apache hadoop

Hadoop breaks new ground by enabling businesses to deploy clusters of commodity servers to crunch through many terabytes of unstructured data -- simply to discover interesting patterns to explore, rather than to start with formal business intelligence objectives. Tools like Apache Hive and Apache Pig have made exploiting Hadoop easier for developers, and the evolution of the Hadoop ecosystem points to further ease and deeper insights in the years to come.

As Hadoop solutions proliferate, businesses will better be able to predict the behavior of Web customers, optimize workflows, and discover patterns in everything from medical histories to common search terms. The best thing about the new wave of Hadoop analytics is that we're only beginning to discover where it may lead.

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java script replacement

JavaScript may be the most commonly executed code on the planet, but for all its success, everyone is moving on to the next thing. Some want to build entirely new languages that fix all of the troubles with JavaScript; others just want to translate their code into JavaScript, so they can pretend they don't use it.

Translated code is all the rage. Google's Web Toolkitcross-compiles Java into JavaScript so the developer types only properly typed Java code. Some translations are cosmetic: Programmers who write in CoffeeScript don't need to worry about much of JavaScript's punctuation because the cross-compiler inserts it before it runs. Other translations, such as Google's Dart, are more ambitious, pointing to a future of ever more options.

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trust on a chip

Assuring security at the highest application level requires verification at every layer, including the physical construction of the computing device. Enter trust on a chip.The TPM (Trusted Platform Module) from the TCG (Trusted Computing Group) was the first popularly adopted hardware chip to assure trusted hardware and boot sequences. Last year, Intel combined the TPM chip and a hardware hypervisor layer to protect boot sequences, memory, and other components. Any software vendor can take advantage of it. Hardware trust solutions aren't perfectly secure, as the Princeton memory freeze and electron microscope attacks showed, but they beat software-only protection solutions. The hardware protection schemes will only get better. Soon enough, every computer device you can use will have a hardware/software protection solution running.

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continuous build tools

The more collaboratively minded developers among us like the way continuous build tools like Jenkins, Hudson, and other "continuous integration" servers help us work together for the betterment of the whole. These tools put all code through a continuous stream of tests, alerting developers about problems with code they checked in some 10 seconds ago, keeping everybody moving toward the same goal.

Tools like Hudson or Jenkins aren't new -- there have been a number of slick proprietary continuous integration tools for some time, but the emergence of open source solutions encourages the kind of experimentation and innovation that comes when programmers are given the chance to make their tools better.

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client-side hypervisors

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Desktop virtualization faltered for two reasons: It requires continuous connection between client and server, as well as a beefy server to run desktop VMs. Client hypervisors solve both problems. Install one on an ordinary machine and leverage the processing power of the client. Laptop users can take a "business VM" with them containing the OS, apps, and personal configuration settings. That VM is secure and separate from whatever else may be running on that machine -- including malware accidentally downloaded -- and you get all the virtualization management advantages, such as VM snapshots, portability, and easy recovery. Client hypervisors point to a future where we bring our own computers to work and download or sync our business VMs to start the day.

html 5

Naysayers point out that we've been putting tags together to form Web pages since the beginning of the World Wide Web. HTML5 has simply added new ones. But while HTML5 looks similar to old-fashioned HTML, the tasks it accomplishes are dramatically different. Local data storage, <canvas>, and <video> make it possible to do much more than pour words and images into a rectangle. Plus, the new HTML5 WebSockets spec defines a new way to conduct full-duplex communication for event-driven Web apps. And with Adobe's decision to end development of mobile Flash, an entire sector of the Web development industry is going to retool as we move to HTML5 from Flash -- a tectonic shift for Web developers.

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10 emerging technologies that will shape IT's future

Everyone is a trend watcher. But taking a hard look at the technologies that gave life to the latest buzz phrases is the only way to determine which trends will actually weave their way into the fabric of business computing.Here at InfoWorld, we're every bit as excited about big changes in the direction of enterprise IT, from the consumerization of IT to infrastructure convergence. But what vapor-free technologies have actually emerged to enable these IT strategies to take shape, and more importantly, which will cement these changes in your IT department in the years to come?Among the technologies shipping but not yet widely adopted, we see the following 10 having the greatest impact over the long haul. Get to know them.