What is Gartner Hype Cycle? Explained to you by Sangfor

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The world is full of data and information chaos. We are easily flooded with information when we talk about emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, digital workplace, blockchain, the Internet of things, etc. Organizations require clarity for such technologies and an answer to the question: “Is the hype real?” In our opinion the answer can be found in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™. “The Hype Cycle helps organizations to avoid common traps and anticipate opportunities when adopting innovations. The Hype Cycle helps organizations plan to avoid four traps — adopting too early, giving up too soon, adopting too late and hanging on too long.”^[1] So let’s understand the Gartner Hype Cycle in detail.

What is the Gartner Hype Cycle?

U.S. technology research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. “creates more than 90 Hype Cycles in various domains as a way for clients to track technology maturity and future potential”. ^[2] To our understanding, there are currently 95 such Hype Cycles by Gartner, including emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, cyber security, and cloud computing. We believe that each Hype Cycle report includes three key elements: the Hype Cycle itself, the Priority Matrix, and Innovation Profiles of each technology. Let us explore each of these elements and learn how we believe organizations can leverage them to make better decisions regarding the adoption of technologies.

The Hype Cycle

The Gartner Hype Cycle is a graphic representation of the maturity lifecycle of new technologies and innovations divided into five phases: Innovation Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, and Plateau of Productivity.

Innovation Trigger. A breakthrough, public demonstration, product launch or other event sparks media and industry interest in a technology or other type of innovation.
Peak of Inflated Expectations. The excitement and expectations for the innovation exceed the reality of its current capabilities. In some cases, a financial bubble may form around the innovation.
Trough of Disillusionment. The original overexcitement about the innovation dissipates, and offset disillusionment sets in due to performance issues, slower-than-expected adoption or a failure to deliver timely financial returns.
Slope of Enlightenment. Some early adopters overcome the initial hurdles and begin to see the benefits of the innovation. By learning from the experiences of early adopters, organizations gain a better understanding of where and how the innovation will deliver significant value (and where it will not).
Plateau of Productivity. The innovation has demonstrated real-world productivity and benefits, and more organizations feel comfortable with the greatly reduced level of risk. A sharp uptick in adoption begins until the innovation becomes mainstream.

Gartner Hype Cycle graphic

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle

How to use the Gartner Hype Cycle

According to Gartner, "The Hype Cycle helps organizations to invest their time and resources in the right innovations — at the right time — to maximize value while maintaining an acceptable risk profile." ^[1]

With regards to the optimal time to adopt a technology, Gartner advises organizations to balance three variables: ^[1]

The innovation’s position on the Hype Cycle
The potential value of the innovation to the organization
The organization’s risk tolerance

Position on Hype Cycle: Sangfor’s interpretation is that, in general, organizations should not adopt a new technology purely based on its initial hype (on the rise and at the peak). Neither should organizations give up too soon after a failed first attempt. While in the Trough of Disillusionment, organizations should keep track of the progress of technologies to ensure that they are not adopting them too late.

Potential Value: We refer readers to the Priority Matric section below to learn more about the business benefit of technologies.

Risk Tolerance: Gartner divides organizations into three categories of risk tolerance: Type A (aggressive), Type B (moderate), and Type C (conservative). We think, the more risk averse the organization, the later in the Hype Cycle they should adopt a technology. ^[1]

The Priority Matrix

Each Gartner Hype Cycle report includes a Priority Matrix, which “maps the benefit rating for each technology against the amount of time required to reach the beginning of mainstream adoption”. ^[4] We believe that the Priority Matrix helps organizations judge the potential benefits of technologies and plan the time of adoption.

The four business benefit ratings for the innovations as defined by Gartner: ^[1]

Transformational: Establishes new ways of doing business within and across industries, resulting in major shifts in industry dynamics.
High: Enables new ways of performing horizontal or vertical processes that will significantly increase revenue or cost savings for an organization.
Moderate: Enables incremental improvements to established processes that will increase revenue or save money for an organization.
Low: Enables a slight improvement in processes, but may not translate into increased revenue or cost savings.

How to use the Priority Matrix

In general, Gartner recommends that "All organizations should prioritize investments in innovations that are in the top left of the Priority Matrix." ^[1]

For specific investment profiles, Gartner provides the following recommendations: “Type C organizations (conservative risk-takers) may limit their focus to the top left of the Priority Matrix, where innovations provide a transformational or high benefit and will become mainstream within five years. Type A and Type B organizations (those that are more aggressive) will likely want to expand their evaluation to include innovations that will not be in widespread use for at least five years, but may provide a medium or high benefit to the organization.”. ^[1]

Innovation Profiles

The bulk of each Gartner Hype Cycle report is made up of the profiles of each technology or innovation. Each profile comprises the following information: ^[1/p21]

Definition
Maturity Rating
Market Penetration
Importance
Business Impact
Drivers
Obstacles
User Recommendations
Sample Vendors (where relevant)

Sangfor Technologies Recognized in 6 Gartner Hype Cycle Reports

Sangfor Technologies, a leading global vendor of cyber security and cloud computing technology since 2000, is recognized as a Sample Vendor for several technologies in various 2022 Gartner Hype Cycle reports. These include Hyperconvergence, Secure Web Gateway, and SASE. We believe that our inclusion as Sample Vendor is an acknowledgment of our efforts that has made us one of the leading choices in the global market for organizations looking to invest in these technologies.

Gartner Hype Cycle for Storage and Data Protection Technologies, 2022 ^[3]

Sample Vendor for Hyperconvergence