By: In the 2006 Top Trends issue, the Technology section was entitled “The Search for the Killer Infrastructure.” It looks as if that infrastructure's been found: Mainstream companies are well on their way to adopting Web services and service-based architectures, and moving to virtual servers and storage. These moves are already having an impact on old-school enterprise application suites: Some companies are reconsidering their commitment to older CRM and ERP solutions, and moving back to a best of breed approach to buying applications. But it's not yet clear whether service-based architectures will finally spur companies to get serious about improving data quality, or set the stage for finding more innovative uses of information technology. And even though IT innovation is no longer the sole province of technologists, IT executives remain cautious about user-driven innovation.
In this slideshow:
- The move to a new architecture marches on
- Enterprise applications start losing their luster
- Data quality demands attention
- IT reluctantly embraces Web 2.0
- IT innovation loses traction
- Business process management services and software will frustrate users
- For business intelligence, the best is yet to come
- IT organizations start going green
- Dissatisfaction with vendors is on the rise
