The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2015: Key Findings

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G00270262
The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for

2015
Published: 16 January 2015
Analyst(s): David W. Cearley, Mike J. Walker, Marcus Blosch
Gartner's 2015 top 10 strategic technology trends for IT leaders are the
prime enablers behind new digital business opportunities. Their disruptive
power stems from merging virtual and physical worlds, the growth of
intelligence everywhere, and the emerging new realities of IT.
Key Findings
Computing everywhere, the Internet of Things (IoT), and 3D printing, combined, are creating
new business opportunities from a blending of the physical and virtual worlds.
Intelligence everywhere is quickly approaching, fueled by advanced, pervasive and invisible
analytics; context-rich systems; and smart machines.
Digital business is driving new IT realities, including cloud/client computing, software-defined
applications and infrastructure, Web-scale IT, and risk-based security and self-protection.
Recommendations
Treat "things" as critical actors in a new digital business ecosystem. Think about information
providing "big insights" that can come from an ecosystem of interconnected things, and exploit
the full value that a participating device can provide the ecosystem and the full value the
ecosystem can afford a participating device.
Integrate smart machines, context-rich systems, and pervasive analytics into your IT strategy
and enterprise architecture. Overlay "intelligence" into your IT strategy and enterprise
architecture by determining how these new highly intelligent systems can add value to the
broader business ecosystem.
Advance your IT capability to support the onslaught of digital business demands. Use Web-
scale IT, software-defined applications and infrastructure to ensure that your organization has
the foundational building blocks to support these new demands.
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Acknowledge and manage the new types of risks introduced with digital business initiatives.
Focus on managing risk rather than simply installing security tools, and look for opportunities to
leverage insight and intelligence into the security process.
Use Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies as a starting point for their own evaluation of
disruptive technology trends and their impact on people, the business and the IT department.
While the trends noted have broad industry and geographic applicability, the relative
importance can shift.
Review "Leveraging Enterprise Architecture to Lead the Enterprise Response to Disruptive
Technologies" and the other Gartner Recommended Reading and Evidence at the end of this
document for additional perspective.
Table of Contents
Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 3
Leading Organizations Employ the Top 10 Technology Trends to Drive Digital Business...................3
Digital Business Demands Continuous Technology Innovation..........................................................4
Research Highlights................................................................................................................................6
The Blending Physical and Virtual Worlds Create a New World of Business Possibilities................... 6
Trend 1: Computing Everywhere Is Changing How People Experience the World....................... 8
Trend 2: The Internet of Things Brings the Power of Device Ecosystems to Your Enterprise....... 9
Trend 3: 3D Printing Is Approaching a Critical Inflection Point................................................... 11
Leaders Are Turning Big Data Into Intelligence Everywhere............................................................. 12
Trend 4: Advanced, Pervasive and Invisible Analytics Turn Every Application Into an Analytical
Application Delivering Actionable Insights to Consumers...........................................................14
Trend 5: Context-Rich Systems Provide Agility and Proactive Responsiveness.........................15
Trend 6: Smart Machines Extend Humankind's Ability to Address Complex Situations............. 16
Digital Business and New User Experiences Drive the New IT Reality............................................. 18
Trend 7: The Debate Is Over Cloud Computing Drives Future Delivery Models, and Cloud/
Client Computing Will Emerge to Unify Cloud and Mobile Strategies......................................... 20
Trend 8: Software-Defined Architecture for Infrastructure and Applications Is Required for
Dynamic, Agile, Flexible Systems to Support Digital Business................................................... 21
Trend 9: Web-Scale IT Is Required to Keep Pace With Digital Innovation and Competitive
Threats..................................................................................................................................... 23
Trend 10: Digital Business Demands Risk-Based Security and Self-Protection......................... 24
Putting the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends Into Action...........................................................25
Gartner Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................... 27
Page 2 of 32 Gartner, Inc. | G00270262

List of Figures
Figure 1. Gartner's 2015 Top 10 Technology Trends..............................................................................5

Figure 2. The Technology Adoption Cycle.............................................................................................. 6
Figure 3. Trends Concerning Merging the Real World and the Virtual World............................................7
Figure 4. Trends Concerning Intelligence Everywhere........................................................................... 13
Figure 5. Trends Concerning the New IT Reality Emerges.....................................................................19
Figure 6. How Enterprise Architects Put Digital Disruptions Into Action................................................. 26
Analysis
Leading Organizations Employ the Top 10 Technology Trends to Drive Digital
Business
Digital business is an overarching trend covering how the blurring of the physical and virtual worlds
is transforming business designs, industries, markets and organizations. Major business and
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technology advancements, such as the Internet of Things, 3D printing, and smart machines
combine to disrupt existing business models and create the opportunity for entirely new ones. In
almost every industry, there is evidence of digital business transformation underway. In dentistry,
2
3D printing is enabling new treatments, and in travel, the sharing of economy services like
Couchsurfing open up new lodging alternatives for travelers and new revenue opportunities for
3
home owners. Because digital is changing the underlying economics of business, senior leaders
must respond to remain competitive. Responding to digital business means responding to the
enabling technology trends.
Gartner predicts that, within the next 10 years, every industry will be transformed by digital
4
business. Recognizing this inevitability, 52% of CEOs and senior business executives say their
5
organization has a digital business strategy. For leading organizations, their digital business
strategy is their business strategy and reflects an emerging trend of organizations creating new
business and operating models that effectively blend the physical and virtual worlds.
For example, Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of industrial giant GE, proposed the vision of the "Industrial
Internet," which brings together the Internet of Things of industrial equipment and the Internet of
6
customers working to drive their own business outcomes. This will allow GE to create entirely new
products and services, and new efficiencies in industrial equipment setting GE apart. Combining
people, things, and information underpins the opportunities of digital business and is driving a
7
transformation as great as the industrial revolution.
In the General Electric example, we see the top 10 technology trends at work. The physical and
virtual worlds merge as sensors deliver streams of data, providing intelligence on the behaviors of
physical things. Then, advanced analytics deliver new insights on the data that unveils new
Gartner, Inc. | G00270262 Page 3 of 32

business opportunities or new ways of working. The IT organization, like never before, must blend
operational technology with information technology to help business leaders discover and capitalize
on these digital business opportunities.
Digital Business Demands Continuous Technology Innovation

Digital business impacts every aspect of the business model, such as the products and services
offered to customers and the back-office processes. This creates the demand and opportunity for
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new technologies. Key digital business opportunities and drivers include:
"Remaster" products and services. Products and services are redefined around digital
content and delivery.
Innovate through the business ecosystem. Innovation is delivered through collaboration with
complementary organizations.
Be "smart." Use big data and predictive analytics to be able to serve up the right information,
product or service, or action at exactly the right time.
Blend technology and business. Digital business demands a blending of the capabilities of
combinations of nexus technologies and business models. Here, there is no distinction between
technology and the business.
Become an experimental organization. Digital technologies build on each other with wave
after wave of innovation. Customers adopt and use products and services in unexpected ways.
There is no right answer, so organizations must experiment and adapt over and over, using lean
startup or agile approaches.
Individually and collectively, these digital business drivers are changing how business is done. They
require impassioned CIOs and other IT leaders with creative ideas who can inspire their
organizations and lead them in transforming into digital businesses. These drivers also set the stage
for the selection of the top strategic technology trends that are enabling this shift and are
accelerated by the shift.
Looking closely at the top 10 technology trends in Figure 1, we identified three groupings of trends
that are mutually reinforcing with amplified disruptive characteristics. Although all the trends have a
common digital business theme, in each grouping, the trends are complementary and create a
larger trend.

