Early this year, Government Technology Editor Steve Towns predicted that three technology trends -- data analytics, civic innovation and procurement reform -- were the ones to watch in 2014.

Gartner Inc., identified its "top ten technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2014," which included mobility, Internet of everything, cloud computing, and 3D printing.

Another look at technology trends for 2014, just released by MeriTalk, names data center consolidation, mobility, security, big data, and cloud computing as the "big five" in state and local IT. Most state and local organizations plan to fully deploy the big five in the next three years, according to the report, Big Five in Overdrive: Are State and Local Networks Ready? However, 94 percent of the 201 state and local government IT managers surveyed say their agencies are not fully prepared for the resulting demands.

According to the report, if the big five were fully deployed, 63 percent of respondents said they "would face moderate to significant network bottleneck risks," and 89 percent said they would need additional network capacity to maintain current service levels.

To mitigate the challenges, respondents cited the need for prioritization by leadership, better coordination across the big five, and standardized documentation of infrastructure requirements, among others. Nearly half of survey respondents have taken steps to improve security measures, add bandwidth and more.

How will these predictions play out in the real world? Only time will tell.