For my first blog of the New Year I think I should start with a few predictions. First prediction is that for a lot people, in a lot of previously safe places, this is going to be a tough year. No surprises here then. The next prediction is that for those of us lucky enough to be in the right place, this could be a year of opportunity as well as risk. There will be fewer margins of error. We will all have to get it right first time.
Having said that, and I must admit a certain guilt at this, here at iergo we seem to be thriving. Take up of our free online course has been fantastic and with it has come an awareness of the need to get the right training, the right skills and the right partnerships in place to see big data migration projects home on time and to budget. We will have to see how the year pans out but from the number of enquiries things are certainly going to be busy.
It seems to be true that for those companies with vision (and not carrying too much debt on the balance sheet) projects are going ahead in anticipation of a return to more sane times albeit if budgets are being tightened and delivery phased into stages. Fortunately Data Migration practice and software has matured and the days of the all or nothing, Big Bang migration seem to be ending.
Another thing I've noticed is that I think I'm beginning to see the second phase migrations. By this I mean I've been in the business of Data Migrations long enough now to start seeing plans to replace the very systems I helped in their original migrations! Both hardware and software is reaching the end of its life expectancy and much as a lot of companies would be happy to delay doing anything into the distant future their hands are being forced by technological gerontology. There comes a point when systems become unsupportable and eventually unsupported and, I guess, as we come up to a decade on from the great watershed of the turn of the millennium, a lot of the systems planned for and installed back then are reaching the end of their natural life.
But, wherever you are, here's to a good year for you.
Johny Morris