Figure 1. Gartner's 2015 Top 10 Technology Trends
Digital
Business
Intelligence
Everywhere
Advanced,
Pervasive and
Invisible
Analytics
Source: Gartner (January 2015)
Gartner selects a top 10 technology trend based on its broad impact across a wide range of
industries and organizations. Use this research to assess the impact of these trends on your
organization and to begin forming an appropriate response. Make adjustments based on
geography, market dynamics, industry factors, unique business models and technology adoption
strategies (for example, early adopter, mainstream or risk-averse) to emphasize and prioritize some
trends over others.
When evaluating these trends, Gartner looks across the technology adoption life cycle, including
emerging technologies with growing interest or hype, early disruptive technologies that are gaining
momentum, and highly disruptive trends that are entering the mainstream (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. The Technology Adoption Cycle
Within this adoption cycle, the top 10 strategic technology trends are trends with substantial
disruptive potential that is just beginning to materialize but can hit an inflection point within the next
three to five years. Therefore, at this time, companies must earnestly examine their business
impacts and adjust business models and operations appropriately or risk losing competitive
advantage to those who do.
Research Highlights
The Blending Physical and Virtual Worlds Create a New World of Business
Possibilities
The physical world and the virtual world are rapidly colliding as sensor availability skyrockets and
the cost of embedded computing, bandwidth and storage fall dramatically (see Figure 3). Additional
advances allow the virtual world to enter the real world through advanced UI and virtual reality (VR)
models, as well as physical items created with 3D printers. This blending of both worlds delivers
new insights into the physical world, allowing us to understand it in greater detail and interact with it
in new and intelligent ways. This will change how people experience the world in their daily lives,
and opportunities for new business and operating models will abound.

Figure 3. Trends Concerning Merging the Real World and the Virtual World
Digital
Business
Intelligence
Everywhere
Advanced,
Pervasive and
Invisible
Analytics
Three trends encapsulate this merging of the real and virtual worlds:
The shift of computing off the desktop and into the mobile world continues with a shift of
computing all around us, with screens everywhere and computing embedded in virtually
everything. The world around us becomes the computer, and we are walking through it and
interacting with it 24/7.
IoT is part of the computing everywhere shift and extends computing into industrial systems,
operational technologies and other areas where the computing aspect is hidden from the
human user.
Computing everywhere expands the input/output (I/O) between man and machine so that the
computer can experience all the human senses and use them to interact in a robust manner. In
addition, 3D printing allows the virtual world to become part of the real world by creating
physical objects.

Trend 1: Computing Everywhere Is Changing How People Experience the World

More and more information technology is surrounding us. Our society has become dependent on
the technologies that permeate our professional and personal lives to the point where it has become
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a fundamental human right to access information over the Internet. , Beyond the smartphones we
rely on, computing power in our automobiles, clothing, light bulbs, toasters, thermostats and more
are assisting us in almost everything we do. It seems that almost everything that can be
instrumented will be instrumented. This trend is what we refer to as "computing everywhere," and it
extends well beyond the post-PC mobile world that has been the focus for the past several years.
Computing everywhere is not one particular technology but the convergence of many technologies
that are fundamentally changing our life experiences. In addition to the computerization of the
things around us, these technologies are extending our natural human ways of interacting with the
physical world, such as using gestures, voice and eye gazing. Just as computing advanced from
the desktop to handheld systems, allowing us to take computing anywhere, it is expanding further
from handheld systems into wearable systems, such as eyeglasses, smart band aids or fitness
trackers to deliver computing everywhere. Some of us are even embedding technology into our
bodies to become a part of the seamless network of devices that support our lives. In this
postmobile or new-mobile world, the focus shifts from the device to the human. Devices are not
mobile. People are mobile. Mobile strategies must focus on the mobile person with computing
everywhere around them, which will radically change how we design, build, deliver, manage and
secure solutions.
Computing anywhere technologies enable:
Next-generation user experiences (UXs). New human experiences across disparate

technologies, devices, sensors, and information sources will emerge as digital businesses
explore and discover new ways to enhance work and play. Fit-for-purpose interfaces and
simple applications designed to delight and engage the user are critical.
People-centric computing. The lines of whether a technology solution targets the enterprise or
external consumer won't matter anymore as technologies revolve around the problems people
want to solve. Moreover, every individual will operate in his or her own personal cloud that
includes professional, community, family and purely personal services, using devices owned by
a myriad of entities.
Convergence of the heterogeneous technology landscape. Computing everywhere
predicates that technology is ubiquitous and information can seamlessly flow across
technologies to better serve peoples' needs. This also raises critical security and privacy
concerns that must be addressed.
IT leaders embarking on computing everywhere initiatives should:
Lead with the user experience. Seek solutions to drive new UXs that are emotionally
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impactful, have frictionless access and target one specific need. Personas and business
4
outcome journey maps are some of the UX design techniques that assist professionals in
making computing everywhere relevant to people and business.

Expand your scope. Screens are moving off the desktop and into the world, into shared areas,
on screens on walls and on billboards. As computing sheds its current limits, creating a physical
world where almost every device is connected and aware, explore new business scenarios
made possible by computing everywhere.
Evolve mobile initiatives into computing everywhere. As computing continues to expand and
pervade our daily lives, we must complement and expand mobility to connect these
technologies into a seamless Web.
Focus on app/content security. Most enterprises will never have ownership and control of all
the devices they need to target. Customers and partners accessing systems and bring-your-
own-device (BYOD) policies are making tight control of the endpoint impossible. Use
containment and isolation of the applications and content delivered to devices as a leading
strategy.
Plan for universal endpoint management. While many endpoints will not be fully controlled
and managed, some will allow for light management, while other endpoints will remain in tight
enterprise control. Build a comprehensive management approach that looks at appropriate
management across all endpoints, including IoT operational technologies and mobile, desktop
and environmental screens.
Trend 2: The Internet of Things Brings the Power of Device Ecosystems to Your Enterprise
The first wave of the Internet connected people. The second wave is connecting things with other
things and people with the things that surround them. IoT is more than just technology-enabled
sensors in devices. It is an architectural paradigm that makes embedded computing technology
part of a broader ecosystem of capabilities that underpin products and services. This can range
from simple machine-to-machine (M2M) communication to connecting almost every aspect of our
personal lives together in a meaningful way. The IoT also extends beyond the embedded devices
we normally see and touch, and into the industrial world and operational technologies. As such, it is
transforming industries and deeply embedding computing into an ever-expanding range of physical
assets.
IoT is transforming industries and altering the way we live and work. This broad and pervasive set of
5
technologies is massively diverse and complex, creating new business opportunities ranging from
6
greater operational effectiveness to entirely new revenue streams from new business models. IoT
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also creates significant challenges such as exposure to legal, regulatory and reputational risks.
IoT technologies enable:
Richer and more detailed information gathering. With sensor technology becoming
increasingly inexpensive, it is possible to gather information from individual components in
machinery, multiple sensors attached to equipment, and the clothes and equipment people use,
for example. These sources, and the detailed information they provide, are the basis for new
insights and ways of working. For example, Ford Motor's Energi plug-in hybrid cars produce

