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Cloud computing, mobility entering more advanced stage of Hype Cycle

Tara Charles
August 16, 2012

Gartner's annual Hype Cycle study found that cloud computing and private cloud systems have moved past the zenith of the hype cycle and toward more widespread implementation. Bring your own device currently rests at the top of the hype cycle and is close to moving down the other side.

Gartner's Hype Cycle tracks technologies as they move from their initial entry into the public eye, through the top of their heightened expectations and on through the period when feelings toward the technology begin to go downhill as initial hype crashes into reality. From there, the cycle tracks solutions into their period of mainstream use. While not quite to the point of being disappointing for a short period, cloud computing and, to a lesser extent, mobility, are moving away from hype and closer to more realistic expectations when it comes to actual enterprise use.

Hung LeHong, research vice president at Gartner, explained that this version of the Hype Cycle indicates that many emerging technologies are converging at the tipping point of the hype cycle. To illustrate this, LeHong details the current state of the smartphone market.

"The smarter smartphone is a case in point," said LeHong. "It's now possible to look at a smartphone and unlock it via facial recognition, and then talk to it to ask it to find the nearest bank ATM. However, at the same time, we see that the technology is not quite there yet. We might have to remove our glasses for the facial recognition to work, our smartphones don't always understand us when we speak, and the location-sensing technology sometimes has trouble finding us."

Making the most of cloud computing and mobile technologies can be incredibly challenging in the enterprise. The technologies can generate large quantities of data, easily overwhelming employees. At their core, the cloud and mobile movements enable organizations to take a more customer-centric approach to operations by allowing for more efficient processes. But if the data and secondary systems needed to support these technologies become too difficult to work with, the benefits of the solutions can be limited.

Business process management software can enable businesses to make the most of their cloud and mobile systems by helping them gain more control of data, put information in its proper context and ensure the technological solutions are able to support process-level improvements.