Gartner: The 2016 digital mesh is bigger, smarter, everywhere.

• By GCN Staff
• Oct 09, 2015

The Internet of Things is behind most of the technology disruption Gartner expects next year. Gartner Fellow and Vice President David Cearley, speaking at the firm's Symposium/ITxpo, released the company’s “Top Ten Strategic Technology Trends for 2016.” Here’s what to expect:

1. The device mesh – which includes mobile devices, wearable, consumer and home electronic devices, automotive devices and Internet of Things sensors – will see its connections models expand, and allow greater cooperative interaction between devices to emerge.

2. Ambient user experience will increasingly flow across a shifting set of devices and interaction channels, blending physical, virtual and electronic environments as the user moves from one place to another.

3. 3D printing will expand to meet demand in more sectors, necessitating a rethinking of assembly line and supply chain processes.

4. Information of everything, which links data from the digital mesh, will increasingly include sensory and contextual information. Advances in semantic tools such as graph databases, data classification and information analysis will bring meaning to the deluge of information.

5. Deep neural nets -- machine learning systems particularly applicable to large, complex datasets – will move beyond information management to create systems that can autonomously learn to perceive the world.

6. Autonomous agents, such as a more-advanced versions of Cortana or Siri, will become the main user interface, and systems such drones or autonomous cars will continue to advance.

7. Adaptive security architecture, including applications that protect themselves, as well as user and entity behavior analytics, will better help IT managers detect and respond to threats.

8. Advanced system architecture will be required to power the digital mesh and smart machines. Using high-powered and highly efficient architectures that mimic neuro-biological systems will enable speeds of greater than a teraflop.

9. Mesh app and service architecture will enable web-scale performance, flexibility and agility in both the dynamic architectures and user experiences that span the digital mesh.

10. Internet of Things platforms will complement the mesh app and service architecture by providing the management, security, integration and other technologies that enable the IoT