The Internet of Things is on the way. The keyword when it comes to manufacturing and logistics is: Industry 4.0. In the BIKTOM survey on the most important trends, it has now been mentioned for the first time as one of the top five topics in the IT industry. With 64% of responses, cloud computing is in first place, and the issue of security, which in the wake of the NSA scandal briefly took over the top position last year, is in second place with 61%. Big data and analysis of large volumes of data is in third place with 48%, closely followed by Industry 4.0 in fourth place with a respectable 42% of responses.
With 40%, mobile computing comes in fifth, thus dropping down two places from last year’s third place ranking. Another important trend the surveyed IT companies mentioned was Enterprise 2.0, the use of social networks and IT-based forms of collaboration in the company. In contrast, the topics of social media and social business have clearly decreased in importance, falling from 28% last year to their current rating of only 16%.
The survey by the industry association also showed, however, significant differences between the estimates of big versus medium-sized companies. While big data analytics is considered an important topic by 60% of big companies, this is the case for only 44% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Industry 4.0, too, is a hot topic in 52% of big companies, but only in 39% of SMEs. Exactly the opposite is the case in mobile computing: 43% of SMEs consider the topic to be of great importance, but only 29% of large companies do. (resource: BIKTOM/rf)