Cloud computing and cyber security have been identified by analyst firm Deloitte Australia as disruptive technologies that will impact organisations during 2013.
Speaking at a media briefing in Sydney, Deloitte Consulting technology lead partner Robert Hillard ran through the fourth annual Tech Trends Report entitled Elements of Post Digital.
Cyber security
“We believe that 2013 will see organisations take a measured approach to cyber security,” he said.
“There will be one or more incidents that will occur around popular products that consumers use that will cause people to lose confidence in those products,” he said.
According to Hillard, this is based on incidents which happened in the past such as the Sony PlayStation Network data breach of 2011.
While the future security incident “won’t be fatal”, he said there will be a reversion and rival trusted companies will have an opportunity to partner with consumers.
“It’s not about setting up a wall but about risk management,” he said. “Companies need to be very clear on what type of security breach could occur and what guarantees have been put in place in the advent of a breach.”
Hillard added that consumers need companies who will manage security risks on their behalf and will be transparent about those risks.
Cloud computing
“With cloud what we are seeing is a much more distributed way of looking at business logic,” he said.
“We are now seeing transactions potentially being distributed across many countries and it is all done in real-time.”
However, the disruptive nature of cloud could impact Australia’s digital economy in the future as activities that were previously done in country could be moved offshore.
Mobile
Turning to mobile technology, Hillard said that the features and functions that get the most publicity have nothing to do with the physical device of the phone but everything to do with cloud services such as iTunes that have been provided over those devices.
“The winners in the handset wars are actually going to focus very heavily on increasing the understanding of consumers about those cloud offerings and finding effective ways to monetise them,” he said.
According to Hillard, consumers don’t want to walk into a store and be offered the choice of a 2GB or 5GB download plan.
“The smart option will be to have phones that have pre-packaged unlimited use of a range of applications and the ability to add apps over time,” he said.
Social networking
Turning to social networking, he said companies need to start using Facebook in a more effective manner to connect with customers.
However in 2013, there were a number of inhibitors with social networking sites.
“There needs to be a confidence in these networks that they won’t change their privacy policies,” he said.
In addition, consumers needed to “get smarter” about the information they share online.
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