Research firm Forrester understands that everyone who’s been listening with even one ear knows that mobile, social, cloud, and data are big freight trains of change that are blowing up old business models and old business practices.

TOP 15 Emerging Technologies are in four groups:

End user computing technologies

1.Next-generation devices and UIs

New sensors and new user interfaces. Think Leap Motion

2.Advanced collaboration and communication

Think social inside, like Yammer or or other social-inside-the-enterprise solutions

3.Systems of engagement

Real-time data, in everyone’s hands. Think Roambi

Sensors and remote computing technologies

1.Smart products

Thing that can sense, react, and communicate. Think operating system for places and buildings

2.In-location positioning

GPS and in-building location sensors

3.Machine-to-machine networks

Background intelligence on people and things. Think ReelyActive

Process data management technologies

1.Smart process applications and semantics

Real business processes are a lot messier than your flow charts. Smart process apps know that.

2.Advanced analytics

Smarter, more predictive data. Think Cloudera’s Impala tool for Hadoop

3.Pervasive BI

People need business intelligence that comes every hour, not at the end of the month

4.Process and data cloud services

Scalable, burstable, and cheap computing capability. PaaS, BaaS, etc.

Infrastructure and application platforms

1.Big data platforms

Infrastructure to handle big data and high speed … and use all that data you’ve been uselessly storing

2.Breakthrough storage and compute

Yes, hardware may still be necessary, even if you’re never going to be like Google

3.Software-defined infrastructure

Software that dynamically routes your networking and data center capabilities

4.Cloud application frameworks

Technologies for deploying and running distributed apps in the cloud, like, perhaps, a multi-continent-spanning database

5.New identity and trust models

New federated trust and identity models for a changing world of jobs and careers … and maybe even killing all usernames and passwords

Read more at https://venturebeat.com/2013/02/07/forresters-top-15-emerging-technologies/#Gy0g4kfil8OcMOUw.99