Research May 2006: Which Emerging Technologies Make Sense For Your Company?

CIO Insight has surveyed IT executives on emerging technologies since 2003. This year’s survey covers 45 emerging technologies in five different categories. Some, such as Web services, open source, VoIP, collaboration tools and, more recently, virtualization and SOA, are being widely and quickly adopted, while others, such as grid computing, have been slow to emerge. Why do some technologies—not just grid, but also utility computing, self-healing/autonomic computing, Semantic Web and MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) —take so long?

What computing and software technologies are on your CIO’s radar screen? Click here to read our survey’s findings.

One reason is conversion costs and technical limitations. Grids —which link separate computers into a virtual parallel-processing computer so they can tackle computing tasks that require enormous processing power and speed—have been deployed by Charles Schwab & Co. for portfolio analysis, and by GlaxoSmithKline plc for drug discovery. According to Carl Claunch, a research vice president for Gartner Inc., grids are appropriate on high-payoff projects that require a lot of computing muscle, such as oil exploration and automobile or aircraft design.

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