IT Consumerization: Cloud, Mobile, Social and SOA - Challenges and Opportunities 2013

Throughout recent years Enterprise IT had to deal with a number of disruptive trends: Cloud Computing started with the replacement of in-house packages by Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings, and is now used more and more as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) based alternatives to in-house (i.e. on-premise) systems. This puts developers outside of Enterprise IT as well as Business users in the power seat – all they need is a limited budget and a browser in order to create their own, on-demand, shadow IT.
At the same time the consumerization of IT has materialized in form of smart phones and tablets that offer an endless pool of applications with a rich user experience. These devices are purchased by the consumer, who is also an employee, bringing these devices into the corporate environment and demanding connectivity to enterprise systems as well as mobile enterprise applications that provide the same convenience as his personal applications. Social networks are the third trend that many IT managers are struggling with: how can employee collaboration be improved through the implementation of social platforms that are managed by Enterprise IT, and how can the public social networks be mined for information that can only be meaningful if it is integrated with core enterprise systems?
The convergence of these trends is creating a complexity that is an order of magnitude greater than our previous generation IT environment. It is therefore more important than ever to develop an architecture blueprint that enables us to manage this complexity. The seminar starts with a description of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and how it can provide the fabric that unifies these new initiatives.