From November 3 to 7, leading IT research corp Gartner, is organizinig ITxpo 2008 in Cannes, France. This is a great opportunity for the company to expose the main trends in information technologies They have identified 10 main strategic technologies for next year:1. Virtualisation
Much of the current buzz is focused on server virtualisation, but virtualisation in storage and client devices is also moving rapidly. Virtualisation to eliminate duplicate copies of data on the real storage devices while maintaining the illusion to the accessing systems that the files are as originally stored (data deduplication) can significantly decrease the cost of storage devices and media to hold information. Hosted virtual images deliver a near-identical result to blade-based PCs but, instead of the motherboard function being located in the data centre as hardware, it is located there as a virtual machine bubble. However, despite ambitious deployment plans from many organisations, deployments of hosted virtual desktop capabilities will be adopted by fewer than 40% of target users by 2010.
2. Cloud computing
Cloud computing is a style of computing that characterises a model in which providers deliver a variety of IT-enabled capabilities to consumers. The key characteristics of cloud computing are:
- delivery of capabilities ’as a service’,
- delivery of services in a highly scalable and elastic fashion,
- using Internet technologies and techniques to develop and deliver the services, and
- designing for delivery to external customers. Although cost is a potential benefit for small companies, the biggest benefits are the built-in elasticity and scalability, which not only reduce barriers to entry, but also enable these companies to grow quickly. As certain IT functions are industrialising and becoming less customised, there are more possibilities for larger organisations to benefit from cloud computing.
Servers are evolving beyond the blade server stage that exists today. This evolution will simplify the provisioning of capacity to meet growing needs. The organisation tracks the various resource types, for example, memory, separately and replenishes only the type that is in short supply. This eliminates the need to pay for all three resource types to upgrade capacity. It also simplifies the inventory of systems, eliminating the need to track and purchase various sizes and configurations. The result will be higher utilisation because of lessened ’waste’ of resources that are in the wrong configuration, or that come along with the needed processors and memory in a fixed bundle.
4. Web-oriented architectures
The Internet is arguably the best example of an agile, interoperable and scalable service-oriented environment in existence. This level of flexibility is achieved because of key design principles inherent in the Internet/Web approach, as well as the emergence of Web-centric technologies and standards that promote these principles. The use of Web-centric models to build global-class solutions cannot address the full breadth of enterprise computing needs. However, Gartner expects that continued evolution of the Web-centric approach will enable its use in an ever-broadening set of corporate solutions during the next five years.
5. Corporate mashups
Organisations are now investigating taking mashups from cool web hobby to corporate-class systems to augment their models for delivering and managing applications. Through 2010, the corporate mashup product environment will experience significant flux and consolidation, and application architects and IT leaders should investigate this growing space for the significant and transformational potential it may offer their organisations.
6. Specialised systems
Appliances have been used to accomplish IT purposes, but only with a few classes of function have appliances prevailed.
Heterogeneous systems are an emerging trend in high-performance computing to address the requirements of the most demanding workloads, and this approach will eventually reach the general purpose computing market. Heterogeneous systems are also specialised systems with the same single-purpose imitations of appliances, but the heterogeneous system is a server system into which the owner installs software to accomplish its function.
7. Social software and social networking
Social software includes a broad range of technologies, such as social networking, social collaboration, social media and social validation. Organisations should consider adding a social dimension to a conventional Web site or application and should adopt a social platform sooner rather than later because the greatest risk lies in failure to engage and thereby, being left mute in a dialogue where your voice must be heard.
8. Unified communications
During the next five years, the number of communications vendors with which a typical organisation works with will be reduced by at least 50%. This change is driven by increases in the capability of application servers and the general shift of communications applications to common off-the-shelf server and operating systems. As this occurs, formerly distinct markets, each with distinct vendors, converge, resulting in massive consolidation in the communications industry.
Organisations must build careful, detailed plans for when each category of communications function is replaced or converged, coupling this step with the prior completion of appropriate administrative team convergence.
9. Business intelligence
Business intelligence (BI), the top technology priority in Gartner’s 2008 chief information officer (CIO) survey, can have a direct positive impact on a company’s business performance, dramatically improving its ability to accomplish its mission by making smarter decisions at every level of the business from corporate strategy to operational processes. BI is particularly strategic because it is directed toward business managers and knowledge workers who make up the pool of thinkers and decision-makers that are tasked with running, growing and transforming the business. Tools that let these users make faster, better and more-informed decisions are particularly valuable in a difficult business environment.
10. Green IT
Shifting to more-efficient products and approaches can allow for more equipment to fit within an energy footprint, or to fit into a previously filled centre. Regulations are multiplying and have the potential to seriously constrain companies in building data centres, as the effect of power grids, carbon emissions from increased use and other environmental impacts are under scrutiny. Organisations should consider regulations and have alternative plans for data centre and capacity growth. "A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses," says Carl Claunch, vice-president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "It may also be an emerging technology that offers an opportunity for strategic business advantage for early adopters or with potential for significant market disruption in the next five years. Companies should evaluate these technologies and adjust based on their industry need, unique business needs, technology adoption model and other factors."
source: ICT world
