Cloud computing, social computing, context-aware computing, and pattern-based strategy are the four big trends that will alter IT in the next few years, according to Peter Sondergaard, SVP of Research for Gartner. Opening Gartner Symposium, one of the biggest annual gatherings of IT professionals, Sondergaard and other Gartner analysts expounded on the topic of “new realities, rules, and opportunities” that they say are transforming the technology and practice of IT. While none of these trends is particularly new, taken together, they do have the potential of really changing IT.