The IT services giant - which provides security and governance services for major companies - says that these changes will re-engineer the workplace, power more effective customer service models, and create opportunities for broad societal benefit.
They will also, of course, present a new generation of security challenges for IT security professionals.
Mike Palmer, VP of enterprise strategy for Verizon, says that the future has never looked brighter for business and governments to employ technology to generate growth, solve industry challenges, and enrich lives and our global society.
“Next year will be pivotal in applying technology solutions in such areas as health care and smart energy management, while keeping pace with the borderless lifestyle we’ve come to embrace at work, at home and everywhere in between”, he explained.
So what is a high-IQ network? Verizon says that, with each new smart device or software application added to a network, all endpoints and devices will become inherently smarter - each benefiting exponentially from additional connections.
The enterprise cloud, meanwhile, as the name implies, is a cloud-based set of services that replace a number of IT functions in a corporate environment, but operate as discrete clouds.
Verizon says that, whether it is a public, private or hybrid cloud model, the enterprise cloud will play an essential role in mobilizing enterprise apps that enable both workforce mobility and new business services.
More conventionally from a security perspective, the IT services giant says that the consumerization of IT will also change the business tech landscape in 2012 - just as personalization is driving a new approach to customer service, it adds that IT departments are increasingly being influenced by their users.
Many companies are now trying to improve the user experience and enhance productivity by tailoring their enterprise IT policies to support employees who bring their own productivity tools – such as smartphones and tablets - to the workplace.
For this reason, Verizon says that companies are looking to experts to help equip today’s mobile worker with cloud-based applications that work just as securely and reliably on portable devices and are integrated with traditional desktop applications.
Enterprise apps, it claims, also will become more widely available via enterprise app storefronts, just as they are in the consumer space.
So where does this leave IT security?
The IT services firm says that, with increasing evidence that companies are less likely to be data breach victims if they comply with security standards - such as those promoted by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) – it predicts that compliance will become a pre-requisite for good business practice in 2012.
In a difficult economic environment and with increasingly more stringent government regulations, Verizon says that the need for taking full advantage of business opportunities will increase interest in prudent, holistic security approaches.
Companies and governments, it says, will change how they interact with their extended network of partners, increasingly choosing to do business with those that can demonstrate a comprehensive multiyear and standards-based approach to security.