Gartner’s top tech list for 2012

Journalists love top ten predictions; mainly because they have every chance of being wrong. However, Gartner has a strong track record in these things, and is old and wise enough not to stick its corporate neck out too far. And so to the top ten technologies for 2012. Strategic technologies, that is – those that have the potential for “significant impact” on the enterprise in the next three years. As VP and Gartner fellow David Cearley explains:

 

“These top 10 technologies will be strategic for most organizations, and IT leaders should use this list in their strategic planning process by reviewing the technologies and how they fit into their expected needs.”

 

In no particular order, here is Gartner’s list:

 

* Media Tablets and Beyond

* Mobile-Centric Applications and Interfaces

* Contextual and Social User Experience

* Internet of Things

* App Stores and Marketplaces

* Next-Generation Analytics

* Big Data

* In-Memory Computing

* Extreme Low-Energy Servers

* Cloud Computing

 

Here’s a précis of Gartner’s explanations and thoughts about the technologies on the list. For a more detailed analysis, visit Gartner’s own web site.

 

Media Tablets and Beyond: Companies should expect to manage a diverse environment with two to four intelligent clients through 2015.

IT leaders need a managed diversity program to address multiple form factors, as well as employees bringing their own smartphones and tablets into the workplace.

 

Mobile-Centric Applications and Interfaces: The user interface in place for more than 20 years is changing, replaced by mobile-centric interfaces emphasizing touch, gesture, search, voice and video. Applications are likely to shift to more focused and simple apps that can be assembled into more complex solutions.

 

Contextual and Social User Experience: Through 2013, context aware applications will appear in targeted areas such as location-based services, augmented reality on mobile devices, and mobile commerce.

 

Internet of Things: Key elements include embedded sensors, image recognition and NFC.

 

App Stores and Marketplaces: Gartner forecasts that by 2014, there will be more than 70 billion mobile application downloads from app stores every year. Enterprises should use a managed diversity approach to focus on app store efforts and segment apps by risk and value.

 

Next-Generation Analytics: Analytics is growing three ways; from traditional offline analytics to in-line embedded analytics; from analyzing historical data to explain what happened to analyzing data from multiple systems to predict the future; and from structured and simple data analyzed by individuals to analysis of complex information from many systems.

 

Big Data: The size, complexity of formats and speed of delivery exceeds the capabilities of traditional data management technologies. Users will not be able to put all useful information into a single data warehouse. Logical data warehouses bringing together information from multiple sources will replace the single data warehouse model.

 

In-Memory Computing: As cost and availability of memory intensive hardware platforms reach tipping points in 2012 and 2013, the in-memory approach will enter the mainstream.

 

Extreme Low-Energy Servers: The potential advantage is delivering 30 times or more processors in a particular server unit with lower power consumption compared with current server approaches.

 

Cloud Computing: Cloud is a disruptive force and has the potential for broad long-term impact in most industries. As Microsoft continues to expand its cloud offering, and traditional enterprise players such as Oracle, IBM and SAP expand offerings, users will see competition heat up and enterprise-level cloud services increase. Hybrid cloud computing will be a major focus for 2012. With private clouds, IT will be challenged to bring operations and development groups closer together using DevOps concepts to approach the speed and efficiencies of public cloud service providers.