Gartner Symposium/ITxpo: It’s Crystal Ball Time

This week Orlando will be overrun with tech visionaries, vendors, users and others attending Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, a four-day lovefest devoted to all things enterprise technology. The VAR Guy will be in the thick of it, for sure, getting the lowdown on what’s hot, what’s not and what’s simmering and about to boil over.

While the agenda is long and chock full of information guaranteed to make my head swim (and, at times, boil over), it’s obvious I can’t cover everything during the next four days. So here’s a quick peek at what I will be covering:

• Software-Defined Everything: Software is taking over the network, storage and the data center, impacting everything from the way networks are built to the way they’re managed and beyond. So it stands to reason anything that touches the network will be impacted, including telco. So what does this mean for the channel?
• The Internet of Things: Yeah, it’s a buzz term, and one that most likely will wear out its welcome. But it, too, is a game-changer for IT. Will it usher in the era of the Jetsons, Jetpacks and other futuristic endeavors? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But it’s for sure we are standing at the shore of a sea change, which means many opportunities for solution providers—those willing to forge their own path.
• Gartner’s Top 10: Gartner made lists sexy, and this year’s list of lists is no different—strategic predictions, strategic technology trends and emerging trends. All food for thought for solution providers looking for The Next Big Thing.
• Ethics and Technology: Wait, what? You may be asking that. But hey, we’re close to entering an era where privacy is no longer our own and major corporations know everything about us, from our average heart rate to whether we brought our own bags on our weekly shopping trip to Trader Joe’s. So how will companies use all that information and, more importantly, will they use that information to help or harm? It’s a question that will become critical as we move further into this great big world run by technology.

Of course, I’ll check out the keynotes by technology guru Peter Thiel, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella and techno-legend and Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak, and chances are my brain will be full when I board my flight home on Wednesday. Until then, however, I’ll be getting my fill of the future. Stay tuned—it’s gonna be coming fast and furious.