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250 GB of data an hour through intelligent IoT sensors. This amount of data is often
overwhelming. Prepare for it.
Blending of operational technology and IT. The ability to put sensors and devices in almost
every part of operational technology is providing new ways of operating and managing
equipment, and blending this operational technology with information technology to create new
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products and services for example, in GE's Industrial Internet.
Digitally enabled products. An expanding set of products with digital aspects are changing
how we use those products. Even sporting goods are impacted. For example, Babolat has
created a tennis racket with sensors to track a players movements, providing immediate
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feedback or later replay as a training aid.
Blending of people, things and organizations in digital business. Many innovative new
digital business solutions involve the blending of things with people and organizations providing
an ecosystem of services. For example, devices such as activity monitors and wearable devices
to track health are coming together with advanced analytics and interactive collaboration by
medical organizations to provide real-time healthcare services.
IT leaders embarking on IoT initiatives should:
Build ecosystem architectures. Leading organizations are now looking beyond enterprise
architecture to ecosystem architectures that incorporate customers, employees, partners,
competitors and the things that are important to each of them. They build models to anticipate
how the ecosystem will or can evolve, and to look for new digital business opportunities.
Focus on risk. The risk coin has two sides. One side is the risk of not acting, and the other is
the risk of acting inappropriately. CIOs and IT leaders must address both sides. They should
accelerate actions to become relevant in the organizations' business plans to merge operational
technology and the IoT. They also must dedicate resources and build processes to foster
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integrated collaboration with security architecture, planning, management and operations.
Treat things as critical business actors. Receiving big data streams from new sensor sources
is only one aspect of IoT. Think about the big questions and big answers that can come from an
ecosystem of interconnected things. As more and more things enter into the business
ecosystem, it is critical to treat them as important actors and extend their potential as valuable
assets. Exploit the full value that a participating device can provide the IoT ecosystem and the
full value the ecosystem can afford a participating device.
Focus on outcomes. Consider four basic business models when considering the impact of IoT
on the business: (1) are there opportunities to optimize assets such as predictive maintenance;
(2) does it allow for new monetization models such as pay-as-you use or turning a product into
a service; (3) can you operate more efficiently such as remote control or operation; and (4) can
you extend or change product itself through digital extensions or sending digital content to/
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through it?
Expand architecture to support IoT. The IoT will change technical architectures. Data,
processing and interfaces can exist at multiple levels. Consider how and where to apply five key

architectural styles to your IoT project: (1) thing-centric, where the thing has most of processing
and data; (2) gateway-centric, where the thing is relatively dumb and a gateway in the field is
the primary control point; (3) smartphone-centric, where the smartphone acts as a hub for other
IoT objects (for example, wearables); (4) cloud-centric, where a cloud service is the major point
of application execution and things must be connected to operate; and (5) enterprise-centric,
where things are more tightly anchored on existing IT systems.
Trend 3: 3D Printing Is Approaching a Critical Inflection Point

Thirty years have passed since the first 3D printing technology (also called "additive manufacturing")
was commercially developed. With the advent of "makers," enthusiasts who strive to manufacture
items at home, often as a small business, came the idea of self-replicating printers and the term
commonly used today "3D printing." For the first 20 years, the market had slow and steady
growth focused primarily on high-end and industrial uses. 3D printing is newly strategic as it
approaches an inflection point for the enterprise market. Gartner sees end-user spending on 3D
printing rising from about $1 billion to $5.7 billion by 2017, with 1.1 million units shipped. North
14
America, Western Europe and Greater China will drive this strong growth. 3D printers enable:
Faster and cheaper products. New products can be quickly developed and tested, and
refined without the need for long lead times and specialist organizations. Once the product is
finalized, it can be moved into more traditional manufacturing models. In addition, 3D printing
can be used to manufacture select parts for high-cost manufacturing or other equipment in the
field, reducing costly delays for replacement parts.
Creation of the impossible. 3D printers can produce both art and industrial items that would
be exceedingly difficult or impossible to create with conventional manufacturing processes. 3D
printing also creates a variant of a product that doesn't require retooling of the manufacturing
equipment. The design can be simply altered using the appropriate software, and printed. This
allows customization to individual customers' tastes without adding significant manufacturing
15
costs.
More efficient supply chains. Rather than hold inventory, or wait for suppliers, it is possible to
manufacture to order using 3D printing. Production is brought close to the point of
consumption. This also allows customers to customize their products to suit their needs for
16
example, retailers are allowing customers to develop designs that are then printed and set.
The range of 3D printing enterprise applications is already large, growing and varied across vertical
markets. As advances in 3D printers, scanners, design tools, and materials reduce the cost and
17
complexity of creating 3D printed items, applications of 3D print technology will accelerate. With
this acceleration will come significant disruption to product development, manufacturing, supply
chain, logistics and retail operations.
3D printing should be viewed as three distinct submarkets: (1) enterprise 3D printing is the most
mature and is used extensively in targeted industries today, and it is expanding in those industries
and across new industries; (2) consumer 3D printing, using lower-cost devices and a limited range
of materials, is at the peak of Gartner's "Hype Cycle for 3D Printing, 2014" and limitations are likely

to lead to disappointment for some, but the market will mature over time; and (3) 3D bioprinting is
an emerging area with a great deal of promise, but it will likely take a number of years for much of
14
this promise to reach the mainstream.
IT leaders embarking on 3D initiatives should:
Protect your designs. New product designs like intelligent contact lenses with built-in
18
displays are made possible by new capabilities in printing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or
19
semiconductors. This advancement, and many others will have dramatic impacts and
seemingly endless applications. Both large companies and individuals have the ability to
produce new design ideas. Companies have a vested interest in protecting the intellectual
property (IP) contained within their products and must factor the risks of IP theft as part of their
business strategies.
Look for new business opportunities from print anything. 3D printing has crossed the chasm
from manufacturing simple metal or plastic objects to printing live cells, blood tissue and
20 21
prosthetics. Consider the impact of print anything's impact on internal business operations
as well as the business model and new products and services.
Rethink manufacturing and supply. Manufacturing around the globe is on the cusp of a
massive transformation as 3D printing and related technologies rapidly advance. This effects
how and where manufacturing will be conducted in the next decade. 3D printing opens debate
among customers on whether to print a product, go to a new 3D printing supplier or take a
22 23
chance that a traditional supplier will have stock. With materials such as liquidmetal,
businesses now can assess the possibility of 3D printing to augment or replace traditional
24
manufacturing, or revisit their supply chain strategy as did GE with its insourcing program.
Leaders Are Turning Big Data Into Intelligence Everywhere

The amount of big data collected by the multitudes of devices currently in place is staggering.
However, the accelerating merger of the physical and virtual worlds will make the present volumes
seem paltry in comparison. New kinds of data will continuously stream from new types of devices at
unprecedented rates. This oversupply will overwhelm those who are ill-prepared. For those who are
prepared, the potential to gain new kinds of critical intelligence is also unprecedented. Leading
senior executives will build a strong competency in turning this data into critical intelligence that will
drive their organizations' future direction. Additionally, leading organizations significantly advance
operational agility with near-real-time information, feeding business processes that can absorb it
and react accordingly. Data coming in from almost all directions provides the possibility for
intelligence everywhere when combined with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and
other machine learning techniques (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Trends Concerning Intelligence Everywhere
Digital
Business
Intelligence
Everywhere
Advanced,
Pervasive and
Invisible
Analytics
Three distinct trends are intimately linked and represent an evolution in how systems deal with data
and the machines, and people that create and consume this data, culminating in intelligence
everywhere:
Massive amounts of data from traditional systems, cloud sources and the IoT create an
overload that must be addressed from more advanced analytics that are integrated into the
fabric of applications, business processes and routine user activities.
Contextually aware systems tap into these rich data sources and analytical capabilities and
react to relevant information to execute processes more effectively, enhance user experiences
and deliver simpler and more relevant applications and content.
Business solutions are able to leverage rich analytics and context-aware capabilities to enable
more intelligent systems. Smart machines build on this base with machine learning, advanced

