Gartner's Top 10 Strategic Technologies For 2009

Via Irena Guseva at CMSWire, another installment in the technology predictions game.

The Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009

Virtualization

Allows companies to get more IT bang for IT buck by using servers more effectively. "Much of the current buzz is focused on server virtualization, but virtualization in storage and client devices is also moving rapidly," writes Guseva, noting that VMWare and Microsoft's Hyper-V are locked in real-world battle for virtualization customers.

Cloud Computing
Gartner defines the key characteristics of cloud computing as:

1. SaaS capabilities
2. Delivery of services in a highly scalable and elastic fashion
3. Usage of Internet technologies and techniques to develop and deliver the services
4. Designing for delivery to external customers

"Some of the potential benefits of cloud computing include cost savings and the built-in elasticity (which) allow for lower barriers to entry and quick scalability and growth," writes Guseva. Amazon Web Services, Google Apps, IBM, HP and many others already providing services "in the cloud."

Beyond Blade Servers

Green IT is another buzz-worthy development, and this movement is continuing into the rack space as servers "continue to evolve beyond the blade server stage that exists today," making provisioning and inventory easier and bringing higher utilization rates as well.

Green IT

More generally, Guseva writes that green IT is a purchasing priority as enterprises shift to more efficient products to meet cost and regulatory demand.

Web-Oriented Architectures

Web-centric technologies and standards will, according to Gartner, result in increased utility and usage within the enterprise in the next five years.

Enterprise Mashups

In 2009, enterprises may be taking mashups from Web 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0 levels as they seek to create value from new, more useful data delivery and visualization applications.

Specialized Systems

Gartner defines heterogeneous systems as specialized systems with the same single-purpose imitations of appliances, but in which the heterogeneous system is a server system into which the owner installs software to accomplish its function. Guseva reports that heterogeneous systems "seem to be an emerging trend in high-performance computing to address the requirements of the most demanding workloads."

Social Software and Social Networking

Social software is revolutionizing the workplace and collaboration space, and Guseva writes that Gartner recommends adopting a social platform "sooner, rather than later, because the greatest risk lies in failure to engage by coming too late to the party."

Unified Communications

According to Guseva, Gartner believes that "during the next five years the number of different communications vendors will be reduced by at least 50% due to the increased capability of application servers. Hence, there could be a massive consolidation in the communications industry." Are you prepared for this shift?

Business Intelligence

The aptly named Business Intelligence allows smarter, faster and more nimble decision-making at every level of the business.

According to Gartner's analysis, BI is particularly strategic due to its relation towards business managers and knowledge workers — the main organizational thinkers and decision-makers.