Cloud computing tops Gartner's list of top 10 strategic investments

Research firm Gartner recently published its list of the top 10 strategic technologies for businesses to invest in during 2011. Not surprisingly, cloud computing was the firm's No. 1 technology that businesses should integrate during the next year.

Because of the expected developments to come from cloud vendors throughout the industry, businesses that fail to integrate the technology into their organization may miss out on a number of opportunities. Both public and private cloud services are expected to evolve soon, offering a combination of software, hardware and the best cloud practices in the industry.

To prepare for upcoming developments in the cloud, Gartner advises large organizations to create an internal "sourcing team" to make decisions on their hosted cloud service by the beginning of 2012.

"Companies should factor these top 10 technologies in their strategic planning process by asking key questions and making deliberate decisions about them during the next two years," said David Cearley, vice president at Gartner.

In fact, a number of other research firms have predicted industry-wide developments in the cloud during the next few years. Forrester Research, for example, released a similar list of top upcoming technologies, recognizing the cloud as one of the most essential enterprise IT investments.