AI algorithms and other advances to deliver advanced robots, autonomous vehicles,

semiautonomous drones and smart software agents.
Trend 4: Advanced, Pervasive and Invisible Analytics Turn Every Application Into an
Analytical Application Delivering Actionable Insights to Consumers
Enterprises are flooded with unimaginable levels of information moving so fast, from petabytes to
25
exabytes to zettabytes, that we are running out of metrics for this data. Advanced analytics strives
to make use of this massive amount of information for prescriptive and predictive analytics.
Leading organizations are moving beyond traditional reactive dashboards and business intelligence
(BI) tool models where analytics more directly impact business and are invisible to users. Analytics
is evolving from a separate and distinct function to a fluid aspect of systems operations and user
experiences. This makes analytics pervasive with almost every application becoming an analytics-
powered application.
Advanced, pervasive and invisible analytics have the following characteristics:
Analytics-injected business processes. Advanced analytics has moved beyond targeting end
users as the data consumer and now also brings information directly to intelligent business
26
operations (IBO) systems that can dynamically execute business processes that use or react
to the information. This breaks down the traditional silo barriers between transactional and
analytics systems, enabling next-generation applications that employ sophisticated analytics to
deliver more agile organizational performance.
Analytics injected into applications. Every application is becoming instrumented to help it
perform its core function as well as track its operation. Mobile applications and Websites
routinely track user activity and use this data to alter the user experience or update the site/
application. Security tools are making use of rich contextual data about users to detect attacks
that would go unnoticed if simple access control was used.
Business moment enablement. Advanced analytics can bring a real-time embedded decision-
making capability to traditionally rigid systems. This newfound agility is a key aspect of digital
business since these systems can adapt to a changing situation. These systems can sense the
27
opportunity to serve up a business moment and react accordingly.
Refinement of how information is stored. Advanced analytics creates a fit-for-purpose
storage architecture. Leading organizations will create data lakes for particular purposes and
28
data reservoirs for others. Advanced analytics is a driving force for the development of new
approaches to storing and serving the massive and growing amount of data we must handle
effectively.
IT leaders embarking on advanced, pervasive and invisible analytic initiatives should:
Assess the impact to your business strategy. Help business executives determine where
advanced analytics can most benefit your business strategy by providing competitive
29
differentiation and staving off competitive threats. Focus attention on "big insights" and

related "big questions" in the minds of the users, not on the big data sources. Organizations
can outperform their competition with productivity and profit gains by 5% to 6% through big
30
data and analytics initiatives.
Treat every application as an analytics application. Enhance business operations and deliver
compelling user experiences by making key applications the primary consumers and producers
of advanced analytics. Use analytics to improve the user experience but also to enhance the
internal operation of the application.
Make analytics invisible. Rather than create more dashboards or separate tools that a
customer is required to learn and use discretely, embed the analytical process and results into
the user's normal flow of activity and present insights at the point and time of action. Explore
the use of conversational interfaces with natural-language processing (NLP) or search
interfaces. These embedded analytics and natural interfaces break down the barrier between
users and their data.
Adjust information management. Anticipate the growing magnitude of information to absorb
and transform into intelligence. Build a set of fit-for-purpose scenarios covering different
approaches for how information could be collected, stored and served to meet key business
objectives. Use these as a foundation for a new information management strategy.
Trend 5: Context-Rich Systems Provide Agility and Proactive Responsiveness

A context-rich system is one that can seek out and consume important contextual information to
improve its situational awareness and, so, execute more effectively. If an agile system is one where
people can rapidly change its capabilities, then context-rich systems move even further to systems
that can respond quickly themselves to a changing situation. This can range from increased
productivity by altering processes based on current events, to systems that immediately adapt to a
user's changing needs. Contextually rich systems tap into many information sources, track
activities, analyze patterns, anticipate needs, filter output and actions, and simplify inherently
complex systems. Context generally should not be seen as a separate application or service, but
rather an integrated component of an application.
Gartner has been covering context-aware computing and its benefits for more than five years, but
31
the market was lacking a critical element rich information. Big data growing exponentially
bigger every day and continuing advancements in analytics are combining to deliver the rich
information needed to power context-rich systems.
These context-rich systems are enabled by rich information sources such as:
Personal context. The amount of personal data generated is staggering. From our daily
32 33
Internet services like Google or Facebook, to entities that aggregate personal information
from many sources like government agencies such as the United States National Security
34
Agency. As a result, 80% of consumers will collect, track and barter their personal data for
35
cost savings, convenience and customization. This aggregated personal data is a primary
source of context.

Sensory awareness. The Internet of Things is exploding the number of connected devices. By
36
the end of 2015, over 1.2 billion objects will have come online. These newly connected
devices will collect the surrounding sounds, sights, vibrations, temperatures, chemicals,
speeds, and more, and they will deliver that information to other things and people so they may
act with a heightened situational awareness. Location services are becoming more granular and
in-building location services are adding to this vital context element. This is the blending of the
physical and virtual worlds that portends the grand future of context-rich systems.
Situational context. What it is, its preferences, its location, the activities it is performing and
the particular environmental factors around it are just some examples of the important
contextual information on a business asset that, when aggregated with the information from
other assets, provides rich context on how a business ecosystem is working and evolving. This
ecosystem of contextual information will drive significant advancements in context-rich
systems.
System context. An important source of contextual information is found in the systems being
used by the consumer. What applications and/or data does the user have access to? Are there
APIs associated that can be exploited to access the content or control the application? What
content is in those applications that can provide additional context (for example, calendar
entries) or input (for example, contact phone number)?
IT leaders embarking on context-rich system initiatives should:
Integrate context into enterprise and system architecture. A context-aware architecture

must incorporate new sources of information and how they can add value to the broader
ecosystem. Apply new interaction patterns to determine how these new information sources
can deliver evolved business processes and user experiences.
Question the purpose of context-less systems. Shifting from context-less based systems
and processes to context-rich systems requires revisiting the core purpose of the solution with
openness to reinvention. End-to-end assessments of the business processes, information and
services, application and communication infrastructure, network services, and endpoints are all
targets for reinvention.
Shift from process-centric to human-centric. This trend is driving a move toward intelligent
and motivational systems that deliver meaningful user experiences. The human is in the center,
surrounded by a network of smart devices, personal digital assistants, personalized information
and dynamic processes, for example, which are all expected to understand context and act in
concert to meet the greater needs of that person. Context richness enables user experience
platforms that act as intermediaries between users and the content/capabilities that are acting
for or interacting with users to accomplish their goals (for example, schedule an appointment
and dynamically generate an input form).
Trend 6: Smart Machines Extend Humankind's Ability to Address Complex Situations

