Imagine a world in which organizations can communicate with their consumers, as and when they choose to. Imagine a world where organizations can use these interactions to personalize every user experience, across contexts, locations and demographics. Imagine a world where an organization's value proposition is an intrinsic feature of their customers' lives. Recent technological developments mean that the scenarios detailed here are no longer well constructed hypotheses, but realities achievable through planning and diligence.

Omnipresence has long been the holy grail of global enterprise. This year, the number of internet-connected mobile devices will exceed the number of humans on the planet. Factor in the development of sensor and radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled devices, near field communication (NFC) and augmented reality (AR) applications along with the impending proliferation of wearable computing devices and the future of computing becomes apparent.

By harnessing these technological developments, organizations now have the opportunity to deploy enterprise computing on a scale previously unimaginable, blurring the lines between personal and professional computing. Businesses can now communicate with consumers in a seamless and non-intrusive manner that makes users internalize the enterprise process, creating and facilitating new avenues of engagement. This technology driven ability is what we at Wipro call ubiquitous enterprise. While ubiquity is set to change the way organizations conduct business and deploy IT systems, it also necessitates a fundamental change in the approach to framework creation and deployment. These new-generation IT architectures will need to reshape themselves based on the edge-device being used for access. This would mean a three-step change for business:

• Enterprise IT systems will now have to shift their current focus on efficiency to a one centered on effectiveness; this also means a move from being a system of record (data) to a system of engagement (customer focus) and a reduction in the number of platforms and applications.
• IT departments will need to use new age development methods, polyglot programming, automated, agile development, and enterprise app stores for rapid response to market needs.
• The creation of multi-channel, variable functionality with always-on computing architectures that employ effective, context-aware applications will be imperative to massive scale benefits, reducing cost and increasing returns per transaction.

In order to be comprehensive and effective, a CIO's IT infrastructure plan must take the five following areas of impact into consideration:

• Impact on end user devices
• Impact on enterprise computing requirement
• Impact on enterprise storage requirement
• Impact on security requirement
• Impact on networking requirement

The Internet, smartphones, and more recently, wearable computing are just a few instances of technology assisting and enhancing a user's interactions in everyday life. Ubiquitous enterprise frameworks incorporate smart systems that will perform tasks such as data mining, analytics, repair and maintenance autonomously, thereby mobilizing the workforce into value intensive tasks.

Early adoption will be the key as the organizations that start the soonest will adapt the best, in addition to gaining a monumental first-mover advantage. Diligent implementation of an adaptable IT framework in this process, undoubtedly expected to evolve, will be a key differentiator between organizations that thrive in a ubiquitous world and those that don't.

G. K. Prasanna - President & Head, Marketing, Innovations & Technology, Wipro, Ltd.

G. K. Prasanna is the Chief Executive for Global Infrastructure Services (GIS).

Prasanna took over as the head of the Global Infrastructure Services (GIS) in 2013. GIS is Wipro's strategic business unit, accounting for over 33% of the organization's revenue and provides a vast portfolio of services spanning cloud services, systems integration, managed services, and total outsourcing in a global delivery model.

He was also responsible for Product Engineering Services (PES) function & Wipro EcoEnergy, in his earlier role. EcoEnergy is the recently formed Clean Tech business division of Wipro, with a vision to create and manage sustainable energy solutions and infrastructure worldwide.

Prior to this role, Prasanna was Sr. Vice President & Global Head for Technology Strategic business unit of Wipro Limited. This business serves Semiconductor, Consumer electronics, Computing, Storage, Peripherals and Software companies and has several Fortune 100 companies as its customers. He led a team of over 9500 professionals in Engineering, Consulting, IT and BPO services.

Prasanna also led the Technology Infrastructure Services Business of Wipro Limited. He was responsible for establishing Wipro as a Global leader in that space and has implemented award winning innovations to advance the practice. Under his leadership, Wipro has pioneered Remote Infrastructure Management and created a new industry sub-category in Global IT services.

He has conducted several workshops on outsourcing and has certifications in various quality systems including Six Sigma and ITIL.

Prasanna has an experience of over 30 years in the IT industry. He joined Wipro as a management trainee in 1983 and has held various responsibilities in custom application development, customer support, sales, marketing and business management.

Prasanna holds a bachelor degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and a Post-graduation in Industrial engineering from NITIE, Bombay.