In the days immediately following Prime Minister Renzi's visit to Silicon Valley, aimed at arousing new interest in this district of excellence in our country, the Oracle Open World event was held in San Francisco, which the large American multinational informatics organizes annually as a reference point of the technological developments taking place in this fundamental branch of modern society. For four days there were meetings, debates, demonstration events, contacts between operators from all over the world, with tens of thousands of visitors who literally invaded, in addition to the imposing buildings of the Moscone Center, venue of the event, also the streets of the Californian capital .
In his inaugural speech, Larry Ellison, historic founder and still main exponent of Oracle Corporation, outlined the lines of information technology for the next few years, with implications that go beyond the aspects associated with the expected technological and business developments. In fact, the intervention led to elements of reflection on a future, which makes information processing its absolute center of gravity.
In presenting Oracle's market strategies, Ellison focused on three macro directions of the IT industry, both as separate parts and in their interdependencies. These lines are represented by the phenomena of Big Data, the Cloud and the need for "re-engineering" of hardware and software depending on the evolution of the first two profiles. Guidelines emerge for the construction of universal information systems, in which flexibility, cost-effectiveness and security constitute objectives for companies and institutions on which to set investment programs with a highly innovative content.
The Big Data question concerns the absolute dimension of information, which can be extended indefinitely to all phenomena of human action, from economic to social life, from culture to science, from communication to politics. More extensive and analytical information from external and internal sources to be placed at the basis of increasingly complex decision-making processes is a common request for all organizations. But the phenomenon must be seen from an even more general perspective, as it can even trigger new cognitive processes with the transition from knowledge that today is inferred on a probabilistic basis from sample information to knowledge that can be obtained from a complete potential of information pertaining to each aspect to be analyzed .
The so-called social networks then open up perspectives yet to be explored, based on information, practically without limits, coming from individuals, both as singles and as belonging to the various forms of sociality. The continuous shifting of the frontier according to the Big Data approach therefore has not only scientific value, but also opens up, with ameliorative intentions, the management of human capital, focusing on the knowledge obtainable from the same communication relationships.
The Cloud is the technological and organizational response to the needs of exploiting this enormous information potential, which requires to be placed outside the user, in a multiplicity of Data Centers (without it being essential for the user to know their actual location ), with greater processing capacity (thanks to ever more powerful machines and more flexible applications, but also to decreasing costs) and connection speed (thanks to the growing use of optical fiber), according to protocols and languages, capable of maximizing the performance.
The Cloud, in public and private form, is destined to become the new terrestrial network accessible by individuals and organizations, where storage, processing, speed of access, availability of data also in terms of specific aggregation needs, comparative analyses, integrations and interrelationships they are organized and made available according to the methods of the service, i.e. through platforms, infrastructures and applications managed and sold as services that can be personalized on demand.
With the transfer of these processes to the Cloud, the balance between internal and external management of information is destined to change radically. The third trend, which Ellison has effectively summarized with the expression Applications in Silicon, pertains above all to the fundamental issue of information security and to the hesitations, so far expressed above all by larger organizations and companies towards the Cloud, regarding the protection data and other sensitive information from unauthorized access.
The development of applications built and installed directly on hardware means, in a nutshell, that the codes will no longer be attacked by application malware, i.e. by forms of computer piracy and its continuous and increasingly fearsome evolutions. This technological development is a novelty of absolute importance because, according to the most recurring slogan of the event, “Hardware and Software
It is appropriate to ask ourselves about the possibilities that this scenario can concretely direct the choices of technological renewal that our country and our companies must inescapably and quickly make. To limit the issue to companies, especially medium-sized ones, the question of greater efficiency of information systems does not yet receive sufficient attention from management and also the economic value of information technology in the development of production activities must be more consciously acquired.
The delays are perceptible by reading the annual report of Assinform of Confindustria, dedicated to the digital evolution in our country, which expressly recognizes the gaps to be filled in the renewal of IT applications and in the topics of Big Data, the Cloud and IT security. Italian government policies have also focused decisively on digitization for the renewal of the Public Administration.
Who can act as a catalyst for the Italian company on these requests, proposing solutions based on a more systematic propensity for innovation, are the specialized companies that offer outsourced IT services, of which our country, with elements of originality in comparison with others, boasts many years of experience, especially referring to the banking world both for the management of infrastructures and applications.
These specific skills and the technological trends in progress make these entities almost the natural vehicle, able to extend their offer also to the advantage of manufacturing companies and public utilities, contributing to the systematic diffusion of Big Data and the Cloud.Many of these IT realities are ready to invest, having to, by their very nature, remain technologically aligned with the evolutions in progress, with the guarantee of ensuring that all their customers in any economic sector belong to the same operational and assistance levels, certified according to international standards in terms of quality and safety and at lower costs than an in-house management of the IT variable.
Today, seizing these possibilities for renewal, to be promoted together with outsourcers, would also allow companies to access the financial contributions of the European programs for innovation (the current one is called Horizon 2020), benefits which, notoriously, our production system is been able to use only minimally. In short, there are all the ingredients (from the technological options available, to government guidelines, from specialized IT structures for the distribution of services, to Community financial aid) to proceed rapidly in the desired direction, certainly not leaving last the consideration of the stimuli which, this approach, they would receive both the applied research and the skills of our graduates, according to the growing IT needs of companies.
It is a new frontier to be advanced, in which everything is ready and appears destined for success in the medium term. Unfortunately, one obstacle seems to remain in the field, so significant that it alone can counterbalance the positive elements indicated above; it is represented by our cultural frontier, which, in other words, is called absolute defense of acquired positions, applied to all contexts, including the organization of private enterprise. In fact, bureaucracy is not an exclusive public prerogative.
In every context, to renew itself, more turnover is needed, even in the less visible functions of the managers of the IT structures of companies, as well as in an entrepreneurship that has yet to fully understand the importance of Information Technology in creating value for its own specific activities. If we don't do it, the virtuous circle in front of us, a real opportunity not to be missed, runs the risk of being just a Fata Morgana, as technological as you like, but which, remaining confined to intentions, will soon and definitively thin out to make room for our least enmeshed competitors.