Deep, rich, real-time and historical data, combined with advanced analytical tools to turn data into
insights and contextual patterns, is critical to create more intelligent and cognitive systems. These
systems, combined with cloud computing delivery models and emerging cloud/client computing

models (see Trend 7), set the stage for the era of smart machines. Smart machines add a layer of
capability to this foundation with machine learning, advanced AI algorithms and other techniques so
37
that systems can seem to think, act and operate like a person.
38 39
Smart machines are just starting to significantly impact industries such as banking, automotive
40
and hospitality. Their greatest impact is yet to come, but the technologies are now advancing very
rapidly and addressing a wide variety of complex problems. Smart machines are a "superclass" of
emerging technologies that are able to handle complex situations at a much faster rate than
humans and other technologies. They address a combination of: (1) understanding problems and
their context; (2) learning from experience; (3) making decisions using probabilistic models; (4)
predicting future states; (5) acting autonomously; and (6) mimicking human reactions to questions in
41
natural language. Smart machines leverage the massive amounts of information generated from
advanced analytics and context-rich systems to create intelligent systems.
Smart machines are composed of all or a combination of the following characteristics:
Understanding. Smart machines having this characteristic can deal with concepts, categories,
and meaning using NLP and knowledge graphs.
Curious. Smart machines having this characteristic demonstrate unsupervised learning from
context-rich information driving persistent behavior change.
Adaptive. Smart machines having this characteristic can handle situational information and
context-centric actions that can be probabilistic in nature.
Insightful. Smart machines having this characteristic can glean unanticipated and often
surprising conclusions from unstructured information.
Smart machines are categorized based on what they do. The three types of smart machines are:
42 43
autonomous helpers called "movers," information-based helpers called "sages," and machine-
44
focused helpers referred to as "doers." Movers are best exemplified by autonomous vehicles used
in industrial settings today (for example, mining and warehouse) and more general settings in the
future (autonomous automobiles). Drones are semiautonomous vehicles increasingly taking on more
of the aspects of a fully autonomous mover. Doers refer to physical robots that go beyond
execution of rigid programing models to interact more naturally with their surroundings and with
people. Sages refer to software "robots" that do not have a physical instantiation but rather interact
though other systems. Personal digital assistants that have a broad contextual knowledge of a user
but shallow understanding of a particular content domain is one example, while smart advisors with
deep knowledge of a particular domain of knowledge but relatively narrow contextual view is
another. All of these smart machine sectors will evolve dramatically over the next 10 years, driving
ongoing business and societal disruption.
IT leaders embarking on smart machine initiatives should:

Explore business transformation opportunities. Determine how smart machine technologies

can impact your operations and change the nature of human work. Remember to factor in the
45
human element and address fears and/or inflated expectations of business and IT leaders.
Design the new business ecosystem. The trend toward digital business will impel the rise of
smart machines. Smart machines will proliferate throughout your business ecosystem. Plan for
how smart machines will impact your customers and value chains. The entry of smart machines
into your ecosystem will create new business opportunities and even introduce a new class of
46,47
nonhuman customers/consumers of your products and services.
Understand the "soft" impacts. Examine how smart machines could create or alleviate
organizational regulatory, legal, reputational and cultural concerns. Use findings to identify
impacts on your company's operations across the different markets, geographies and customer
48
segments in which the business operates.
Focus attention on sages. These software-based smart machines will see increasing niche
uses and rapid acceleration in adoption by 2017. The capabilities will impact applications and
the basic OS interfaces. Intelligent contextual user interfaces will have a significant impact by
2020, and early planning and experimentation are warranted.
Target mover and doer activity. These smart machine segments will remain highly specialized
and industry-optimized for the next five years or more. However, the opportunities in the 2020
to 2030 period for more generalized autonomous personal transport and semiautonomous
robotic assistance, as well as expanding niche use, require all enterprises to consider the long-
term impact.
Digital Business and New User Experiences Drive the New IT Reality
The final set of strategic technology trends looks at how IT leaders must think about technology
architecture and usage. Embracing the complexities of digital business technologies that merge the
physical and virtual worlds along with solutions powered by intelligence everywhere effectively
renders old architecture models insufficient or obsolete.
New approaches are needed for how applications are designed, integrated with one another and
presented to users. With the complex and dynamically shifting set of endpoints and cloud services
needed for the digitalized world, how we manage and secure the environment and how we
understand IT culture must change as well. IT is affected by these trends that are enabled and
accelerated by digital business. This is a direct result of the new digital technology capabilities from
the merging of the physical and virtual worlds, along with the emergence of intelligence everywhere
(see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Trends Concerning the New IT Reality Emerges
Digital
Business
Intelligence
Everywhere
Advanced,
Pervasive and
Invisible
Analytics
For this category of trends, the following themes start to emerge:
Cloud computing principles and adaptive, layered applications that span an everchanging sea
of client endpoints provide the foundation for adaptive systems.
Software-defined approaches that emphasize the use of rich, layered APIs and code provide a
dynamic foundation for automated configuration of applications and infrastructure based on
rules, models and changing context.
The tools, technologies, processes, skills and culture of IT will inexorably shift to a Web-scale IT
approach in which the approaches perfected by global cloud/Web providers are applied in an
enterprise IT setting.
Security approaches need to adapt to the realities of the new world where traditional access
control and perimeter defense are insufficient. Companies need to adopt a model that balances
risk and reward. Companies must also understand that there is always going to be some

residual risk. Analytics and context applied to sophisticated access control and application
tracking combine with security-aware application development and runtime application self-
protection for a dynamic and vigilant security posture.
Trend 7: The Debate Is Over Cloud Computing Drives Future Delivery Models, and
Cloud/Client Computing Will Emerge to Unify Cloud and Mobile Strategies
Cloud computing has been and continues to be one of the most hyped terms in the history of IT. Its
hype transcends the IT industry and has entered popular culture, which has had the effect of
49
increasing hype and confusion around the term. Cloud computing remains a disruptive force in IT.
Users are changing their buying behaviors, and although it's unlikely, they'll completely abandon
on-premises models or soon buy most complex, mission-critical processes as public cloud
50
services. Nevertheless, the core tenets of cloud computing will drive both on-premises and off-
premises architectures, and off-premises public and private cloud services will increase their market
share significantly. This shift is driven by the increased interest in simplicity, agility, and innovation
as digital business beckons and the technology landscape becomes more complex. The transition
to digital business can benefit from taking advantage of capabilities that are not easily provided
using traditional approaches.
Cloud computing continues to evolve and establish an even stronger foothold in our technology
51
world. Cloud has "flipped" the paradigm from client/server to cloud/client. In client/server
computing, the server primarily replied to requests made by the client. In cloud/client computing,
the cloud acts as the coordination point and system of record, while applications span multiple
clients often simultaneously and expose their capabilities via APIs and service interfaces. In
this model, clients exist as screens in the environment around us, traditional desktop and mobile
devices, and embedded IoT capabilities in both industrial and consumer systems. These clients
may be "thin," with much of the processing done on external devices (other clients, local gateways
or external cloud services); "thick," with most, if not all, of the processing and content storage on
the device itself; or more typically, a hybrid model with processing and content at multiple tiers. The
cloud/client paradigm addresses this complex mix in a structured, software-defined and centrally
managed manner in order to mask the complexity from the end user and deliver a secure and
manageable solution. Cloud/client computing is an emerging long-term trend that evolves in stages.
52
Cloud/client computing is composed of all or a combination of the following characteristics:
"Flipping" to a cloud/client paradigm. Cloud is the coordination point and system of record
that controls what applications to serve along with how. Provisioning, updating, and
synchronization of content and state with a central repository and applications running on
multiple devices are handled by the cloud service.
Heterogeneous clients. Over time, applications turn into abstract endpoints that serve the
cloud-based application. Applications will span multiple endpoint client devices, regardless of
form factor, operating system or platform. In addition, the application is delivered as a service
that may operate across multiple clients simultaneously.
Multidevice applications. The cloud will determine which experience is enabled through what
device, depending on the context of the user. This ensemble of interactions switches the

