Mobile continuity concerns in five years

Richard Acreman says business continuity will continue to worry CIOs in a cloud-dependent world

Over the next five years, we will see a move away from software installed on devices; everything you need will be accessible from any device and browser and stored in the cloud.

You will have login details that can be used from any device and location, meaning people will depend less on their own devices.

As work and documents will be stored in the cloud, employees will not feel tied to one place and will be able to carry their work with them without needing a laptop to do so.

Imagine a scenario where you do not have a laptop. Instead, you connect your phone to a monitor, or even scan your fingerprint, to get instant access to all the files and programs you need.

This is like moving back to a time before PCs, when you went to any terminal and logged in to access the documents and applications you wanted to use.

Inevitably, things could go wrong. If important documents are stored online, you have to rely on the providers running the service to take care of the servers and the information held.

What could go wrong? For example, what if there were a natural disaster, or political instability? In the US during Hurricane Sandy, websites went down for a week.

As such, business continuity will continue to be a major concern for CIOs in coming years – especially as more people expect to work anywhere and any time.

Richard Acreman is chief executive of WM360