Last update: 15 Dec 2009

Online at: http://ctovision.com/disruptive-it/

About this list:This list reviews the companies regarded as having very high potential to change the way IT is done in large enterprises. It was compiled by Bob Gourley based on personal research. For more on methodologies see the note at the bottom of the list.

For many of these companies I provide more in depth reviews elsewhere on the CTOvision site.  Please look around or use my site search box for the latest.

New FTC rules make it important for bloggers to disclose any material connection to firms they endorse.  So please! Don’t take the list below as an endorsement!  And please see my personal disclaimers.

The list is now in three parts. The first part is for small to medium companies. The second part is for the IT powerhouses.  The third part is a special section on open source software efforts.

Disruptive Companies

Akamai Web acceleration and content delivery across the fabric.

Appistry Deploy apps across a grid.

ArcSight Network and security management

Basis Technology Foreign language document and media exploitation.

Cloudshield One of only two companies that can protect nets at line rate speeds.

Endeca Next-generation information retrieval and analysis through advanced search and guidance navigation. Big game changer that belongs everywhere computers exist today.

FireEye Botnet protection.

Forterra Systems Distributed virtual world technologies- for the enterprise

FortiusOne Next generation intelligent mapping.

Fortinet Integration of multiple security technologies.

iMove Imaging and immersive video for wide area and geospatial surveillance.

JackBe Rapid integration and mashups for enterprises (Gourley is on their tech advisory board).

Liquid Machines Primarily Enterprise Rights Management.  Key product is “Document Control 6.0″   Others in this area include IBM, EMC, Adobe.  Member of SISA alliance.

MetaCarta Geospatial data extraction and transformation

Narus Unified IP Management and Security

Object Video Business intelligence from video.

Opsware Significantly enhance server management and deployment. Now part of HP

Pixim New ways to image.

piXlogic Image segmentation and search. Visual Search Engine

Perceptive Pixel Multi-touch interaction with data visualizations.

Polychromix Miniature analysis tools for mobile labs

Previstar An Intelligent Resource and Information Management system designed to automate National Incident Management guidelines for preparedness, response and recovery.

QueReader. Like a Kindle for the business world.

Quantum4D Advanced visual analysis.

SenseNetworks Dramatic use of location data to create useful information. Consumer apps provide heat maps of cities.  Enterprise capabilities provide important analytics.

SpaceCurve. A new kind of database enabling large scale analytics and effortless indexing (Gourley is on their advisory board).

Spotfire Enterprise analytics for business intelligence.  Analytics for every user in the enterprise.

Splunk Dramatically enhanced IT search.

Tacit Now part of Oracle. Automated expertise sharing.

Thetus Knowledge modeling and discovery

Touch Table Interact with data and visualizations by hand

Traction Software Enterprise hypertext collaboration.

Triumfant Enterprise class compliance, reporting, remediation (Gourley is on their advisory board).

TSRI Move legacy code to the future fast.

The IT Powerhouses

There are so many things going on at the big companies it is hard to keep track.  Also, they all are looking for innovation and frequently buy to keep the innovation flowing in.  So this is a dynamic area to say the least.  It is also an area very hard to sum up in a few words.   But here goes:

Adobe Adobe Acrobat Connect and many related collaborative tools.

Cisco Far more than networking gear, now a collaboration powerhouse. IRIS.

Citrix On demand computing, including virtualization of desktops and servers.

EMC Growing through acquisition.  Real powerhouse in grid computing. No longer just a storage company.

IBM Continuing to modernize.  Will move into the mashup space.

Microsoft Large investments in R&D. Beginning to move to open standards/open source. Win 7 will be a huge hit, with enhancements to functionality and security.

Oracle Innovating by buying the best.  Stand by for disruptions by forced integrations resulting in positive forward movement. Services for open source.

SAP (and Business Objects and Inxight) Business intelligence. SAP has not stopped re-inventing itself and is a SOA leader.

VMware Virtualization leader.

These companies are also tracked on the CTOvision.com Tech Titan List

Some Open Source Disruptors

Sun Microsystems, of course, with Java and Solaris and MySQL and many others. It will be interesting to watch this dynamic after the Oracle acquisition.

Red Hat, with commercially supported Linux

Oracle, also supporting Solaris and Linux

Alfresco Enterprise content management in an open source framework.

Talend Open Source ETL and data integration.

A Big Problem With This List!: Even with a new section on open source software, this list does not do a good job of capturing the disruptive force of the open source community.  Although many of the projects and capabilities above are founded on Open Source, and a few of the companies above (like talend) are pure Open Source plays a more comprehensive way of addressing disruption coming from the open community is needed.  What is the next disruptor to come out of this area? Stand by for that in the future.

More on the methodologies: For a company to be on the list they must have a currently shipping capability that appears to be a real game changer in enterprise IT. Many companies that were previously “disruptive” in their capability are not on this list because everyone is using them now, so please don’t expect every cool capability to be here. Also, I’ve tried to look for more than just disruptive technologies. As pointed out by Clayton Christensen in “The Innovator’s Solution,” the biggest disruptions come when technologies allow changes to strategies or business models.  That sort of disruption is what I believe the companies on this list can allow. Also, my focus is on the enterprise.  There is quite a bit of disruption occurring on the big Internet and in comms markets and elsewhere that I’m not closely tracking.

How did I find companies to put on the list?  I started with personal experience.  But I also spend quite a bit of time interacting with other technologists and many of these were suggested by friends and associates.  I also scrutinized the portfolios of key Venture Capitalists who invest in this sort of technology and of course reviewed all the key IT trade journals.   After that I personally reviewed every company in the context of existing enterprise technologies.  I also stay in tune with technologists via Twitter, Facebook etc.  The result is this list.

I sure would appreciate your input on this list.  If you know of a company you believe I should check out please drop me a note.

Bob Gourley
Contact Me Here: http://ctovision.com/contact-us/