context from mobile devices to the user experience of the people. The focus for the application
shifts to mobile people rather than mobile devices. The cloud/client application orchestrates the
delivery of a unified experience across devices working together seamlessly and cooperatively
as the user moves through an everchanging environment throughout the day. This evolves in
stages over time: (1) synchronization of apps on multiple devices; (2) complementary
applications used simultaneously on multiple devices; and (3) applications abstracted from the
device and delivered dynamically to one or more devices based on user need and context.
Cloud-native applications. Cloud-optimized and cloud-native applications have a different
design point and architecture from traditional enterprise applications. They are built as
software-defined application services (SDASs) and target global class principles. Applications in
a cloud/client paradigm will leverage multiple levels of services in the cloud, often from multiple
service providers.
Hybrid approach. Cloud computing, in general, and cloud/client computing, in particular,
assume a layered model in which elements will exist inside the enterprise, outside the enterprise
and across multiple service providers. This applies to the cloud-based services as well as the
elements of the system delivered to client or gateway devices. Some elements will be totally
beyond the control of the enterprise (for example, customer mobile devices). Management,
security and application design must take this into account.
IT leaders embarking on cloud/client computing initiatives should:
Treat internal as external. CIOs should adopt a "treat internal as external" strategy client for
devices to achieve flexibility and innovation. This means recognizing that full control of all
endpoints is not possible, and management, governance and security approaches must adapt.
Seek inspiration from consumer solutions. CIOs should look to consumer markets for early
use cases and concepts to project how they can leverage those business scenarios for their
digital business.
Create a cloud-led strategy. CIOs must plan for a future where the cloud-led model changes
the nature of applications and opens digital business opportunities.
53
Build the right architecture. Architects should embrace global class concepts and embrace
a multitiered cloud service model to leverage cloud-native capabilities and deliver Web-scale
solutions for digital business. Favor tools and architectures that span client and cloud
environments.
Shift from cloud migration to cloud native. Determine which mix of cloud-optimized versus
cloud-native capabilities are needed to pick the right architecture for your solution.
Trend 8: Software-Defined Architecture for Infrastructure and Applications Is Required for

Dynamic, Agile, Flexible Systems to Support Digital Business
Increased complexity along with the dynamic nature of computing requires a dynamically delivered
54
and integrated underlying set of infrastructure and applications. This trend has emerged from two
perspectives: infrastructure and applications. However, the common theme is a shift from static

applications and infrastructure with manual operation to full configurable, dynamic and potentially
automatic operation.
55
Commonly referred to as software-defined anything (SDx) and supported by software-defined
56
architecture (SDA) styles, this trend fuels the phenomenon that shifts static applications and
infrastructure from manual operation to full configurable and dynamic. Although SDx terms,
standards and architecture styles range from embryonic to beyond the peak, the collective SDx
57
trend is still emerging. SDx is a term that represents a grouping of architectural styles that address
very specific aspects of SDx. The two most common architectural styles that encompass SDx are:
1. SDASs. Organizations can use SDASs as the foundation for a systematic, architected approach
to delivering all forms of composite applications, including most business process
management, digital business and complex-event processing solutions that build off of
58
advanced service-oriented architecture (SOA) techniques.
2. Software-defined infrastructure (SDI). Collectively, the term encapsulates software-defined
59 60 61
network (SDN), software-defined data center (SDDC), software-defined storage (SDS) and
software-defined compute (SDC) as a way of abstracting infrastructure away from the software,
management and high-availability/disaster recovery characteristics of a given workload. Flexible
and dynamic models are replacing the need for programmers to specifically instrument or hard-
code infrastructure.
IT leaders embarking on software-defined applications and infrastructure initiatives should:
Avoid proprietary standards. While openness maybe be claimed by a vendor, different

interpretations of SDx definitions may be anything but open. Look for emerging standards and
bridging capabilities to benefit your portfolio, but challenge individual technology suppliers to
demonstrate their commitment to true interoperability standards within their specific domains.
Learn from SOA. To deliver managed agility across your digital business, adopt advanced
service-oriented architecture techniques to create the necessary abstractions that deliver
62
software-defined applications and infrastructure architectures. Adopt a bimodal integration
strategy that leverages the best of systematic (centralized, high-control) and adaptive
63
(federated, high-speed) approaches, including citizen integrators, to fulfill integration projects.
Future-proof their cloud solutions. When implementing cloud services and/or agile
methodologies (DevOps), ensure that deep integration, clear APIs, abstraction layers and
interoperability exist between the infrastructure and software management solutions.
Proactively define your cloud integration strategy, which could include on-premises integration
technology or emerging integration platform as a service (iPaaS), which are often built to
64
support SDx with scalable APIs and mobile integration.
Experiment with SDAS. Set up an innovation lab that will enable you to learn without
disrupting "business as usual." As the innovation teams become more familiar with principles,
practices, processes, tools and infrastructure, you can capture a knowledge base and promote
the innovations from the lab to broaden adoption.

Trend 9: Web-Scale IT Is Required to Keep Pace With Digital Innovation and Competitive
Threats
Companies can no longer afford to base their business on traditional infrastructure, operations, and
developments that are fragile and insufficiently scalable for the company's growing digital business
65
needs. Web-scale IT is disrupting the status quo with respect to vendors and enterprise end users.
66
Traditional IT suppliers will become less relevant to enterprise IT leaders, as will traditional modes
of IT service delivery. The shift to Web-scale IT will happen incrementally over time.
Web-scale IT is a pattern of global-class computing that delivers the capabilities of large cloud
services providers within enterprise IT.
67
Web-scale IT leverages four characteristics to behave in this way:
Information-fueled. Applications and infrastructure are reliant on information to drive the

behavior of the IT environment, which allows for extensive automation and deep analytical
capabilities to help IT organizations understand their efficiencies and costs. The advanced
analytics, context-rich systems and smart machine trends on the top 10 list fuel this shift.
SDx-enabled and cloud/client-modeled. Building off the power of SDx allows organizations to
have next-level automation, granular control of IT processes, reduced reliance on hardware for
resilience, increased flexibility in throttling performance and allowance for new capabilities
without hardware upgrades. Cloud/client models and Web-oriented architectures establish the
delivery model and user experience for SDAS.
Built-in IT continuity. Since Web-scale IT is modeled on large, multitenant cloud providers, it is
designed to automatically remediate hardware and software failures through an architecture
that doesn't have a single point of failure that compromises the other solutions.
Industrially designed data centers. Design approaches pioneered by large Web firms are
67
expanding into the enterprise. The new models disaggregate for cost, design for efficiency, are
engineered for serviceability and architected for agility.
The use of the term "Web" in "Web-scale IT" is meant to not limit the approach to systems
supporting e-commerce-style applications, but also include systems that derive their architecture
68
from SOA, including service-oriented infrastructure (SOI) and REST-based principles.
Web-scale IT takes advantage of the architecture concepts behind large public cloud to bring global
class capabilities to the enterprise:
Increased business agility. Enables new products, services and enhanced business insights
by reducing complexity and the time to build solutions, along with providing a connected IT
ecosystem of information and technology.
Low total cost of ownership. Helps companies deliver more capabilities at a lower operational
cost due to driving down the costs of labor required to create solutions, reduces IT
infrastructure and software costs, and is able to monitor and meter based on the computing
needs of a solution.

