What’s hot and profitable in 2009?

With a slowdown in spending set to continue over the next several months, it makes good sense to identify new opportunities that increase business.

To help with this goal, CRN has been investigating the hottest trends and technologies for 2009.

Through interviews with various analysts, resellers, distributors and vendors over the past month, we are now able to share with you the most important technologies customers will seek over the next 12 months.

After speaking to a range of sources, 2009 is set to be the year of network management and data loss prevention.

Other technologies that are set to do well are software-as-a-service and virtualisation.

With this broad range of technologies, there is something for everyone in the channel.

Network management has been driven by the rapid growth of VoIP, video conferencing and wireless technologies.

Managing infrastructure and traffic has proven a boon for the expanding number of businesses in the channel with a networking play.

A key driver for the network management market has been the healthy growth of the mobility space.

As businesses increasingly invest in mobile connectivity solutions, mobile security will also play a large role in network managment as encryption and authentication become increasingly vital in securing data.

Furthermore, as Australia’s workforce continues its transition to mobility, data and identity theft have become real threats that require tailored security solutions.

The explosion of sophisticated smartphones has created opportunities for resellers to sell technologies that secure sensitive information stored on these devices.

Changes to Australia’s privacy laws will further push growth in data loss prevention technologies where customer fears are creating a lucrative market.

Companies such as CA, Tumbleweed and Trend Micro have all created offerings to quell the fears of a worried market.

These loss prevention solutions are helping companies meet their regulatory compliance standards, while ensuring they can protect their IP and other privileged information.

Darren Tan
PMP division manager at Synnex

I think Intel Core i7 processor (codenamed “Nehalem”) — a high-performance processor — will be big next year.

It brings server technology into the desktop space.

The desktop processor is based on Intel’s upcoming new micro-architecture.

It’s one of the first products in this new family of processors, including an ‘Extreme Edition’ version.

The initial products will be based on micro-architecture and are expected to be in production in the fourth quarter of 2008.

These processors will feature Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, also known as simultaneous multi-threading, and apparently will be able to handle eight software threads on four processor cores.

The other [technology] that will be in demand will be storage.

All types of storage, from external to portable storage, will be needed as end-users produce more and more data.

In 2009, I think we will be transitioning resellers from selling desktops to notebooks.

We will be looking at how we can assist resellers to adapt to the changes in the marketplace.

Also in the new year, Green IT will be in the conscious mind of consumers.

End-users will want to understand more about the natural resources of the planet and what part they can play in saving it.

Vendors are coming out with products that are more energy-efficient to save on the consumption of power.

End-users will look at systems that don’t consume too much energy.

We will look at partnering with vendors to develop awareness out there on using the right product.

Jean-Marc Annonier
Research manager for IT spending at IDC

Mobility is definitely going to be high on the agenda next year.

Australian businesses will need to maintain their level of activity in some way.

They will need to send more people on the road to find pockets of opportunity.

There will be a phase of activity in 2009 where salespeople will be trying to find new business and that will be very good for mobility.

Everything regarding voice will continue to be very [popular].

Teleconferencing and video conferencing will probably replace a lot of business travel.

Security software will also continue to be a hot topic as hackers are not going to stop due to the recession. They will probably increase.

I see virtualisation as the hottest topic in software and its going to drive services as well.

There are different aspects to virtualisation.

We all know about server virtualisation because it started there but now we are looking at the desktop.

It’s still not very well adopted, but Citrix and VMWare are deploying new systems there.

The product is there, there is still some convincing to be done in the marketplace.

It’s quite a big step to remove all your desktops and replace them with thin clients and run it all in the data centre.

Green IT is going to have a huge impact on the IT industry.

In the coming years there will be a carbon trading scheme.

When this happens, you’re going to see the price of everything going up due to its attached carbon footprint.

One of the solutions is to use power-efficient devices such as new PCs, laptops or thin clients.

The other way is reduce consumption in the data centre by virtualising.