Good news - possibly. Analyst Gartner has unveiled what it believes will be the top 10 strategic technologies for 2008. It's good news, I guess, in that chief information officers should have a heads-up about the technologies that - to quote the analyst - will have a "significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years".

Which is always helpful, especially if you're planning on spending a big wedge of the finance chief's cash. Gartner suggests proactively planning in the following areas:

1. Green IT: Which is common sense, really - both from a strategic and public relations perspective.
2. Unified communications: Gartner suggests 80 per cent of companies are already involved in trials and refers to unified communications as the first major change in voice communications since the digital PBX.
3. Business process modelling: Service-oriented architecture is tough - BPM helps executives make the most of software resources.
4. Metadata management: Firms keep creating and pumping out increasing amounts of content. Metadata management helps chief information officers make the most of their information, creating consistency and integrity.
5. Virtualisation 2.0: Just when you getting used to the concept of storage emulation, along comes virtualisation 2.0 - stronger, fitter and altogether sleeker. Includes a whole lot more resiliency and real-time automation.
6. Mash up and composite apps: Gartner says mash up technologies will evolve significantly during the next five years - get wise and formulating an enterprise strategy.
7. Web platform and web-oriented architecture: Basically, the web is going to become the standard service delivery model. Prepare for that development, too.
8. Computing fabric: The future of servers - a move beyond blades to create a larger, single system that is the sum of its components.
9. Real world web: Informal term, referring to places where information from the web is applied to the particular location, activity or context in the real world. It is intended to augment the reality that a user faces, not to replace it as in virtual worlds. Gartner says businesses now need to seek out new applications and revenue streams from the web in a real-world situation.
10. Social software: Web 2.0 will experience considerable flux, with continued product innovation and new start-ups. Expect significant consolidation.