Predictable scale. Provides a continuously running infrastructure that is able to scale based on
the compute needs with seemingly limitless potential for computing usage.
IT leaders embarking on Web-scale IT initiatives should:
Begin to think of infrastructure as "code." Abstract, design, implement and deploy

infrastructure in the same way as code to achieve benefits such as source control management.
Look to companies like Facebook that uses automation to manage the size and speed that the
business demands. Reduce the potential risks of injecting humans in the process, and increase
69
time to value through moving from routine tasks to automated ones.
Create their blueprint and road map for Web-scale IT. DevOps and Web-oriented
architecture are the basis for creating an industrially-designed infrastructure that IT departments
fundamentally shift their thinking to begin the transformation to a Web-scale company. Create a
road map that defines your organization's Web-scale IT infrastructure strategy with the
investment gaps, future impacts to existing infrastructure and competencies that will be needed
to execute this strategy.
Expect Web scale to require a cultural shift. Web-scale IT is a cultural, technological and
process shift that impacts how IT is done. Embrace challenging the status quo. This requires IT
70
organizations to be collaborative and have a shared understanding of Web-scale IT principles
71
and architect solutions that enables incremental changes.
Trend 10: Digital Business Demands Risk-Based Security and Self-Protection

As companies pursue digital business transformation, risk management concerns continue to be
important at the board level, with 70% of organizations using risk management data at the board
72
level but only 25% concerned with enterprise and operational risk in 2014. The velocity and
density of information in digital business adds news risks concerning data protection, complicated
by cultural privacy issues, and in some cases, government regulations. This is made even more
complicated in a world where computing is everywhere, control of those systems is incomplete, and
the perimeter is almost nonexistent. As such, digital business requires new approaches to security.
A major contributor to this need is information. Organizations are increasingly collecting and
analyzing information from everywhere. This has significant business benefits due to the insights it
creates. However, it exposes new risks on how to protect this data and new privacy challenges to
guide its appropriate use. Digital business requires a new view on security, one that is driven by the
level of appetite of risks rather than the simple evaluation of its impact or probability. Security issues
cannot be used as justification for inaction, or allowed to be roadblocks that prevent the move to
digital business. Two complementary strategies can begin to address this conundrum: (1) risk-
based security; and (2) application self-protection.
A risk-based security model accepts the reality that risk generally cannot be reduced to zero. Some
residual risk will always exist. By examining and weighing the business benefits with the risk after
applying mitigating factors (residual risk), a proper balance can be achieved. Risk-based security is
73
an ongoing exercise of re-evaluation as security threats change and technologies evolve.

Application self-protection recognizes that being hacked is inevitable for virtually any enterprise.
Access controls should not be ignored they should be enhanced with rich contextually based
access control and they should not be deemed sufficient. Applications and content sources are
the target of hackers and need a layer of protection built into them and/or surrounding them. The
application is a critical element in the security equation, and security solutions must start with
74
application design and development. Moreover, the barriers between security teams and
processes and the application teams must be breached, much as the divide between development
75
and operations is breached using DevOps tools and processes.
IT leaders embarking on risk-based security and self-protection initiatives should:
Place risk before security. Understanding risk allows organizations to balance the need to
protect the organization and the need to run the business. Security has to be something that is
evaluated based on a risk model. Risk must be accepted where business value exceeds
business risk. Security is not about absolute it is about relative security, based on where it
can be mitigated and where it can be accepted.
Shift to an information-centric risk strategy. Protect the company's investments through a
risk-based approach that starts with understanding the sensitivity and criticality of the
information to the business capabilities they support.
Architect for self-protection. Traditional approaches are broken and fail to protect the
76
company against advanced targeted attacks. Organizations should supplement traditional
security approaches with new self-protecting mechanisms that equip digital technologies with
capabilities of self-testing for possible vulnerabilities, self-diagnostics of runtime breaches and
77
self-protection against attacks.
Protect applications at runtime. Supplement traditional security approaches with new self-
protecting mechanisms that include context-based algorithms for identity management, data
isolation through mobile containers, rights management tools and new monitoring capabilities
that all enable business benefits while limiting risk. In addition, applications should be designed
to natively use encryption, log activities and work cooperatively with security tools especially
78
runtime application self-protection tools.
Putting the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends Into Action

Disruptive technology trends are important to track and factor into business and IT strategies.
However, many organizations have, at most, an informal process to do so (see Figure 6). Often, the
activity is relegated to a disjointed set of meetings of particular groups in IT or only considered
within in the context of an ongoing IT project. Sometimes, the company may have an annual
meeting where it considers long-term trends, but this is often lost in the day-to-day activities that
follow.
Companies that have created a more formalized process to track and evaluate disruptive trends
often identify potential business impact earlier than competitors and turn the disruption into market

advantage. Enterprise architects, along with other strategic roles, are well-suited to address these
disruptions.
Figure 6. How Enterprise Architects Put Digital Disruptions Into Action
Exploration Rationalization Delivery

Discover and Understand the specific impact Creation of actionable
examine what new and opportunities innovations plans that business
innovations offer. present to your organization. and IT leaders can
make informed
decisions based on.
Signature-Ready Actionable
Disruptive Trend Ideation
Create Business
Transformation
Deliverables
Road Maps
Diagnostic
and Enabling
Deliverables
As shown above in Figure 6, enterprise architects take a deliberate approach (see "Leveraging
Enterprise Architecture to Lead the Enterprise Response to Disruptive Technologies") when
addressing disruptive technologies. At the highest level, this approach seeks to understand three
core information points:
Explore what trends matter.

Rationalize what it means to your business.
Deliver high value with these trends.
By leveraging a structured approach to evaluate disruptive technologies, organizations can take

advantage of this leading enterprise architecture technique to help their organizations seize

opportunities while also reducing risks of adoption. The disruptive technology trend landscape is
complex, and not all trends will have an equal importance to every company. To be successful,
organizations must leverage enterprise architecture and take a structured, yet flexible and iterative,
approach that enables them to quickly explore what disruptive trends need investigation, analyze
their impact on the enterprise and deliver actionable recommendations that drive change.
Gartner Recommended Reading

Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.
"Leveraging Enterprise Architecture to Lead the Enterprise Response to Disruptive Technologies"
Evidence
1"Internet Should Remain as Open as Possible UN Expert on Freedom of Expression," The
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
2R. Lane, "The United Nations Says Broadband Is Basic Human Right," Forbes, 15 November
2011.
3 "Use Personas to Drive Exceptional Customer Experiences"
4"Toolkit: How EA Enables Digital Humanism via Business Outcomes Journey Maps to Exploit
Digital Disruptions"
5 "Hype Cycle for the Internet of Things, 2014"
6 "The Internet of Things Will Support a Wide Range of Business Models"
7 "Digital Business Forever Changes How Risk and Security Deliver Value"
8 "Build Your Blueprint for the Internet of Things, Based on Five Architecture Styles"
9"Ford Embracing Analytics and Big Data to Inform Eco-Conscious Decisions, Stay Green," Ford
Motor, 25 October 2013.
10"GE Is Beginning to See Strong Returns on Its Industrial Internet Investments," Forbes, 12
November 2014.
11K. Perry, "'Smart' Tennis Racquet Records Spin, Shots and Power in Time for Wimbledon," The
Telegraph, 14 May 2014.
13 "Build Your Blueprint for the Internet of Things, Based on Five Architecture Styles"

