Gartner (News - Alert), Inc. has released a list of the top 10 technologies and trends that will influence the strategic decisions of organizations in 2009, according to a press release issued by the company. The list will be officially presented at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, taking place today.

 

Strategic decisions are crucial for organizations as they can cause considerable impact in the next three years. And adopting them early gives organizations a strategic advantage. The top 10 strategic technologies for 2009 are:

 

1. Virtualization – Focus on virtualization could include storage and client devices, in addition to servers, in the near future. According to Gartner, installation of hosted virtual desktops will be carried out by not more than 40 percent of users by 2010.

 

2. Cloud Computing – In the Cloud Computing model, providers offer a wider range of IT-enabled capabilities to customers. Typically, it comprises four major aspects – “as a service” delivery of capability; scalable and elastic service delivery; development and delivery of services with Internet technologies; and delivery design for external customers.

 

3. Servers - Beyond Blades – Currently, servers are in a blade server stage, which is expected to evolve and move into the next level. This evolution will enable organizations to address their rapidly increasing requirements pertaining to the provisioning of capacity.

 

4. Web-Oriented Architectures – As an interoperable and highly-scalable service-oriented architecture, the Internet offers unmatched flexibility. Gartner believes the evolution of the web-centric model will enable organizations to meet their entire computing needs through technologies like these over the next five years.

 

5. Enterprise Mashups – Organizations are looking into the possibilities of moving mashups from existing Web hobby systems to enterprise-class systems. This will facilitate the delivery and management of applications in a better manner. Gartner predicts that the enterprise mashup product environment will witness considerable consolidation and modification through 2010.

6. Specialized Systems – Heterogeneous systems are increasingly being used for high-performance computing. As specialized systems, these also serve as single-purpose imitations of appliances and also as server systems for users to install software.

7. Social Software and Social Networking – Social software includes popular technologies like social networking, social collaboration, social media and social validation. Gartner believes enterprises should incorporate social dimensions to their websites, thus leading to greater engagement with the end user.

 

8. Unified Communications (News - Alert) – According to Gartner, a typical organization will reduce the number of varied communications vendors by 50 percent over the next five years. This will be a result of the increase in application server capability and the movement of communications applications to off-the-shelf server and operating systems.

 

9. Business Intelligence – The top technology priority in Gartner’s 2008 CIO survey, Business Intelligence (BI) will continue to impact business decisions. It is strategic since it is one of the primary tools used in making more-informed decisions.

 

10. Green IT – Carbon footprint is among the hot topics of discussion in recent times. Organizations will have to conform to regulations pertaining to environmental impacts. Alternative plans are essential for capacity and data center growth.

 

Gartner is a global information technology research and advisory company. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.