This year’s top 10 strategic technology trends are grouped
into these three complementary trends that are mutually reinforcing with
amplified disruptive characteristics.
Trend No. 1: The Device Mesh
The device mesh moves beyond the traditional desktop
computer and mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) to encompass the full
range of endpoints with which humans might interact. As the device mesh evolves,
Gartner expects connection models to expand and greater cooperative interaction
between devices to emerge. We will see significant development in wearables and
augmented reality, especially in virtual reality.
Trend No. 2: Ambient User Experience
All of our digital interactions can become synchronized into
a continuous and ambient digital experience that preserves our experience
across traditional boundaries of devices, time and space. The experience blends
physical, virtual and electronic environments, and uses real-time contextual
information as the ambient environment changes or as the user moves from one
place to another.
Organizations will need to consider their customers’
behavior journeys to shift the focus on design from discrete apps to the entire
mesh of products and services involved in the user experience.
Trend No. 3: 3D-Printing Materials
We’ll see continued advances in 3D printing with a wide
range of materials, including advanced nickel alloys, carbon fiber, glass,
conductive ink, electronics, pharmaceuticals and biological materials for
practical applications expanding into aerospace, medical, automotive, energy
and the military.
Recent advances make it possible to mix multiple materials
together with traditional 3D printing in one build. This could be useful for
field operations or repairs when a specific tool is required and printed on
demand. Biological 3D printing — such as the printing of skin and organs — is
progressing from theory to reality; however, politicians and the public don’t
have a full understanding of the implications.
Smart Machines
Trend No. 4: Information of Everything
Everything surrounding us in the digital mesh is producing,
using and communicating with virtually unmeasurable amounts of information.
Organizations must learn how to identify what information provides strategic
value, how to access data from different sources, and explore how algorithms
leverage Information of Everything to fuel new business designs.
Trend No. 5: Advanced Machine Learning
Advanced machine learning is what makes smart machines
appear “intelligent” by enabling them to both understand concepts in the
environment, and also to learn. Through machine learning a smart machine can
change its future behavior. This area is evolving quickly, and organizations
must assess how they can apply these technologies to gain competitive
advantage.
Trend No. 6: Autonomous Agents and Things
Advanced machine learning gives rise to a spectrum of smart
machine implementations — including robots, autonomous vehicles, virtual
personal assistants (VPAs) and smart advisors — that act in an autonomous (or
at least semiautonomous) manner. This feeds into the ambient user experience in
which an autonomous agent becomes the main user interface. Instead of
interacting with menus, forms and buttons on a smartphone, the user speaks to
an app, which is really an intelligent agent.
The New IT Reality
Trend No. 7: Adaptive Security Architecture
The complexities of digital business and the algorithmic
economy, combined with an emerging “hacker industry,” significantly increase
the threat surface for an organization. IT leaders must focus on detecting and
responding to threats, as well as more traditional blocking and other measures
to prevent attacks.
Trend No. 8: Advanced System Architecture
The digital mesh and smart machines require intense
computing architecture demands to make them viable for organizations. They’ll get
this added boost from ultra-efficient-neuromorphic architectures. Systems built
on graphics processing units (GPUs) and field-programmable gate-arrays (FPGAs)
will function more like human brains that are particularly suited to be applied
to deep learning and other pattern-matching algorithms that smart machines use.
FPGA-based architecture will allow distribution with less power into the
tiniest Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints, such as homes, cars, wristwatches
and even human beings.
Trend No. 9: Mesh App and Service Architecture
The mesh app and service architecture are what enable
delivery of apps and services to the flexible and dynamic environment of the
digital mesh. This architecture will serve users’ requirements as they vary
over time. It brings together the many information sources, devices, apps,
services and microservices into a flexible architecture in which apps extend
across multiple endpoint devices and can coordinate with one another to produce
a continuous digital experience.
Trend No. 10: Internet of Things Architecture and Platforms
IoT platforms exist behind the mesh app and service
architecture. The technologies and standards in the IoT platform form a base
set of capabilities for communicating, controlling, managing and securing
endpoints in the IoT. The platforms aggregate data from endpoints behind the
scenes from an architectural and a technology standpoint to make the IoT a
reality.
David W. Cearley is vice president and Gartner Fellow at
Gartner. Mr. Cearley analyzes emerging and strategic business and technology
trends and explores how these trends shape the way individuals and companies
derive value from technology. He will
give a complimentary webinar on The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends on
February 29.