Hurwitz & Associates is a leading business consulting firm based in Greater Boston that provides actionable strategic advice to top technology firms on product planning, marketing, and positioning.

Companies including IBM, HP, CA, Informatica, and Avaya rely on Hurwitz (a Topaz client) for objective information that confirms or refutes assumptions and uncovers valuable insights.

Each December, Hurwitz & Associates President Judith Hurwitz offers an annual list of predictions for the coming year. It’s a valuable road map offered by a veteran analyst with a unique perspective on things.

I recently talked to Judith about her predictions. You can hear the audio interview below:

Here are some excerpts from Judith Hurwitz’s Top Ten List for 2008:

1. There will be two hot buzzwords this year: innovation and ROI … companies are nervous about investing in technology. They want assurances that there will be a return on their investment — quickly.

2. Here come the clouds! I think that cloud computing, one of the latest versions of virtualization, will become one of the hottest trends of 2008.

3. Software as a Service goes mainstream … add a social networking twist and things really get interesting.

4. The world gets more virtual … There will be three virtualization market segments: client, server, and application. I can’t decide which one I think is more important. How about all three!

5. More vendors will make more acquisitions (that’s another one you can take to the bank). Yes, Oracle will certainly make more acquisitions, but I don’ t think that BEA will be in the mix. Nor will HP buy BEA. However, I do predict that BEA will probably go private.

6. This is the year when Microsoft’s server/enterprise business will get the respect it deserves. Therefore, I expect to see Microsoft continue to make small but strategic acquisitions that will fit into the forthcoming Oslo strategy.

7. Online goes off-line. Companies like Zoho are starting to gain traction because they can provide both online services combined with offline usage.

8. This is the year that Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) moves from IT strategy to business strategy. Therefore, SOA will officially move out of the hype cycle and into mainstream.

9. Google will continue to move into any market that leverages the advertising revenue model — including collaboration software and various cloud computing options.

10. Partner ecosystems will reach a new level of intensity this year. Enterprise software leaders will be working hard to make sure the most popular emerging players support their platforms.

You can read Judith Hurwitz’s full list of 2008 high-tech predictions on her blog, jshurwitz.wordpress.com.