If you are even the least bit interested in the world of information technology then it is a virtual must that you follow the happenings at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. Put on by information technology research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc., the event is a veritable who’s who of the world’s top CIOs and IT executives. They recently concluded their 2013 conference in Orlando at which they developed a list of the top ten strategic technology trends for 2014. That list, in no particular order, is as follows:
- Mobile Device Diversity and Management
- Mobile Apps and Applications
- The Internet and Everything
- Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker
- Cloud/Client Architecture
- The Era of Personal Cloud
- Software Defined Anything
- Web-Scale IT
- Smart Machines
- 3-D Printing
While most of the topics covered at the symposium are so incredibly techy by nature that they almost constitute their own language, if you’re able to wade through the jargon there are a number of trends that could prove important to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Peter High waded through that jargon for us, and put together a nice article a few days ago discussing some of the highlights from the event.
Here are some excerpts from his analysis of the top ten trends:
Regarding Mobile Apps and Applications, “Apps will grow and applications will shrink, continuing a trend that has been documented for a while now. The market for creating apps continues to be very fragmented (Gartner estimates that there are over 100 potential tool vendors), and consolidation is not likely to happen in earnest for a while.”
Regarding the Internet of Everything, “The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. The problem is that most enterprises and technology vendors have yet to explore the possibilities of an expanded Internet and are not operationally or organizationally ready.”
Regarding 3-D Printing, “The growth of 3-D printers is projected to be 75 percent in the coming year, and 200 percent in 2015. Gartner suggests that ‘the consumer market hype has made organizations aware of the fact 3-D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing.’“
You notice that last topic is one that we covered right here on the Esteem blog back in August, so it’s safe to say that the implications of some of these trends extend past the IT world and into the realm of entrepreneurship. Additionally, it becomes more and more apparent with each passing day just how important the internet and web based services have become for businesses of all shapes and sizes, so keeping up with current movements is essential for small business owners. As they say, if you’re not moving forward you’re standing still.