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2Getting a Handle on the Growing Numbers of Mobile Devices
The size of the mobile workforce will only grow, fueled by such trends as bring-your-own-device (BYOD), and along with that growth will come increasing diversity in the kinds of mobile devices and how they’re being used. Even with all this, most companies still only have policies around network access based on corporate-own and managed devices. Policies around employee-owned hardware need to be reviewed, updated and expanded.
3Developers Should Aim for Flexibility, Adaptability in UIs
Developers need to start building expanded user interface models that offer richer voice and video, and that span a variety of devices, according to Gartner analysts. They should develop ways that they can take apps and use them as building blocks to build larger applications, and create adaptable programming structures that can assemble the building blocks into content optimized for each device.
4Time to Start Thinking About the Internet of Things
Vendors from IBM to Cisco Systems to Intel are looking at the Internet of things as a huge growth opportunity, with intelligence and compute capabilities being built into everything from cars to appliances to clothes. However, most enterprises—and even most vendors—have yet to really explore the possibilities and are not ready for them. That needs to change.
5Getting Your Head in the Hybrid Cloud
6The Development of the Cloud/Client Architecture
7A Shift in Personal Clouds
8Anything Can Be Software-Defined
Gartner analysts are talking about software-defined anything (SDx), which touches on everything from better and easier infrastructure programmability and interoperability in the data center, fueled by automation that is found in cloud computing, development and operations, and fast infrastructure provisioning. SDx also incorporates such initiatives as OpenStack, OpenFlow and the Open Compute Project, and standards will continue to pop up. That said, enterprises should challenge their vendors to ensure their commitment to true interoperability standards, they said.
9Enterprises Should Emulate Cloud Services Providers
Such large providers as Google, Amazon and Facebook are changing the way IT services can be delivered, and their scale goes beyond such size to include aspects like speed and agility. Enterprises should look to these providers and their architectures, processes and practices, the combination of which Gartner calls Web-scale IT.
10Smart Machines Are Coming
The era of smart machines will run through at least 2020, with continued growth in the numbers of contextually aware, intelligent personal assistant, smart advisers—like IBM’s Watson—advanced industrial systems and, to some extent, autonomous vehicles. People and enterprises alike will invest in their own smart machines, which will add fuel to the continued consumerization of IT, the analysts said.
11The Democratization of 3D Printing
Global shipments of 3D printers will grow 75 percent in 2014 and will nearly double the following year, the analysts said. Some very expensive versions of these “additive manufacturing” devices have been around for two decades, there is a nascent but growing market for systems in the $500-to-$50,000 range, and the noise around the consumer market for the technology should tell organizations that 3D technology is real.