Business leaders must learn to exploit Web3 capabilities: Gartner

As Web3 continues to be hyped globally, technology and business leaders must learn how the various underlying capabilities, enterprise architecture and technology of Web3 could relate to each other.

Recent Gartner research claims that the emergence of Web3 won’t replace the internet but will extend some of its web components in a decentralised direction.

The Gartner research, Web3 and the Metaverse: Incomplete but Complementary Visions of the Future Internet said as the metaverse evolves, it won’t replace the internet or the web, but will build on them to create virtually enhanced and immersive digital (e.g., 3D rendering, AR/VR)and physical (e.g., ambient computing, human augmentation) spaces.

Gartner authors explain, “Web3 and the metaverse are complementary concepts evolving in parallel, and organisations will be able to exploit them independently or together. Although there is only one internet (with some exceptions due to increased geopolitical fragmentation), there will be multiple implementations of metaverses, potentially building on Web3.”

Business and technology leaders are advised to do several things when it comes to Web3 and the internet according to Gartner.

Firstly, CTOs should avoid the trap of focusing on a specific technology when assessing the future of Web3 by concentrating instead on the decentralisation of data and applications.

Secondly, leaders need to focus on extending immersive capabilities to prepare for the evolution of the metaverse. Gartner said leaders should not wait for a perfect metaverse that might never arrive.

Lastly, to increase the chances of gaining value from Web3 and the metaverse by evaluating when and where centralised and decentralised models (and hybrid models) deliver value.

“Document a handful of business opportunities in which decentralised models deliver value, establish a portfolio and pursue them,” the authors said.

Gartner recommends business leaders increase the chances of gaining value from Web3 and the metaverse by evaluating when and where centralised and decentralised models deliver value.

“Assess the degree to which future internet, web and metaverse models can deliver on these concepts,” the authors explained.

Leaders also need to factor inevitable technical debt from vendor fragmentation and isolation into short-term, intermediate and longer-term plans. According to Gartner, they should track progress toward technologies and standards that reduce fragmentation and interoperability issues.