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Four years ago, the five technology trends shaping corporate IT were the “consumerization” of IT, mobile, cloud, social and big data. Those trends have become embedded in the corporate environment, in some cases so much so that they are not highlighted anymore, while in other cases the spotlight is even brighter.
Today, a whole new set of emerging trends are impacting corporate information technology. And as digital connectivity, “smart” digital connectivity, often real-time, continues to grow in almost all parts of the world whether developed or developing, and the separation between traditional and online customers has largely disappeared.
CIO and technology industry participants in a recent roundtable agreed that these are the major information technology trends impacting corporations (and enterprise IT) today:

• The “Consumerization” of IT: The phenomenon of the proliferation and increased sophistication of consumer devices, applications and services that have pervaded the corporate environment, along with high user experience (UX/UI) expectations.
• Mobile: Highly portable connectivity and computing from wearables to smart phones, tablets and other hand-held devices, to equipment in vehicles of all types that allow communication and location-based services, etc.
• Cloud: The ability to host and deliver online storage, software (SaaS) and other services (IaaS, PaaS) remotely to/for anyone, anywhere, anytime in an on-demand fashion as long as they have access to the internet.
• Social: The social media, networking and collaboration platforms, both consumer and corporate, that have enabled engagement, sharing and buy instagram followers between people and groups that have common interests or challenges.
• Big Data and Analytics: The stunning growth in volume, velocity, variety and veracity of digital data of all types from transactional data to sensor data to social data to video (and so on), as well as the technologies enabling the analyzing, correlating and combining of varied sources both public and private.
• The Internet of Things: As my colleague Chris Rezendes calls it, “the instrumentation of the physical world”. The proliferation of sensor technology that makes all manner of devices “smart” and able to send real-time data about themselves anywhere they are programmed to do so. Includes the embedding in products/components (often resulting in the expansion of affiliated services to customers).
• 3D Printing: The digitization of matter that has allowed a physical object to be input digitally in one place and created materially/physically in another.
• Peer-to-Peer Sharing: The set of technologies that have enabled P2P sharing, crowdsourcing, radical transparency of underutilized assets and new forms of distribution at an unprecedented economy of scale (that have led to disintermediation and disruptive market-maker business models like Uber).
• The Blockchain: An emerging technology that serves as a “decentralized digital ledger that verifies transactions between parties [and] can process trades in record time” and enables cryptocurrencies.
• Artificial Intelligence: The ability for a computer to automate complex decision-making based on data, identification of cause and effect, and learning from prior occurrences, therefore potentially replacing human-decision making beyond just in simple decisions. Also includes concepts like natural language interface.
• Virtual Reality: The use of sensory input devices to create visual and auditory experiences (with tactile and olfactory to follow) displaced in time, place, or both.
• Robotics, Drones and Self-Driving Cars: The smart (software) automation of almost any mechanical action, especially vehicles of all types.

Have we missed something? Do you agree that these are the top major trends?