BANGALORE, INDIA: Every year brings something new! When it comes to technology and the IT world, it is quite a task to predict what the New Year has in store for us. CIOL presents to you a list of top 10 technology trends that are likely to make waves in 2008.
These trends cover the enterprise space, software development, operating systems, wireless technologies, storage, high-definition, mobile phones, etc.
We would love to hear what is your take on the top tech trends for 2008.
1. Greening of IT
Data centers of today are witnessing very high power consumption and cooling requirements. Skyrocketing energy consumption surely poses a challenge to the environment. 
Besides this, the hazardous effect of e-waste is also a major environmental concern in today's IT sector. (It is estimated that more than 800 million PCs will be replaced during 2007 and 2012).
As a result, the IT world has started realizing the need for 'greening of IT' to minimize the harmful effects of energy expulsion from IT operations and data centers. (Green Data Center report from Symantec Corp states that nearly three-fourths of respondents of the survey stated they have interest in adopting a strategic green data center initiative)
The "green IT" movement has already succeeded in creating environmental responsibility among major IT vendors across the globe.
2. Is 2008 going to be the year of Linux?
It has been years since we started talking about the 'year of Linux'. Finally, good news for open source buffs? Well, we really can't predict that. But, there is a hope that the coming time could be a real turning point in the history of open source, making 2008 the year of Linux on desktop. 
Though Linux will not be a direct replacement for Windows, we are definitely going to see a major increase in the number of end-users adopting Linux.
PC giant Dell, at the beginning of this year, gave us a positive sign by introducing Linux computers. A number of other vendors are also betting high on Linux. Ubuntu has already received recognition among mobile users and server market. Linux Desktop, though gradually, is gaining momentum. At this point in time, we can only wait and watch the game!
3. Will Vista be the OS to own?
When Microsoft launched Vista, Gartner's analysts suggested ignoring the new operating system until 2008 and not to rush into upgrading. So, it's time for us to rethink. Lots of users are still waiting for the first service pack to arrive before upgrading from Windows XP.
And, hopefully, SP1 is likely to arrive in the beginning of 2008.
Vista definitely offers some advanced security feature and more polished interface. But due to some concerns related to application compatibility and more hardware requirements, consumers, till now, were reluctant to switch to Vista.
However, some recent surveys show that a lot of companies are now willing to upgrade to Vista. Microsoft expects Vista to be accountable for 85 percent of operating system sales in fiscal 2008 compared with 15 percent for Windows XP. Majority of the consumers will, sooner or later, have to migrate to Vista. Well, that could be in 2008.
