Five Disruptive Technologies To Watch In 2007

This year will see the impact of several slow-developing technologies, such as RFID, virtualization, and advanced graphics.

Several technologies that have been percolating around the edges of mainstream business will bubble up to the surface this year, and CIOs and IT managers need to be prepared for the opportunities they represent--or risk getting burned.

Radio frequency identification will begin to ramp up the data loads IT centers must handle, as the tags become more pervasive. Web services will present workaday challenges, as managers are tasked with integrating Web-based apps into enterprise computing systems. The cost savings promised by server virtualization will be too compelling to pass up. Graphics processing will get a boost from the advent of Microsoft's Vista operating system. And as far-flung workforces face new and more troubling threats, mobile security will be more of a challenge.

RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION
"What ERP did to the enterprise, RFID will do to the supply chain," says Marlo Brooke, senior partner at Avatar Partners, a systems integrator. "It's all about centralization, visibility, and automation."

RFID isn't new, having been around in one form or another for more than a decade. Over the last several years, Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense have helped move RFID into the mainstream, using the technology to track everything from pallets to people to pill bottles, and insisting that their partners adopt it as well. RFID standards are solidifying, making it easier to develop applications and interoperate various pieces. Products such as Reva Systems' Tag Acquisition Processor make it easier to funnel RFID data directly into inventory, manufacturing, and supply chain systems.

There are challenges. An RFID deployment needs to take into account potential radio frequency issues and how wireless networks are deployed across an organization. Also, warehousing and inventory experience are needed to collect the scanned information and integrate it into existing supply chain applications. The IT shops that embrace RFID will have to be able to handle the massive data dumps the technology generates, route this data to the right places within their applications infrastructure, and be able to act on this information as part of their decision-support systems.

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