Ch-ch-changes: Gartner’s top 10 emerging trends
For instance, 39 million terabytes of storage is currently deployed globally; by 2019, that figure will more than double to 89 million terabytes.
The demand for data center capacity is "relentless," said David Cappuccio, and is creating problems for IT. "It's not about how many systems I have, it's how efficiently I use that resource."
Along with storage, server workloads are growing at a 10% average annual growth rate; network bandwidth at 35% a year, and power costs are rising at 20% annually, according to Gartner.
A frequent question from IT managers, said Cappuccio, is: "How do I make my existing environment last longer" and avoid building new data centers
The leading trends Gartner identified at this year's Symposium/ITxpo often involve a complete rethinking of how IT delivers its services. New skills will be required to make these transitions -- and acquiring those skills may be one of the biggest challenges ahead.
One attendee, Robert Brown, the CIO of the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command, said that IT personnel "are going to be continually challenged to increase their knowledge of future IT services [while] maintaining current IT services."
"That's quite a burden to put on an IT staff, but it's got to happen," said Brown, who noted it will require more resources for training.
In addition to nonstop demand, or "the new scale of IT," here are Gartner's other nine top tech trends: