The growth of Infrastructure as a Service will be one of the top technology trends during 2014, according to three major research firms -- Gartner, IDC and Forrester Research. IDC expects data centers to turn into specialized cloud infrastructure services that focus on certain workloads as part of the Cloud Services trend, while Gartner envisions a rise in Hybrid Cloud and IaaS brokers as personal clouds merge with external private clouds. Forrester, meanwhile, foresees a generic IaaS for public, private and hybrid clouds. Here are the Top 10 Technology Trends for 2014 as seen by Gartner, IDC and Forrester Research:

Common Threads

Trends impacting mobile applications and apps are among the major developments predicted by Gartner and Forrester. The latter noted that one in three cellular subscribers has broadband data, which it expects to drive continued growth in those areas during the new year. Gartner, on the other hand, expects the use of mobile applications to decline. The impact of Platforms as a Service is another trend noted by two of the research firms. IDC believes the use of data-optimized cloud platforms will grow as Infrastructure as a Service morphs into PaaS. Forrester foresees growth of PaaS, also, as well as Software as a Service. Gartner's Internet of Everything and IDC's Internet of Things both will also be important next year as the network becomes ubiquitous in devices and products beyond high-tech gadgets. And, of course, Big Data will continue to evolve. IDC projected IT spending on Big Data will grow 30 percent year over year, with the focus on data-optimized cloud platforms. Forrester predicts Big Data Platforms will be used for more real-time analytics.