Gartner identified the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2014, including mobile device diversity and management, mobile apps and applications, and the Internet of Everything. Other trends include hybrid cloud/IT as a service broker, cloud/client architecture, the era of personal cloud, software defined anything, web-scale IT, smart machines, and 3D printing. Gartner predicts these trends will have significant impacts on IT organizations through 2018 as mobile use expands, cloud adoption grows, and new technologies like smart machines and 3D printing disrupt existing models.

1. Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends
For 2014
Gartner just concluded its Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013 in Orlando, gathering tens of
thousands of IT executives. Among the most anticipated aspects of the gathering are the
ruminations from the Gartner pontificators regarding IT trends. Among several trends shared
were the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014. Here is a summary of those trends:
Mobile Device Diversity and Management
Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction
paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable. The unintended
consequence of bring your own device (BYOD) programs has been to render much more
complex (by two or three times, Gartner estimates) the size of the mobile workforce, straining
both the information technology and the finance organizations. It is recommended that
companies better define expectations for employee-owned hardware to balance flexibility with
confidentiality and privacy requirements.
Mobile Apps and Applications
Gartner predicts that through 2014, improved JavaScript performance will begin to push HTML5
and the browser as a mainstream enterprise application development environment. As a
consequence, it was suggested that developers focus on expanding user interface models
including richer voice and video that can connect people in new and different ways. Apps will
grow and applications will shrink, continuing a trend that has been documented for a while now.
The market for creating apps continues to be very fragmented (Gartner estimates that there are
over 100 potential tool vendors), and consolidation is not likely to happen in earnest for a while.
It is suggested that „the next evolution in user experience will be to leverage intent, inferred from
emotion and actions, to motivate changes in end-user behavior.”

2. The Internet of Everything
The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions.
The problem is that most enterprises and technology vendors have yet to explore the possibilities
of an expanded Internet and are not operationally or organizationally ready. Gartner identifies
four basic usage models that are emerging:
Manage
Monetize
Operate
Extend
These can be applied to people, things, information, and places, and therefore the so called
“Internet of Things” will be succeeded by the “Internet of Everything.”
Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker
Gartner suggests that bringing together personal clouds and external private cloud services is
essential. Enterprises should design private cloud services with a hybrid future in mind and make
sure future integration/interoperability is possible. Early hybrid cloud services will likely be
more static, engineered compositions, and Gartner suggests that more deployment compositions
will emerge as cloud service brokerages evolve.
Cloud/Client Architecture
As the power and capability of many mobile devices increases, the increased demand on
networks, the cost of networks, and the need to manage bandwidth use “creates incentives, in
some cases, to minimize the cloud application computing and storage footprint, and to exploit the
intelligence and storage of the client device.” Gartner also notes that as mobile users continue to
demand more complex uses of their mobile technologies, it will drive a need for higher levels of
server-side computing and storage capacity.
The Era of Personal Cloud
The push for more personal cloud technologies will lead to a shift toward services and away
from devices. The type of device one has will be less important, as the personal cloud takes over
some of the role that the device has traditionally had with multiple devices accessing the
personal cloud.
Software Defined Anything
Software-defined anything (SDx) is defined by “improved standards for infrastructure
programmability and data center interoperability driven by automation inherent to cloud
computing, DevOps and fast infrastructure provisioning.” Dominant vendors in a given sector of
an infrastructure-type may elect not to follow standards that increase competition and lower

3. margins, but end-customer will benefit from simplicity, cost reduction opportunities, and the
possibility for consolidation.
Web-Scale IT
Large cloud services providers such as Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com, and the like are reinventing the way in which IT services can be delivered. Gartner points out that the capabilities
of these companies exceed the “scale in terms of sheer size to also include scale as it pertains to
speed and agility.” The suggestion is that IT organizations should align with and emulate the
processes, architectures, and practices of these leading cloud providers. The combination of the
aforementioned three among others is how Gartner defines “Web-scale IT.”
Smart Machines
Gartner suggests that the “the smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT.”
These will include the proliferation of
contextually aware, intelligent personal assistants
smart advisors (e.g., IBM, Watson)
advanced global industrial systems
autonomous vehicles
The company also projects that smart machines will strengthen the forces of consumerization
after enterprise buying commences in earnest.
3-D Printing
The growth of 3-D printers is projected to be 75 percent in the coming year, and 200 percent in
2015. Gartner suggests that “the consumer market hype has made organizations aware of the fact
3-D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs,
streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing.”