IDC has a list of trends for 2014.
1. Smartphones and tablets will make up 60% of IT spending
This is not correct. They will be 60% of GROWTH in IT spending. Still it validates that mobile hard to minimize in its importance.
Fascinating that emerging markets growing so fast. No idea if this is correct.
3. A shift from IaaS to PaaS – Amazon to pounce
It is unlikely enterprises will embrace Amazons PaaS very enthusiastically in my opinion or that Amazon’s PaaS will have desirable characteristics for larger enterprises. However, they will continue to make inroads with smaller players who are not scared of building things to one vendor and occasional blibs or problems. I expect that other IaaS vendors will adopt a PaaS layer from PaaS vendors already in the business. Standardization will start to appear around what I call PaaS plugpoints or how you can adapt a PaaS to satisfy enterprise specific needs. Eventually it makes sense that IaaS vendors will have hooks to PaaS solutions, possibly in some cases supporting multiple PaaS solutions and vendors. The issue will be that a good PaaS should provide vendor independence and that is something any IaaS vendor will eschew. So, the market for indepenedent PaaS will continue to thrive as well.
4. Double-digit growth for mobile devices
Again the mobile momentum is in play still. This drives the momentum for APIs, the componentization of companies, what I call enterprise refactoring into services is synergistic force that together are rapidly moving us to a componentized service oriented API future. Some call it the API Economy but it is more than APIs. It is applications and mobile applications, SaaS, PaaS all working towards a service oriented approach to business that businesses need to adjust to and become adept at to thrive.
5. Cloud computing to become a 100 billion dollar market
The move to PaaS, virtualization is unstoppable. The economics but mostly the agility is the driving force for this in my opinion. If the gears of your company aren’t operating at cloud speed then you can’t compete in todays business world. It’s just not reasonable to think that you can do business as you did yesterday in todays mobile, social, cloud, API world.
6. Data brokers will take advantage of Big Data growth
I think big data is the most compelling of the new technologies we have. It is synergistic with mobile, social, cloud, i.e. you couldn’t have social, mobile without bigdata. It is integral to the models of how these movements have progressed. However, I see that we now use bigdata in practically every project we do at WSO2. It’s become so useful and “built-in” to the easiest way to do so many things. You can plug a feed from some source, be it API event stream, business process events, application activities, messages being sent and create the information you need to automate, measure and govern the system. I just don’t see many applications or solutions it won’t help or be essential in making it work. When people question bigdata it seems to me like somebody 10 years ago wondering if mobile smartphones would catch on.
7. The end of insularity for social technologies
Transparency is a catch word that is growing in importance. Social technology in business will transform the way businesses operate by helping to crack some of the insularity between silos in organizations. I am not saying we will see the end of silos and politics in companies and business. I am saying that there is a trend absolutely to more public review of everything in business as well as in the social sphere.
8. “Cloud first” strategy will become a must
Didn’t we say that already in 3, 5, 6 above?
9. The emergence of industry-dependent innovation platforms
This is what I call ecosystem PaaS. WSO2 is seeing these emerge in airline, car industry, Health where we are working with customers. I am sure everywhere from entertainment to logistics and every industry will develop these PaaS industry specific ecosystems. New leaders and innovative companies will become dominant who establish and lead those ecosystem efforts. Think about how you could lead your industry in creating a PaaS. Otherwise you will be a follower and possibly be disrupted. Talk to WSO2 if you want help to think through your ecosystem ideas and plans. If you don’t get it you may want to learn more.
10. Internet of Things will pick up speed, enabling new industry partnerships
I am not sure internet of things will be so compelling as the other things mentioned above but I am largely in agreement with IDCs trends above. Some are replicative but in general they have grasped what I believe are the driving disruptive forces on a large scale for business.
CloudRamblings 
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