Now with More Insights: ISACA Opens New IT Commentary Channel

Making a risk judgment

Hobbyists who pursue the real world pastime of trainspotting (which famously shares its name with a seminal 1993 novel and 1996 film about Scottish heroin addicts) are like birdwatchers, using detailed lists to check off every type of train they observe firsthand in nature (so to speak). It's not exactly groundbreaking stuff. Thought leaders from many professional realms, on the other hand, frequently guide the course of enterprises large and small by engaging in the nearly homophonous activity of trendspotting.

 

Information technology being a highly trend-driven realm of professional endeavor, there are typically no shortage of sages attempting to predict tech's next big new direction. All trendspotters, however, are not created equal, so it's worth taking additional notice when a major IT industry group immerses itself in the currents of tech. And that's what the venerable experts at IT governance group ISACA have done with their new ISACA Insights service.

 

In a post to the ISACA Now Blog last week, ISACA Director of Emerging Business and Technology Ed Moyle announced the launch of ISACA Insights. As Moyle notes, timing very often is the whole ball game in IT, so it can be immensely helpful for a tech enterprise to know what direction the market where they make digital hay is heading, or what new forces might be about to impact existing business models.

 

The intent behind ISACA Insights is to identify emerging impactful trends and predict the course of trends that are already steering IT endeavors into groundbreaking territory. It's not immediately clear whether ISACA intends to man its new post at the IT long-range radar indefinitely, or whether ISACA Insights is itself a trend that may, as many trends do, quickly pass.

 

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For the moment, ISACA has pinpointed the 10 most influential trends that are currently affecting IT decision making:

 

1) Big Data analytics

2) Mobile technologies

3) Cloud computing

4) Machine learning

5) Internet of Things

6) Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

7) Social networking

8) Digital business models

9) Cybersecurity

10) Digital currency

 

OK, so most of those picks wouldn't quite have demanded a crystal ball, or even 40-watt light bulb, to identify. Far from simply creating a Top 10 list, however, ISACA has compiled a special report in each category to help business leaders know what they should do to get involved in each of these areas. The reports will be hosted at ISACA Insights, and can be downloaded free of charge (though registration is required).

 

A big part of ISACA's expertise is in risk assessment — its Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) credential was one of the top-salaried certs in Certification Magazine's recent annual salary survey — and, as Moyle points out, successfully evaluating risk requires looking at the whole picture. There are risks in rushing to adopt new technology, but also risks in waiting too long to take action.

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GoCertify's mission is to help both students and working professionals get IT certifications. GoCertify was founded in 1998 by Anne Martinez.