ThoughtWorks, a global technology company, today issued the latest Technology Radar that, among other trends, focuses on the contrast between the exciting new insights made possible by exhaustive data collection with the disturbing trend of businesses storing vast amounts of personal data unnecessarily. The Technology Radar, now in its 4th year, is created by the Technology Advisory Board, which consists of 20 senior technologists that serve as regular advisors to chief technology officer, Dr. Rebecca Parsons.

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'These days there's a lot of hype around the idea of big bata – and with it the notion that we should capture and store every bit of data we can get our hands on. The 'capture-it-all' approach raises serious questions of privacy,' states chief scientist, Martin Fowler. 'We advocate that businesses adopt an attitude of 'datensparsamkeit' and store only the absolute minimum personal information from their customers.'

Other notable themes in the radar include:

• Marriage of physical and digital: low-cost device, open hardware platforms and new communication protocols are pushing computing away from the screen and into the world around us with the proliferation of wearable devices, as one example.
• Early warning and recovery in production: we’re seeing a plethora of new tools and techniques for logging, monitoring, storing and querying operational data.
• The JavaScript juggernaut rolls on: the ecosystem around JavaScript continues to evolve, resulting in many interesting new tools.

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'ThoughtWorks technologists from all corners of the globe, representing every continent except Antarctica, come together in a collaborative environment to create theTechnology Radar. It is the diversity of perspectives combined with the deep breadth of knowledge about current technology challenges that shapes the Radar,' states Parsons. 'The report represents a snapshot in time and is intentionally opinionated to reflect our teams’ experiences on the ground helping clients solve their most pressing problems.'