According to Forrester Research, we're in the initial phases of a new 16-year cycle of technology innovation and growth called "IT Everywhere." This shift comes on the heels of the previous cycle which brought us networked computing technologies for our enterprise applications and the Internet. During this transitional period, CIOs need to be aware of which trends from the older cycle are still important and which of the new trends they should also be paying attention to. Forrester has summed up their findings in a recent report which focuses on these emerging trends.
Still Important
During this transition, it's not "old with the old and in with the new" - several technologies from the prior period of innovation are still important. These include the following:
Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) - middleware that enables new component apps
Business Process Management (BPM) - user-driven automation of manual tasks
Mobile - beyond laptops to cell phones and PDAs
X Internet - RFID and sensors at the edge the net connects physical objects to the internet