Over a quarter of businesses are not equipped to deal with the convergence of new technologies, including mobility, social networks, big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things, according to research from international standards organisation The Open Group.
The study, which questioned 140 organisations, found that while 95 percent of respondents believed the convergence of these technologies represented an opportunity for business, a significant proportion are still ill-equipped to take advantage of them.
According to the findings, mobility currently has the greatest take-up of these technologies (50 percent), and the Internet of Things has the least (17 percent) – arguably because it is a relatively new concept.
Security (57 percent), vendor lock-in (51 percent), integration (45 percent), and regulatory compliance (42 percent) are the main obstacles that are encountered or foreseen by respondents, when it comes to software that enables the use of these convergent technologies for business purposes.
Dr Chris Harding of The Open Group said: “Over the past few years industry analysts and practitioners have noted the convergence of four to six technologies which offer the potential to create new business models and system designs.
“However, they also pose architectural issues and structural considerations which will need to be overcome in order for businesses to benefit.”
He said: “These findings confirm the value of an open platform to protect users of these technologies from vendor lock-in. They also show that security is a key concern that must be addressed, that the platform must make the technologies easy to use, and that it must enable them to be used in combination.”
The Open Group has established the Open Platform 3.0 Forum to help organisations address the concerns expressed in the survey.
