The future?

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

I'm interested to find out where you guy's think the future of IT is headed?

Recent developments in things such as online office applications have got me thinking where are we headed with IT as it stands? This is the way that I see things going, what do others think?

I see the role of the desktop as we know it becoming a thing of the past. Organisations are already starting to move towards terminal services based infrastructures where it is the backend servers that do all of the work, but what after this? I see a time in the future when we will no longer have a PC in the home, we will have a 'thin-client' device that connects to the Internet and everything is run from there. The skills that will be needed will be in configuring the infrastructure that allows the client to connect to its internet servers, not in supporting applications and OS'es. So in essence this is the way that I see things going.

Now: PC connects to the internet for general browsing and other stuff.

5 Years time: PC's becoming less widely used as thin clients connect to servers which run all of the applications.

10 Years time: Servers no longer kept locally, an Internet device connects to the ISP and all of the applications are run from servers stored in huge data centres.

*time lines may vary - we know how fast technology can change!

Where is IT (and it's support) going?

 

Something else that got me thinking following a conversation with NEC last week:

http://www.nec-computers.co.uk/page.asp?id=99

NEC are saying that this 'could' change the way that we use IT.

 

Si,

I think you have a valid point. I did look at the video from NEC, and it appears IT might be going *full circle*.

I mean, this is how it started - one powerful computer with <dumb> terminals.

If the largest share of operating systems/ software purchasing is business, imagine the impact on MS, Apple, Novell and any other distro.

Think about a council or NHS setup.... I am sure the cost of the initial outlay would be recovered quickly- even a cheap tower system is £200 worth and soon has coffee dripping off it!

Si

 

Exactly what I was going to say. Vey ironic I think.

On the other hand though, are we going to go all the way towards having all applications running on online servers? Will people trust megacorporations like MS and Google to keep their tax returns and such like safe and private? I think there will always be a market for local storage and applications.

 

The only problem i can see with online services is... if the server goes down then no one can access there work. I should imagine they would have a few servers of course but who knows...

The other problem i can see is support... who would users contact? there IT technician, IT support company or MS/Google for support?

If they use MS/Google for support then surely that will put small companies out of business?

Though i can't see this happening for some time... to make users aware of such an online system will take ALOT to do... users atm just about know how to use there computer & internet...

It'll be a complete nightmare when all does work over the Internet i reckon, could be a great opportunity to cash in on a lot of money to teach such users though!

 

It's difficult to predict the future and over my 5 decades I have seen some remarkable changes. It is our duty, regardless of what happens to stay at or at least close to the cutting edge. We certainly will have to adapt to changes as time goes by, that is to be expected. The world will not stand still just because you like the niche you find yourself in at the moment. The skills and knowledge which we are learning will not go to waste. It's important to continue to build our knowledge so that it remains relevant and useful in the future.

Some of the stuff we take for granted now as being important will become obsolete soon enough but hopefully, if you keep an open mind continue to adapt and go with the flow you will remain an integral part of whatever IT becomes in the years ahead!