David CearleyGartner, Inc.’s top 10 strategy technology trends
have the potential for significant impact on organizations in
the next three years. While this doesn’t mean adoption and
investment in all of the trends will occur at the same rate,
companies should make deliberate decisions about them
during the next two years. The trends cover three themes:
the merging of the real and virtual worlds, the advent of
intelligence everywhere, and the technology impact of the
digital business shift.
Computing Everywhere
As mobile devices continue to proliferate, Gartner predicts an
increased emphasis on serving the needs of the mobile user in
diverse contexts and environments, as opposed to focusing on
devices alone.
The Internet of Things
The combination of data streams and services created by
digitizing everything creates four basic usage models —
Manage, Monetize, Operate and Extend.
3D Printing
3D printing will reach a tipping point over the next three
years as the market for relatively low-cost 3D printing
devices continues to grow rapidly and industrial use expands
significantly.
Context-Rich Systems
Ubiquitous embedded intelligence combined with pervasive
analytics will drive the development of systems that are alert
to their surroundings and able to respond appropriately.
Smart Machines
Prototype autonomous vehicles, advanced robots, virtual
personal assistants and smart advisors already exist and will
evolve rapidly, ushering in a new age of machine helpers. The
smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of
IT.
Cloud/Client Computing
The convergence of cloud and mobile computing will
continue to promote the growth of centrally coordinated
applications that can be delivered to any device.
Software-Defined Applications and Infrastructure
Agile programming of everything from applications to basic
infrastructure is essential to enable organisations to deliver the
flexibility required to make the digital business work.
Web-Scale IT
Web-scale IT is a pattern of global-class computing that
delivers the capabilities of large cloud service providers within
an enterprise IT setting. More organizations will begin thinking,
acting and building applications and infrastructure like Web
giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook.
Risk-Based Security and Self-Protection
All roads to the digital future lead through security. However,
in a digital business world, security cannot be a roadblock that
stops all progress. Organizations will increasingly recognize
that it is not possible to provide a 100 percent secured
environment. Once organizations acknowledge that, they
can begin to apply more-sophisticated risk assessment and
mitigation tools.