14 "Hype Cycle for 3D Printing, 2014"
15 Shapeways
16 Neiman Marcus, The Blog
17 "Strategic Technology Trends 3D Printing Transforms Organizations"
18B. Otis and B. Parviz, "Introducing Our Smart Contact Lens Project," Google Official Blog, 16
January 2014.
19Y.L. Kong et al., "3D Printed Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes," American Chemical Society,
31 October 2014.
20 W. Shu et al., "Opportunities and Challenges in 3D Bioprinting," EuroStemCell, 2 October 2013.
21 "Digital Business Requires Redefining the Scope of Manufacturing Operations"
22 D. Mohney, "3D Printing: Home or Home Depot?" Technology Marketing (TMC), 5 August 2013.
23
J. Purcher, "Apple Seeks Patents for Five New Liquidmetal Inventions Covering 3D Printing and
More," Patently Apple, 21 November 2013.
24 C. Fishman, "The Insourcing Boom," The Atlantic, 28 November 2012.
25 A. McAfee, "Big Data: Running Out of Metric System,"Andrew McAfee's Blog, 31 October 2012.
26T. Davenport, "How P&G Presents Data to Decision-Makers,"Harvard Business Review, 4 April
2013.
27 "Two Technologies That Exploit Business Moments at Scale"
28 "The Data Lake Fallacy: All Water and Little Substance"
29 "Best Practices for Successfully Leveraging Enterprise Architecture in Big Data Initiatives"
30D. Barton and D. Court, "Making Advanced Analytics Work for You,"Harvard Business Review,
October 2012.
31 "Predicts 2015: The Intersection of Information Innovation and Business Digitalization"
32 "Google Privacy Policy," Google, 31 March 2014.
33 "Facebook Data Use Policy," Facebook, 15 November 2013.
34 "Your Data: If You Have Nothing to Hide, You Have Nothing to Fear," Domestic Surveillance
Directorate.

35 "CEOs Seek to Exploit Data, Creating Marketing Opportunities and Risks"
36 "Drive Digital Business Using Insights From Symposium's Analyst Keynote"
37 S. Cousins, "Your Robot Butler Has Arrived,"Savioke, 12 August 2014.
38 "New IBM/Watson Technology Available for USAA Members Transitioning to Civilian

Life,"MilitaryOneClick.
39"Maverick* Research: How Technology Is Ending the Automotive Industry's Century-Old

Business Model"
40A. Robinson, "Perfect Buns: Imaging System Controls Baking Process on Production Line to
Improve Sandwich Bun Quality,"Georgia Tech Research Institute, 8 March 2011.
41 "Top 10 Strategic Technologies The Rise of Smart Machines"
42"Predicts 2014: Automotive Companies' Technology Leadership Will Determine the Industry's
Future"
43 "Artificial Intelligence Finally Delivers Real Value for Business Applications"
44 "Exploit the Rise of Smart Nonindustrial Robots for Work and Home"
45"Leveraging Enterprise Architecture to Enable Business Value With Smart Machine Innovations
Today"
46 "Cool Vendors in Digital Business, 2014"
47"BECU Adopts a Human Approach to Innovation to Drive Employee Engagement in Business

Value Creation"
48 "Smart Machines Lead to Competitive Advantage as Well as Ethical Challenges"
49 "Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, 2014"
50 "Five Refining Attributes of Public and Private Cloud Computing"
51 "Flipping to Digital Leadership: The 2015 CIO Agenda"
52 "Client-Cloud Applications: The Rebirth of Client/Server Architecture"
53 "Global Class: The Inspiration for Cloud Computing"
54 "Converged Infrastructure: Utopia or Myopia?"
55 "Hype Cycle for Virtualization, 2014"

56 "Support Digital Business and the Nexus of Forces With Application Architecture Innovations"
57 "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2014"
58 "Software-Defined Architecture for Applications in Digital Business"
59 "Ending the Confusion About Software-Defined Networking: A Taxonomy"
60 "What Is the Value of a Software-Defined Data Center?"
61"Emerging Technology Analysis: Software-Defined Storage Could Herald a Storage Architecture

Evolution"
62 "How to Derive ROI for Integrated Systems"
63 "New Integration Strategies and Technologies Target the Digital Business"
64 "Market Guide for Integration Platform as a Service"
65"Strategic Technology Trend: Web-Scale Singularity Means Goodbye to Conventional IT

Wisdom"
66 "The Long-Term Impact of Web-Scale IT Will Be Dramatic"
67 "Use Web-Scale IT to Make Enterprise IT Competitive With the Cloud"
68 "The Impact of DevOps and Web-Scale IT on Application Development"
69 "Lessons for the Enterprise to Learn From Web-Scale IT at Facebook"
70 "Web-Scale IT Empowers Teams to Create a Culture of Innovation"
71 "Enable Corporate Agility by Using Web-Scale Development Practices"
72 "Survey Analysis: IT Risk Influences the Digital Business, 2014"
74 "Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing"
75 "Security in a DevOps World"
76 "Maverick* Research: Stop Protecting Your Apps; It's Time for Apps to Protect Themselves"
77 "Prevention Is Futile in 2020: Protect Information via Pervasive Monitoring and Collective
Intelligence"
78 "Runtime Application Self-Protection: A Must-Have, Emerging Security Technology"

More on This Topic

This is part of an in-depth collection of research. See the collection:
Research Guide: The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2015

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The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2015: Key Findings

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The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2015: Key Findings

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The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for

Analyst(s): David W. Cearley, Mike J. Walker, Marcus Blosch

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Figure 1. Gartner's 2015 Top 10 Technology Trends..............................................................................5

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Digital Business Demands Continuous Technology Innovation

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Figure 1. Gartner's 2015 Top 10 Technology Trends

Source: Gartner (January 2015)

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Figure 2. The Technology Adoption Cycle

Source: Gartner (January 2015)

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Source: Gartner (January 2015)

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Trend 1: Computing Everywhere Is Changing How People Experience the World

Computing anywhere technologies enable:

Next-generation user experiences (UXs). New human experiences across disparate

IT leaders embarking on computing everywhere initiatives should:

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IoT technologies enable:

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IT leaders embarking on IoT initiatives should:

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Trend 3: 3D Printing Is Approaching a Critical Inflection Point

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IT leaders embarking on 3D initiatives should:

Leaders Are Turning Big Data Into Intelligence Everywhere

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Figure 4. Trends Concerning Intelligence Everywhere

Source: Gartner (January 2015)

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AI algorithms and other advances to deliver advanced robots, autonomous vehicles,

Advanced, pervasive and invisible analytics have the following characteristics:

IT leaders embarking on advanced, pervasive and invisible analytic initiatives should:

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Trend 5: Context-Rich Systems Provide Agility and Proactive Responsiveness

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IT leaders embarking on context-rich system initiatives should:

Integrate context into enterprise and system architecture. A context-aware architecture

Trend 6: Smart Machines Extend Humankind's Ability to Address Complex Situations

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Smart machines are composed of all or a combination of the following characteristics:

IT leaders embarking on smart machine initiatives should:

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