Looking forward to 2013

Despite the wisdom of my good friend Mike, I wrote a recap post this year. And since the wheel has been greased, I figured I’d also throw together a short predictions post to close out the year. It’s been quiet here for the past week as I’ve been hiding out (er, vacationing) and pretty much sleeping all day, every day with a serious case of the flu. Don’t feel bad – I’ve been able to get some much needed rest. And it took the flu to get me to slow down for a few days and rest. So I’m just about done resting, and thought I’d sneak one final post into the mix before running off to New Years parties at my sister’s house, and then at a friend’s house here in town. The kids are chomping at the bit, ready to get going, but first my thoughts on what to expect in 2013:

• Governance will continue to be the number one topic of concern for teams deploying and managing SharePoint.
• For the next several months, I think we’re going to see some deep introspection from SharePoint teams on whether they should make the move to SP2013 or stay where they are for another year. I predict that the transition to the new version will be slower than the last change, populated mostly by
• Organizations not yet on 2010, who will instead make the jump directly to 2013.
• Organizations looking to move to SharePoint Online, either through Office365 or some other dedicated hosted solution.
• More organizations will lay out their strategies for social. It’s not a fad, folks. As the gap between end user enthusiasm and business alignment tightens (meaning, as more companies figure out how social should be used within their organizations) then more companies will begin outlining their formal social strategies. It’s not about features, but about strategic value.
• Along with the additional focus on social will come questions (and solutions) for compliance and governance within the social space. It’s inevitable. As more and more collaboration happens across the social tools, the need for maintaining visibility, security, and control will increase.
• Someone will come up with something more meaningful than “the cloud” which deserves Platitude of the Year for 2012. Please, people, let the term die.
• Someone will pitch a USB external drive as a “private cloud” solution. I already call my drives this, but I bet you that someone, somewhere, actually tries to market an external drive this way. And we’ll all laugh.
• Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez will get back together. I just know it. You have to believe.

And that’s it for me. The kids are pestering me to get going, so I’m going to head out. I head back out on the road this week, making my way to SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach to celebration the 5th anniversary of SPS, followed by a week in the Boston office. If I don’t see you in Virginia Beach this weekend, I’m sure I’ll see you soon enough in 2013. Happy New Year!