Predictive analytics, computer-enabled vehicles among top tech trends

A shift in focus from computer software that analyzes historical data to predictive analytics will be one of the top computing trends this year, suggests a recent report from market research firm Gartner Inc.

The report, dubbed The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2013, includes some discussion of what Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner calls “actionable” analytics.

“This represents an important shift from traditional views of business intelligence (BI) and analytics as discrete activities often separated from operational processes and focused on historical data,” according to the report, by Gartner vice presidents David W. Cearley, Carl Claunch.

“Analytics are shifting to more predictive and prescriptive models, bringing analytical results to users at the point of action.”

Other major information technology trends this year will include the installation of microprocessors in devices other than computers, according to the report, which was released in February. 

“Mobile client devices are only one part of the extension of endpoint computing devices beyond the desktop,” according to the report. “Moving from handheld and wearable devices is the Internet of Things, in which computing is embedded in a wide variety of entities in the real world, from vehicles to consumer electronics devices to appliances.”

Although microprocessors have been embedded for years in non-computing devices, Gartner suggests, over the next two years, “these often-isolated markets will increasingly merge with mainstream computing models.”

Also in the top ten IT trends are big data and cloud computing, according to Gartner.