In the cloud and beyond: social media, cloud computing, tablets and more are profoundly disrupting business as usual and will relentlessly continue, creating the need for major dollar investments and/or the risk of being late to adopt.

• Author: Sinnett, William M.
• Position: TECHNOLOGY

To look ahead often involves taking a look at the recent past, as well as the present. In the recent past, it's been social media that has grabbed a great deal of the technology headlines. Indeed, according to Gartner Vice President and Fellow David Cearley (as expressed in a presentation in October):

* 32 billion searches were performed on Twitter--last month;

* 30 billion pieces of content were added to Face-book--last month;

* 2 billion videos were watched on YouTube--yesterday;

* The average teenager sends more than 4,000 text messages per month.

So what's in store for technology in the near future? Gartner's Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2012. Gartner is a good place to start in the search for guidance. Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for a "significant impact" on the enterprise within the next three years.

A significant impact is characterized by a high potential for disruption to information technology or the business, the need for a major dollar investment or the risk of being late to adopt.

A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses. It may also be an emerging technology that offers an opportunity for strategic business advantage for early adopters or with potential for significant market disruption in the next five years. These technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives.

"These top 10 technologies will be strategic for most organizations, and IT leaders should use this list in their strategic planning process by reviewing the technologies and how they fit into their expected needs," says Cearley.

Bottom line: Enterprises will need to invest capital to improve network capacity and reliability. Among Gartner's 10 key strategies are:

1 Mobile-Centric Applications and Interfaces

The user interface (UI) paradigm in place for more than 20 years is changing. Uls with windows, icons, menus and pointers be replaced by mobile-centric interfaces emphasizing touch, gesture, search, voice and video. Applications themselves are likely to shift to more focused and simple apps that can be assembled into more complex solutions. Among these mobile-centric devices: MOBILE INSTANT MESSAGING. Gartner expects MIM to attract consumers to new types of unified communication (UC) clients, provided by over-the-top (OTT) service providers such as Skype (recently acquired by Microsoft Corp.).

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