Seven “Grand Challenges” Face IT in Next Quarter-Century

Gartner has identified seven technologies that will “completely transform” the business world over the next 25 years. The technologies include parallel programming, wireless power sources for mobile devices, automated speech translation, and computing interfaces that detect human gestures. “Many of the emerging technologies that will be entering the market in 2033 are already known in some form in 2008,” Gartner says. Gartner predicts more natural computing interfaces that can detect gestures and compare those gestures in real time against a gesture “dictionary” that tells the computer what action to take. Mobile devices will no longer have to be charged as power will be transferred by a remote source, eliminating the need for batteries. Researchers will develop persistent and reliable long-term storage that will store the world’s digital information on digital media permanently. To create reliable storage that can last 20 to 100 years, researchers need to overcome challenges related to data format, hardware, software, metadata, and information retrieval. Programmer productivity will increase 100-fold, with the output of each programmer increasing to meet future demands fueled by an increasing reliance on software development products. The reuse of code will help, but optimizing the reuse of code is a challenge in itself. Gartner also predicts that IT workers will be able to provide exact financial outcomes for IT investments.

Gartner Says
Network World (04/09/08) Brodkin, Jon
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