Study reveals new technologies IT chiefs are itching to try

Research shows the rapidity with which emerging tech is being incorporated into IT plans

Tablet PCs are just one change the IT department must keep up to speed with

IT leaders will have to keep on their toes to stay ahead of the rapidly changing technology landscape, warns IT analyst group Forrester Research, as new research highlights the rapidity with which emerging technology is having to be incorporated into formal enterprise IT plans.

The latest research by Forrester highlights areas such mobile technologies, collaboration and social media, business intelligence, and infrastructure virtualisation as key new technology trends within the enterprise.

Forrester has already seen IT strategy documents that contain plans for deploying tablet PCs “which didn’t exist as an option before Apple’s iPad launch in spring this year”, said Forrester analyst Gene Leganza.

While many of the technologies – such as software-as-a-service, cloud computing, real-time business intelligence and security technology – identified by IT leaders as likely to make a big splash in the enterprise over the next few years have the ring of familiarity about them, there were also some eyebrow-raising additions.

These emerging trends include event-driven architecture, information-as-a-service, analytics targeting social networks, systems management tools tuned for virtualised infrastructure, and formal future-planning tools.

The only way IT planners can hope to keep up with the pace of change is through regular assessments of emerging technology, said Leganza. IT leaders should consider establishing “formal processes for vetting ideas and shepherding new ideas through risk and opportunity assessment analyses and potentially forward to become pilots and implementation projects,” he said.