Joe Sheridan, Corporate Director of IT and CIO, Soave Enterprise
Informational technology is a massively evolving and dynamic sector. Technology has permeated to every strata of the society and is playing pivotal role in shaping social dynamics. The demand for quick and apt services has led to emergence of newer technologies with many tech innovators trying to affirm their grip in the market-space. The starting phase of IT industry however was not like that of todays. We used to have return on investment on any automation project undertaken. Technology mainly was confined to mainframe and internet did not have its presence. There were many aspects that were not looked at or incorporated and the approach towards driving technology innovation was very different.
Presently, IT has become multi-dimensional and there has been major disruption, which has taken the technology world by storm. Internet of things (IoT) has been one such phenomena, the plethora of virtual opportunities provided by it is beyond imagination. People now can stay connected with almost everything with the advent of IoT. From our standpoint, we need to encourage such technologies to flourish and cater to the ever-increasing demand of innovative services. Having said all of that, we need to closely follow the trends and impact that IoT is going follow and have; challenges, and issues faced should be highlighted in order to streamline the transformation.
The era of Cloud computing
While we talk about connecting devices through internet (IoT) and gain benefits from the same another key aspect noteworthy of mention is Cloud based services. The evolution of technology has given rise to issues of storage and migration of data. Cloud based services ascertain resolutions to these issues and enables organizations to have a better data management platform.
Information Technology is an ever-evolving sector. Whatever we have learned so far is just work-in-progress 
Currently, more and more companies have inclined towards cloud-based services to resolve storage related issues. However, the concern, which arises irrespective of the innate nature of such services, is security. Security breaches reported across the world has questioned the credibility of cloud thus putting it under strict introspection.
From our standpoint, a selective usage of cloud-based services seems amenable at this point of time. Technology is evolving and soon we will find a solution to tighten the security of cloud-based services and implement it across all vertical.
Artificial Intelligence: Curse or Boon?
Although Information Technology continues to be the driving force in our daily business there are certain aspects, which I think needs to be looked upon; Artificial Intelligence, for instance is gaining strong impetus and will steer future developments. The impact of AI will be huge on the IT market in impending years. Companies will thrive to reap benefits by combining AI with automation. However, certain studies have revealed that such development can lead to loss of ground level jobs in general. The loss of such jobs will inflict negative impact on the society. We as technology propagators want to make the world a better place to live and create new employment opportunities, but we should expect there to be an impact to society. Such development certainly contradicts our vision and is an area to be pondered upon and discussed. In my opinion, a viable channelization of AI will be the key in all futuristic developments, as well as preparedness by our governments for them.
Word of Advice to Young Entrepreneurs
Evolution of IT services will demand young entrepreneurs crack difficult pathways to cater to the need of the generation. Many innovators have already made their presence known and we need to make sure they get all the help required. I have observed that many young entrepreneurs adopt social media approach or tweet approach to things. I would caution them not to be dependent on minimal conversation to get things done and to take time to understand the impact of rapid change.
In aging demographics like ours, we need participation from the younger generation. One of the major issues that the IT world is facing today is delay in service delivery. This issue ascribes to the resource crunch that we are facing. We need young people to come forth and cater to this need, at the same time top management should take steps to nurture skill-set to optimize overall organizational growth.
