Forrester's Top 15 Technology Trends For Enterprise Architects To Watch

Last month, Forrester published a report The Top 15 Technology Trends EA Should Watch that listed 15 technologies with the greatest potential for business impact over the next three years.   The report was presented on a November 4 conference call by two Forrester VPs, Alex Cullen and Gene Leganza. 

Forrester opened up the presentation by discussing the reasons why companies need to monitor new and changing technologies.  Simply said, IT organizations need to understand how changes in technology will impact IT and business operations, both short-term and long-term.

To come up with the list of 15 technologies, Forrester used three criteria during the selection process.

• Impact on the Business and/or IT Operating Model
• Newness of the Technology, which translates into lack of understanding/experience
• Complexity of the Technology, which can minimize ability to leverage the technology or can translate into risk of failure

Forrester grouped the list of 15 into five major themes.  Here is the list of 15 below.

Theme No. 1: Social Computing In And Around The Enterprise.  The social computing trend will have a huge impact on business…as it is having in our personal lives

1. Collaboration platforms become people-centric
2. Customer community platforms integrate with business apps
3. Tele-presence gains widespread use

Theme No. 2: Process-Centric Data And Intelligence.  This theme emphasizes the shift from batch analytics to real-time business analytics.

1. Business Intelligence goes real-time
2. Master data management matures
3. Data quality services become real-time

Theme No. 3: Restructured IT Service Platforms.  This theme is about providing greater scalability and flexibility while reducing support costs.

1. Sass Will be ubiquitous for packaged apps
2. Cloud-based platforms become standard infrastructure- and platform-as-a-service
3. Client virtualization is ubiquitous

Theme No. 4: Agile And Fit-To-Purpose Applications.  This theme signals that improving a firm's application flexibility is getting easier for EAs

1. Business rules processing moves to the mainstream
2. BPM will be the Web-2.0-enabled
3. Policy-based SOA becomes predominant
4. Security will be data-and content-based

Theme No. 5: Mobile As The New Desktop.   During the next three years, mobile computing will expand dramatically as a business platform.

1. Apps and business processes go mobile
2. Mobile networks and devices gain more power

The list above (especially the themes) really hit home with me.  I like the list and plan on using this list as input into my 2010 Trends report I'll be delivering in January.

For more information, you can

• Get the report “The Top 15 Technology Trends Enterprise Architects Should Watch”  (Fee applicable). 
• Listen to the Nov. 4, 2009 teleconference at Top 15 Technology Trends EAs Should Watch (Fee applicable).
• Download slides used in the teleconference. (Free)

Comments

[business intelligence]

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