A look at their economic impact.
Technology plays a major role in an organization’s strategy. Gartner Inc., an information technology research and advisory company, has identified 10 strategic technologies and trends for 2013.
Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with “the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.”
The economic implications of these technology trends ought to be well understood by managers. This article delves into the economic impact of four of Gartner’s top 10 trends.
Mobile Device Battles
By the end of 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide, and this trend will continue as smartphones’ market share continues to grow. By 2015, media tablet shipments will reach around 50 per cent of laptop shipments.
The implication for most businesses is that in the short term they will have to support a greater variety of devices at additional operating costs. Investments will shift from regular web site development to mobile-friendly web sites and mobile applications.
Internet of Things
“The Internet of Things (IoT),” according to Gartner, “is a concept that describes how the Internet will expand as physical items such as consumer devices and physical assets are connected to the Internet.” Everyday items such as your shoes, kitchen appliances, and home entertainment systems will be able to access the internet.
This will create a whole new industry segment for operating system vendors, wireless chip makers, software application developers, and appliance makers. Gaming boxes may be turned into a central control system for all appliances in one’s residence and smartphones could be utilized to control and track everything in their proximity. For example, a special bracelet could be worn to track one’s health, monitoring signs such as blood pressure, heart beat, etc. and relaying the information via a smartphone to the internet and one’s physician.
Hybrid IT and Cloud Computing
Businesses will employ a hybrid IT model. They will utilize services provided by their in-house IT department, but will also demand that their IT department help them access complex cloud-based services.
Enterprises which employ a hybrid IT model (in-house and cloud) can lower their capital and operational expenses by employing the cloud for non-core, strategic services. In so doing, they can reduce the number of operational IT staff and increase the number of value-added IT staff (analyst, e-commerce, web-based services).
Mainstream In-Memory Computing
In memory computing (IMC) is a method that primarily relies on main memory for computer data storage and manipulation. It is contrasted with other methods which employ a disk storage mechanism. Main memory databases are faster and more real-time than disk-optimized databases. What would normally take hours to execute can be done in minutes.
Instead of waiting for a weekly or monthly report to inform their decisions, businesses can have correlated business intelligence information as it happens. This can help businesses reduce their inventory, ensure that the right inventory is in place, and adjust their marketing and other sales tactics to take advantage of new and changing opportunities in a more timely manner.
