Thursday, September 24, 2009

The future of computing……..

The future of computing, at least the way that I see things going over the next few years, is mobility, anywhere access, and virtual technology.

Mobility
It doesn’t matter if we are talking about a laptop computer, a netbook, or a smartphone with Internet access – they all are mobile computing platforms. During a recent trip to Las Vegas, my wife and I both used our Android-powered G1 phones for numerous online chores. Mobility means freedom.

Anywhere Access
Anywhere access goes hand-in-hand with mobility; but from another angle. A mobile computing platform means little if the user can’t access the resources that she or he needs online. That means Internet access practically anywhere (and most importantly secure access). To give you an example, during my time at an Oil & Gas services company, I received a call from an employee traveling in Mongolia (near the Gobi desert) who’d called to complain that the Internet service at the hotel was slow. Now that's anywhere access!

Virtual Technology
The catalyst that has given mobility & anywhere access “legs” is virtual technology. Server virtualization, desktop virtualization, application virtualization, data center virtualization, virtualization - whatever. They have all pushed enterprises (both large and small) into offering computing resources to anyone anywhere. I know that “cloud computing” is all the buzz these days so I’ll include a few words about it – its here.

A person will use a mobile computing platform with anywhere access to the Internet to access online resources being provided utilizing virtual technology.


Rob Hiltbrand, MS, CISSP

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