Gartner’s top ten technologies to change business IT very soon

That’s the view from analyst Gartner, which suggests that business applications will start to mirror the consumer social software, such as Facebook and MySpace, as organisations look to improve employee collaboration and customer feedback. “Social software provides a platform that encourages participation and feedback from employees and customers alike,” says Gartner fellow David Cearley. “The added value for businesses is being able to collect this feedback into a single point that reflects collective attitudes, which can help shape a business strategy.” Meanwhile, multi-core processors, he observes, are expanding the horizons of what’s possible with software. However, single-threaded applications won't be able to take advantage of their power. His advice: companies need to “perform an audit to identify applications that will need remediation to continue to meet service-level requirements in the multicore era.” As for web mashups that mix content from publicly available sources, Gartner predicts that, by 2010, these will be the dominant model for creating new business applications. “Because mashups can be created quickly and easily, they create possibilities for a new class of short-term or disposable applications that would not normally attract development dollars,” comments Cearley. “The ability to combine information into a common dashboard, or visualise it using geo-location or mapping software is extremely powerful.” He also expects information to be presented via new user interfaces within the next five years, such as organic LEDs, digital paper and billboards, holographic and 3D imaging and smart fabric. The bottom line, according to Cearley, is that CIOs who see their jobs as “keeping the data centre running, business continuity planning and finding new technology toys to show to people” will not survive. “They will have to think beyond the constraints of the conventional, in order to identify the technologies that might be in widespread use a few years from now,” he says. Gartner’s top 10 for the years to 2012are: Multi-core and hybrid processors Virtualisation and fabric computing Social networks and social software Cloud computing and cloud/web platforms Web mashups User interface Ubiquitous computing Contextual computing Augmented reality Semantics