One of my many jobs is to look at technologies and evaluate them for inclusion in my companies portfolio. Do we add this solution or that solution, what direction is the cloud going to take us, what is the next big application to virtualize? I figured since I am doing this for work anyway I may as well post some predictions for this year here as well. Hope you enjoy, what are your 2013 Tech predictions?

It is no small secret that I believe in Converged Infrastructure (CI) in fact I believe that as we see the per-desktop price drop for VDI solutions we will see the number of businesses moving towards it increase. It’s basic supply and demand, the current issue is cost while the software vendors have realized this and bundled server and concurrent desktop usage licenses together.  

Mitel and now Avaya have virtual instances of their telephony solution, as budgets continue to shrink savings will be sought throughout any organization. The ability to utilize SIP and “future-proof” business critical voice services through software based solutions rather than physical hardware will show huge dividends in ROI. Forresters reported that Mitel has a 84% ROI in just 7.8 months that is a system that pays for itself. 

I am not sure this will actually happen, but it makes a lot of sense. While Microsoft strengthens it’s virtual infrastructure footprint it will pressure Citrix into completely dissolving all hopes of XenServer (this is already done). Once Hyper-V is the sole host provider for Citrix XenDesktop (XenApp is already been killed off by Citrix) they will look to consume the remainder of the solution because Microsoft virtual desktop has issues with scaling which is why they need Citrix now. In true Microsoft fashion I see them buying the solution to their problem rather than fixing it and Citrix is the logical choice. Now what to do with the Netscaler?

It’s already started with the Surface, Microsoft is moving towards an Apple-esque model of Hardware & Software manufacturer. Making a move on the Enterprise side of the business will be tougher, but if they do acquire Citrix than the Netscaler can be one of their first big transition show pieces. Other products are sure to follow in years to come but I think this year we will see the start of more Microsoft Hardware offerings.

The cost of owning and managing a fully redundant private cloud is to high to not look at what public cloud offers. The initial moves will be non-business critical applications, but as the cloud application development cycle starts producing more and more winners larger moves will take place. Last year saw a huge jump in the number of apps being developed in the cloud that would indicate that this year should be the year that these apps come to market. The cloud is coming there is no doubt about it but security concerns will keep the most used model hybrid until those get resolved or the cost savings offset the risks.

This is really more of a personal wish than anything that I would predict, wishful thinking and all that.