Gartner names top 10 strategic technology trends for 2014

Gartner, a Stamford, Conn.-based IT research firm, identified ten strategic technology trends that it advises companies to plan for in 2014 and beyond. 

The top overall IT trends identified by Gartner echo the sentiments that healthcare IT leaders have been stressing in recent years

Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or a business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt, according to Gartner.

“This does not necessarily mean adoption and investment in all of the listed technologies, but companies should look to make deliberate decisions about them during the next two years,” said David Cearley, vice president and Gartner fellow, adding that the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and information continues to drive change and create new opportunities.

The top ten strategic technology trends are:

1. Mobile device diversity and management
2. Mobile apps and applications
3. The internet of everything
4. Hybrid cloud and IT as service broker
5. Cloud/client architecture
6. The era of personal cloud
7. Software defined anything
8. Web-scale IT
9. Smart machines
10. 3D printing

Gartner presented these trends at its Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla. To learn more, go here.