemployment greater than 7 percent, and economic growth and overall  new job growth will continue to be flat. We can also look forward to more  inflation. There are plenty of economic challenges ahead in 2013. However, the IT industry will remain strong. Mobile will be the IT word of the year  for 2013. In today’s households, mobile data is the second highest bill, behind a mortgage or housing rent. The demand for mobile applications and mobile  access to data will only increase in 2013. The mobile infrastructure is now ready for HTML5 making a more flexible, browser-less environment for mobile applications. However, mobile will bring it's own challenges related to  configuration and release management.

Finally, I believe the most exciting prediction for 2013 will be the growth of smart  cloud applications. The cloud will less be a place to store data, and will more be a place to run applications. All of this will result in a continuing demand for  developers and the firms supplying them. IT staffing firms, cloud providers and IT training firms will have a particularly strong growth in 2013. IT giants, including Microsoft, IBM, and HP will have flat growth in 2013, while smaller-and  medium-size IT firms will demonstrate their agility and ability to grow and meet  the challenges of the coming year.