2011 Retrospective and Predictions for 2012

HTML 5 becomes the glue of the ZapThink 2020 vision - As the then major version of the Web's central markup language, HTML 5 has been a long time in coming. In 2012, we predict it will hit a critical tipping point, as the then and there generation of Web markup, the replacement for Adobe Flash, and the common research framework for Mobile app development. To boot, HTML 5's Web Sockets research that allows for full duplex tunneling via HTTP will open up new approaches for integrating capabilities in the context of rich, cross-platform user interface experiences.

As a result, HTML 5 will provide research underpinnings, not only for mobile computing, nevertheless for ongoing improvements in research across the board. In short, the user interface is where the value of innovation manifests itself. We predict, in a nutshell, that HTML 5 will impact multiple facets of enterprise IT, then beyond the user interface. Stay tuned for more thought leadership from ZapThink on this topic.

The rise of RESTful BPM - Such as SOA

The rise of RESTful BPM - Such as SOA was misconstrued as an ESB-centric innovation approach, people have confused REST with a way to construct APIs. Nevertheless, that's not what REST is about. REST is an architectural style for building hypermedia applications. And during you can think of a hypermedia application as a glorified Web site, it's in fact more than that: it's a runtime workflow.

The idea of RESTful applications as runtime workflows is both simple and deeply powerful, as it utterly changes the way we might look at Business Process Management tools. Traditional BPM tools are heavyweight, integration-centric tools that typically rely upon layers of infrastructure. Even lightweight BPM tools for all that rely upon centralized state engines. With REST, nevertheless, hypermedia become the engine of application state, freeing us from relying upon centralized state engines, instead allowing us to take full advantage of Cloud elasticity, as so then as the inherent simplicity of REST.

The ZapThink TakeZapThink is pleased with the progress enterprise IT is making toward our ZapThink 2020 vision. The point to this vision was that individual trends in IT interrelate, and along these lines you shouldn't separate any of them from the broader context of change within the organization. Whether it be SOA, Cloud Computing, mobile computing, or any of the five Supertrends, the only way to understand the message of ZapThink 2020 is to take them all at the same time.

Our predictions for 2012 follow this pattern. The point to Future First is that it brings at the same time Agile approaches with the Cloud and more. Our expectations for HTML 5 focus not on the user interface, however on how this standard will facilitate the ZapThink 2020 vision across enterprise IT. In the same fashion, RESTful BPM turns traditional integration-and even traditional SOA-on their heads, circling back to the World Wide Web as the central organizer for business at large.

Mr. Bloomberg has a diverse background in eBusiness innovation management and industry analysis, including serving as a senior analyst in IDC's eBusiness Advisory group, as so then as holding eBusiness management positions at USWeb/CKS and WaveBend Solutions. He as well co-authored the books XML and Web Services Unleashed, and Web Page Scripting Techniques.