# 10 Technology Trends that will Define Enterprise Architecture in the 2010s

> Forrester Research’s Brian Hopkins and co-researchers recently assembled a list of the top 20 trends that will define (or redefine) enterprise architecture between now and 2014 (10 top technology trends and 10 top business trends).Photo Credit: WikimediaIn terms of technology…
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Forrester Research’s Brian Hopkins and co-researchers recently assembled a list of the top 20 trends that will define (or redefine) enterprise architecture between now and 2014 (10 top technology trends and 10 top business trends).

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

In terms of technology trends over the next three years, its all about cloud, cloud and mobile. Here is Forrester’s top 10 list:

**1) Elastic application platforms emerge to handle variable scale and portfolio balancing.** “A new generation of elastic applications is emerging to help firms realize cloud computing benefits,” Hopkins observes.

**2) Platform-as-a-service crosses the chasm.** What does Hopkins mean by this? He observes that despite a lot of interest in PaaS by early adopters, “a wide chasm exists in technology maturity” before a majority of the market will adopt it.

**3) Data services and virtualization reach critical mass. **“Over the next three years… leading firms will implement data services to extend their enterprise data warehouse and/or to operate in a multitechnology environment with a mix of physical and virtual data stores.”

**4) Holistic integration enables agile enterprises.** The silos are breaking down, but technology “does not overcome cultural obstacles.” A more holistic approach is emerging to address both technical and business integration, says Hopkins.

**5) Social technology becomes enterprise plumbing.** “Social interaction will become part of normal workflows, and applications must be architected from the inception to enable this.”

**6) Improved virtualization sets the stage for private cloud.** “Expect to see more focus on virtualization maturity to raise utilization rates, standardization, and automation,” Hopkins says.

**7) Always on, always available is the new expectation.** High availability will be the watchword for IT. Expect to see such improvements as “cloud-based disaster recovery services.”

**8) Network architecture evolves to meet cloud demands. **“Over the next three years, firms will consolidate their network tiers to a flattened topology using virtualization features that are already a part of most currently shipping data-center-class switches.”

**9) Personal device momentum changes mobile platform strategy.** “Strategic changes will include IT support for at least BlackBerry, iOS, and Android devices as well as much more openness to individually liable devices connecting to corporate resources.”

**10) The app Internet ushers in the next generation of computing. **Expect to see fully enabled context-aware and secure app-based mobile computing, Hopkins says. Also, the jury is still out on HTML5 development versus platform-specifc app development.