What’s next for enterprise tech?

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Tech trends are often a long time coming, with many bits and pieces hyped for years and years as the next big thing before finally tipping into the mainstream.

Others drop on the sector out of nowhere – Twitter, anyone? – and change the game before half of us even know what’s going on.

With this in mind, Gartner analyst Jeffery Mann did some crystal ball gazing for IT PRO, picking out five of the top enterprise tech trends to watch for in the next year or so.

A few won’t come as a surprise, but make sure you’re keeping an eye on these trends over the next few months.

Online video

Video has been picked as the next big thing for 40 years, Mann said. “It’s stubbornly refused to be the next big thing,” he noted.

But video is taking off. It’s just not on video phones or real-time video has some have expected. Instead, it’s in short clips posted online – that’s right, YouTube.

“There’s a tremendous amount of interest in corporate YouTube,” Mann said, with companies looking to post clips featuring their executives, as well as demos, promotions to customers and even training videos.

“It’s kind of unexpected,” Mann noted, adding the much-hyped real-time video is also progressing, but that YouTube has had a much bigger influence on businesses.

Click here to read on to find out if online video can be profitable.

Cloud computing

You may have heard of it? It’s been the next big thing all year, even though some people haven’t a clue what it actually means.

Mann noted cloud computing has been around for a while, but noted “every year it’s becoming more accepted to more organisations.”

The recession has helped drive many to move their IT systems to the cloud, as hosted platforms offer dramatic cost savings, he noted, and slashed budgets force businesses to take action. “When times were good, there was less incentive to change things,” Mann noted. “There was no reason to take the risk.”

“When there’s a directive to cut 40 per cent of costs, you’re more willing to take risks,” he said.

However, when the economy rebounds, the cloud will stick around, as it offers other benefits, including more flexibility and agility.

“It’s made its case – we don’t see it going away,” Mann said. “I think it has sticking power beyond the recession.”

Microblogging

Another tech that’s been drowning in hype this year is Twitter. While the Twitter has many business benefits, it’s not really designed for use for internal communciations.

Mann sees other systems stepping up to move microblogging behind the firewall, letting employees communicate in a way their used to in their personal lives with colleagues around the world – or in the next cubicle.

He noted one example, a firm called Yammer. It offers a Twitter-like service for enterprise customers. Because it’s based behind the firewall and limits who can see the messages, it’s more secure than putting business comms online.

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