Information Technology is one of the most dynamic industries with new technologies surfacing frequently. In such a scenario, it can get intimidating for information technology professionals at all levels to keep abreast of the latest technology innovations worth investing time and resources into.

It can therefore get daunting for entry and mid-level IT professionals to decide which technologies they should potentially be developing skills. However, the biggest challenge comes for senior information technology professionals responsible for driving the IT strategy in their organizations.

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It is therefore important to keep abreast of the latest technology trends and get them from reputable sources. Here are some of the ways to keep on top of the latest trends in Information Technology.

·         Subscribe to leading Analyst Firms: If you work for a leading IT organization, chances are that you already have subscription to leading IT analyst firms notably Gartner and Forrester. These two firms are some of the most recognized analyst firms with extensive coverage on almost every enterprise technology including hardware and software. These Analyst firms frequently publish reports on global IT spending and trends that are based on primary research conducted on vendors and global CIOs & CTOs. However, subscription to these reports is very expensive and if you are a part of a small organization you may have issues securing access to these reports. One of the most important pieces of research published by these firms happens to be the Gartner Hype Cycle which plots leading technologies and their maturity curve.Even if you do not have access to Gartner research, you can hack your way by searching for “Gartner Hype Cycle” on Google Images and you will in most cases be able to see the plots similar to the one below

·         Follow Industry Thought Leaders and Industry Conference Hashtags on Twitter: Social networks especially Twitter can be amazing source for learning about the latest in enterprise IT direct from the horses’ mouth. Industry analysts are very active on social networks and are often find live tweeting research findings or their thoughts on various tech conferences. You can get started by following leading IT analysts on twitter without taking the pain of discovering the right people using lists such as Top Ten Tech Analysts to follow on Twitter or Gartner Analysts On Twitter. From then on, you can keep growing your analyst-to-follow list based on the specific technology you want to keep track of. Another great way to hone in on the latest in IT industry is to follow conference hashtags. Most leading IT vendors such as Oracle, SAP organize large scale conferences on a regular basis such as Oracle Open World and SAP Tech Ed. So even if you are not able to attend the conference in person, you can follow it on Twitter using conference hashtags such as #sapteched. For example, if you are interested in following the latest trends in hardware technology, you could have been following the CES conference right on twitter through this link

·         Leverage vendor and IT association affiliations: Chances are that your organization will have affiliations and memberships with enterprise IT vendors and national & regional IT associations. Irrespective of your position in the organization, you should try and get access to the knowledge offered by vendor partners and IT associations. For example, if you work for an IT organization in India there is a good chance that they will have affiliations with leading technology body in India called NASSCOM. Nasscom in addition to organizing conferences also publishes a lot of valuable content online via their websites. On the same lines, you could always got to vendor websites such as Oracle and subscribe to their newsletters and case studies online. That will give you a peek into the technology trends with respect to those specific technologies

The three ways highlighted here are without doubt the most qualified resources to keep you abreast of the latest trends in Information technology. In addition, you can and should also follow leading enterprise IT blogs such as the CIO Blog, CNET etc. which publish great insights on Information Technology trends.

How do you keep on top of the latest IT trends? Share with us through comments