What is an Emerging Technology? | eWEEK Labs

What is an Emerging Technology?

Written By
Jim Rapoza
Jim Rapoza
May 7, 2007
2 minute read
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How does one define emerging technologies? Are they simply technologies that are new? Does it include products and tools that enhance and alter established technologies? To be an emerging technology does a technology need to be innovative and ground-breaking?

The answer is of course, yes (for all of these questions), and that would be true for any additional definitions that I could come up with.

Much more important than simply defining the term emerging technology is coming up with clear and accessible explanations of the many products that fit into the category of emerging technologies. Whenever a new technology breaks onto the scene, whether its Web 2.0 or RFID or SOA, businesses and IT professionals must come to a clear understanding of what the emerging technology does, what effects (both positive and negative) it could have on their infrastructure, and how soon they will need to come up with a plan for it.

Finding the answers to these questions is one of the main goals of this new eWEEK site. Every week we’ll be taking deep dives into new technologies that are making their way into business infrastructures. To help you understand and make decisions on these cutting edge techs we’ll be providing reviews, analysis, and interviews with leading researchers, implementers and technology skeptics. Along with these deep technology dives, we’ll also be taking looks at some of the latest gadgets and tools that are providing new functionality and capabilities for technology workers.

So welcome to eWEEK’s Emerging Technology site. We hope that we’ll become a daily stop on your path to greater technology knowledge. And since this site is running on a blog platform, don’t hesitate to let us know what you think about our content (and don’t forget to subscribe to our feed).

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