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2015 is upon us, and so analysts are already rolling out their predictions for the coming year. Ovum (News - Alert) has gotten ahead of the game with its forecast with its report, Trends to Watch: Integration and Middleware, and it looks like the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and enterprise mobility are some of the technologies we can expect to see a lot of.

Up until recently, mobility has been propelled by the consumer market, especially as employees demand to use their own devices within the work place. Among Ovum's predictions are that this will continue to lead to a 'mobility mismatch' where employee demand isn't matched by IT department's ability to deliver. BYOD will clearly have some kinks to iron out. It also predicts that businesses will start to look beyond BYOD, adopting a more managed approach to device usage, particularly where sensitive data is involved.

Then there’s IoT, which is becoming more prevalent as machines are getting smarter and connecting better to each other. he very concept of IoT is actually done largely via radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips. We see other methods being employed, like QR (quick response) codes, and wireless connection systems like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but RFID is still rather relevant thanks to IoT. What Ovum predicts is that enterprises will use existing middleware and emerging M2M integration approaches together, but for specific IoT use cases.

“Cloud-based IoT platforms will continue to gain traction and play a key role in the first wave of IoT adoption by enterprises,” notes the report.

 “With the ever-increasing need to “do more with less”, enterprises will be keen to adopt agile approaches to integration. Therefore, a significant share of the budget for integration projects will be spent on infrastructure modernization, including the adoption of new mobile and internet of things (IoT) middleware, B2B integration solutions, and cloud-based integration platforms,” said Saurabh Sharma, Senior Analyst, Infrastructure Solutions and author of the report.

Ovum also recently released its report on telco IT trends, saying that telco IT budgets are on the rise, with a lot of investment directed at either optimizing network assets and infrastructure or improving service quality and the customer experience.

Beyond telecommunications, Sharma says that for business growth, enterprises must embrace modernizing infrastructure so that they can take advantage of mobility, cloud, and IoT for business growth.