Gartner Lists Disruptive Technologies

Engineer Live summarizes a speech given by Gartner's David Cearley on upcoming disruptive technologies.

Multicore processors are expanding the horizons of what is possible with software, but single-threaded applications will be unable to take advantage of their power, Cearley said.

By 2010, Gartner predicts that web mashups, which mix content from publicly available sources, will be the dominant model (80 per cent) for the creation of new enterprise applications.

According to Gartner, within the next five years, information will be presented via new user interfaces such as organic light-emitting displays, digital paper and billboards, holographic and 3D imaging and smart fabric.

According to Cearley, chief information officers (CIOs) who see their jobs as 'keeping the data centre running, business continuity planning and finding new technology toys to show to people' will not survive.

Gartner’s top 10 disruptive technologies for 2008-2012 are as follows:

* Multicore and hybrid processors
* Virtualisation and fabric computing
* Social networks and social software
* Cloud computing and cloud/web platforms
* Web mashups
* User interface
* Ubiquitous computing
* Contextual computing
* Augmented reality
* Semantics