IT research company Gartner, Inc. highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2014.
Technology Trends for 2014
Mobile Device Diversity and Management
The advent of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and rapidly emerging platforms using diverse software bases are now a reality. Long gone are the days of PC or Apple iMac, every organisation will have to cater to its employees and customers using a host of devices to access and process data via different platforms
Mobile Apps and Applications
Computing has gone mobile and this genie is not going back in the bottle. With browsers becoming the new platform for program execution, applications are giving way to apps which are much focused and have a very small foot print. Applications will continue to be pushed back in terms of use into the domain of specialists and developers while the masses will switch over to Apps.
The Internet of Everything
Internet connectivity is no longer limited to PCs or laptops, tied to WiFi hotspots, internet has successfully created beachheads in our communication system (mobile devices), our living rooms (Smart TVs). The Internet is expanding beyond PCs and mobile devices into enterprise assets such as field equipment, and consumer items such as cars and televisions.
Hybrid Cloud and IT as a Service Broker
Bringing together personal clouds and external private cloud services is an imperative. Enterprises should design private cloud services with a hybrid future in mind and make sure future integration/interoperability is possible. As the technology mature and expands more uses are sure to emerge that would leverage it for business.
Cloud/Client Architecture
With ever increasing capabilities in mobile devices, the increased demand on networks, the cost of networks and the need to manage bandwidth use creates incentives, in some cases, to minimize the cloud application computing and storage footprint, and to exploit the intelligence and storage of the client device. However, the increasingly complex demands of mobile users will drive apps to demand increasing amounts of server-side computing and storage capacity.
The Era of Personal Cloud
Users areusing a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device is the primary hub anymore. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared from the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself.
Software Defined Anything
Software-defined anything (SDx) is a collective term that encapsulates the growing market momentum for improved standards for infrastructure programmability and data center interoperability driven by automation inherent to cloud computing, DevOps and fast infrastructure provisioning.
Web-Scale IT
Large cloud services providers such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc., are re-inventing the way IT in which IT services can be delivered. Their capabilities go beyond scale in terms of sheer size to also include scale as it pertains to speed and agility. If enterprises want to keep pace, then they need to emulate the architectures, processes and practices of these exemplary cloud providers.
Smart Machine
By 2020, the smart machine era will blossom with a proliferation of contextually aware, intelligent personal assistants, smart advisors (such as IBM Watson), advanced global industrial systems and public availability of early examples of autonomous vehicles. The smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT.
3-D Printing
Worldwide shipments of 3D printers are expected to grow 75 percent in 2014 followed by a near doubling of unit shipments in 2015. The consumer market hype has made organizations aware of the fact 3D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing.
Deepak Wadhwani has over 20 years experience in software/wireless technologies. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, ESRI, Qualcomm, Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone, Nortel, Microsoft and Oracle in over 60 countries. Deepak has worked on Internet marketing projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange Country, Denver, Nashville, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco and Huntsville. Deepak has been a founder of technology Startups for one of the first Cityguides, yellow pages online and web based enterprise solutions. He is an internet marketing and technology expert & co-founder for a San Diego Internet marketing company.
