Bob's 2008 Predictions

As the turning of a new year takes me further into middle age (if this is my halfway point, I will live to 106), I feel that I have accumulated enough IT related wisdom to comfortably afford parting with some of it.  The following does not necessarily represent the opinions of the staff or management of Redemtech:

1. The EPA will promote lower standards for electronics recycling.  The esteemed government agency has been laboring for years to achieve consensus among a multitude of interest groups seeking to have the uber environmentalists establish official guidelines for e-recyclers.   I am happy to report that our EPA will officially frown on anyone trying to dump toxic electronic waste in the basements of elementary schools or the arts and crafts rooms of nursing homes. It will, however, be perfectly OK to export e-waste to developing countries, process scrap with prison labor, or send the really nasty stuff up the smokestacks of metal smelters.

2. Many companies will continue using the better-to-be-lucky-than-good theory to manage privacy compliance.  The Ponemon Institute study on "The Insecurity of Off-Network Security" documented that while the majority of companies report suffering a data breach in the last two years, a similar majority does not enforce their existing policies pertaining to off-network security.  The same study reported that nearly one-third of businesses claim they would never even notice the loss of a data-bearing asset.  Since most incidents do not result in the misuse of breached data, it appears that identity thieves are not any more thorough than the average privacy regulated business--though I'm sure both can improve.

3. Companies will continue being rude to Windows Vista.  Microsoft introduced its beautiful new operating system a year ago, but very few businesses were smitten.  CIOs asked for one good reason to dance with this latest, largest Windows, and most of them decided wait and see if Microsoft would put more lipstick on it.  I predict that XP will continue to groove while Vista sits in the bleachers throughout 2008. Businesses will opt to extend asset lifecycles and ignore the awful truth: there will eventually be a Vista on everyone's desktop--except for a few holdouts belonging to the Young Socialists Linux User's Group.

4. Green is the new good.  Once upon an ITAM time, residual value recovery was the most important thing.  Then data security was the most important thing.  Then low cost was the most important thing.  Now a survey of CIOs conducted by Executive Healthcare Magazine is reporting, and by a wide margin, that Green is the truly most important thing.  I predict that organizations committing to more sustainable IT operations will discover that the policies and capabilities required for greater greeness will make the CFO and CSO just as happy as the Chief Green Officer--it's just good business.

5. Redemtech will continue to get better. I am impressed every day by what my colleagues are accomplishing on behalf of our customers.  In the next year we will debut major new developments in logistics, recycling, and residual value recovery.  We will release innovative new reporting capabilities that will extract more value out of the data we maintain for our customers.  And on most days, most of us will have a lot of fun doing more good work.  2008 is going to be a great year!