Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2015

Gartner presented their top 10 strategic technology trends for 2015 at their annual Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2014 held in Orlando earlier this month. Computing Everywhere, the Internet of Things (IoT) and 3D Printing are projected to be the three most important strategic technology trends in 2015.

3D Printing Will Continue To Revolutionize Prototyping And Manufacturing

3D printing is forecast to reach a tipping point in the next three years due to streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing. Improving time-to-market, ensuring greater accuracy of highly customized products, and reducing production costs over the long-term are three of the many benefits companies are adopting 3D printing for today. Be sure to read Larry Dignan’s excellent post covering the conference and top ten strategic technology trends, 3D printing turns strategic in 2015, says Gartner.

Taking Analytics To The Next Level in 2015

Advanced, persuasive and invisible analytics, context-rich systems, and smart machines also are included in the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2015. Given how quickly analytics is maturing as a technology category, it’s understandable why Gartner ranked this area as the 4^th most strategic. In 2015, analytics will move beyond providing dashboards with metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to a more intuitive series of applications that give business analysts the flexibility to define models and test them in real-time. Alteryx and Tableau are interesting companies to watch in this area and Tableau Public is worth checking out and learning due to its advanced visualization features (free, opt-in).

Cloud Computing Becomes Part Of The New IT Reality

The last four technology trends Gartner mentions include cloud/client computing, software-defined applications and infrastructure, Web-scale IT and risk-based security and self-protection.

The following graphic provides an overview of the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2015.