Of all the "What to watch" lists gumming up your social media feeds, "Which tech trends are on the horizon" should be the one you pause long enough to read. It's important to recognize what technology is increasingly in popularity so you can allocate the time and funds to make these trends pay off for your business. Heading into the new year I tackled some of the top trends in Digital Transformation along with some key trends in Customer Experience. However, with 2017 CES upon us (and by no means just a consumer show any longer) and a new year off to a fast start, we must not ignore the tech trends that will shape the enterprise in the year ahead. Here are my takes on what to spend and save on for enterprise technology in 2017. From technology budgets to knowing how tech will change business, tech trends matter for businesses big and small.

If the business IT market in 2016 was defined by an increased focus on cybersecurity vulnerabilities (including from the Internet of Things), cloud adoption and a shift to hyperconverged infrastructure, what does that augur for 2017? Often, predictions about the year ahead are untethered from the year that was, and do not have much of a connection to underlying trends. The world of enterprise technology likely will not be radically different next year than it was in 2016. However, trends that have been ongoing may accelerate or evolve, as technologies mature and businesses get more acclimated to them. For example, Hardware as a Service may start to take off.