Gartner picks top four trends

Gartner picks top four trends


Analyst identifies trends which it claims are set to drive technology takeup

Gartner has identified four keys trends which are set to drive technology further into business.

The four trends are: commoditisation and consumerisation; virtualisation and tera-architectures; software delivery models and development styles; and community and collaboration.

David Willis, research vice president at Gartner, said: “Over the next 30 years, we will continue to see technology driving further into the business, but the real transformation will be the way technology reaches us as individuals and changes the way we work and play. If the last 30 years have been about delivering technology to the enterprise, the next 30 years will be about technology transforming the lives of individuals.”

Commoditisation and consumerisation involves technology such as PCs, storage and bandwidth becoming essentially commodities. Gartner claimed this trend will continue and encompass elements of software and services as well.

Virtualisation and tera-architectures is the pooling of IT resources in a way which masks the physical nature and finite boundaries of those devices from users, for example server virtualisation.

Software delivery models and development styles encompasses using new ways of managing and delivering services to meet the needs of business, Gartner also claimed it is important in the evolution of the software industry. It added the new software delivery and development models focus on people.

Daryl Plummer, group vice president at Gartner said of the trend: “Control is moving from programmers to everyone. We are moving from a world where people were expected to behave the way computers work to a world where computers work the way people actually behave. It’s about what we do with the software instead of what the software is, or how it is implemented.”

The final trend of community and collaboration involves Gartner claiming the average knowledge worker participates in 10 virtual communities today. Within 1 0 years, 80 percent of the work performed by employees will be collaborative rather than people working alone, according to the analyst.