tech TREND
Trend, set, grow If 2010 was a watershed year for ICTs, their adoption will pick up in 2011—and yes, expect new arrivals too
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n many ways, 2010 marked the beginning of some trends that will have pervasive impact in the coming decades. Enterprise social networking: Social networks are spreading in the workplace, taking collaboration to a new level. As a result, future decision-making cycles will be accelerated, and this will have huge benefits for organisations and B2B marketers. Cloud computing: Cloud computing is enabling businesses to move to a new and more efficient IT model. It’s about providing computing resources (network, server, storage) on demand and serving applications centrally. This will benefit businesses from lower costs in IT, energy and real estate. Along with data center virtualisation, it will help in rapid business expansion 360o security: 360 security has become important as businesses and government agencies apply security across the cloud, the edges of their networks and for specific devices whether over the Internet or via a private network. Mobile workforce: From telework to telepresence, the ability to collaborate via wired and wireless technology embodies the modern workplace. Many organisations are deploying mobile applications in a structured, secure environment to help companies spur productivity and innovation. Borderless business: It’s about having an IT architecture that enables organisations to deliver services and applications to anyone, anywhere and on any device, at any time. Borderless businesses are embracing the use of video, collaborative applications and other networked services
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egov / www.egovonline.net / January 2011
By Sunil Kakkad
and delivering those across the enterprise Enterprises will go green: Businesses and consumers have started to embrace energy efficiency in the workplace and at home. Seeing is believing: The advent of visual communications in the workplace is driving greater return on collaboration investment, higher productivity and improved overall business performance. Video will also play an important role in delivering on-demand content that can be viewed anywhere, anytime.
Expected trends in 2011 Wi-Fi direct: Wi-Fi devices will communicate directly with each other without having to connect first to a conventional Wi-Fi access point, bypassing traditional Wi-Fi networks and providing numerous device-to-device applications. e-Books for the new world: Mobile tablets or pads are driving new multimedia applications. The existing e-books transform the conventional paper format into an electronic book, but the next generation will go even further, providing an enhanced and interactive audiovisual experience for the reader by cross-linking the e-book to other digital forms, including videos, social media and Web cams. Mobile commerce: Mobile commerce is becoming quicker and more secure for consumers and businesses alike, making it easier to shop and order securely, particularly when making smaller transactions. Secure and quick-click checkouts from a mobile device will give consumers the ability to make on-thego payments and to stay logged in while they
surf for more goods to buy. VoD in your hand: Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards have jump-started mobile and personalised videoon-demand (VoD). This IP-based technology will let you receive your choice of movie entertainment whenever you would like it. Feel-good technology: gesturing and haptic feedback: The desire for greater physical freedom in controlling devices has led to gaming consoles without handheld controls that rely purely on interactive 3D visuals, sensors and gesturing. A combination of gesturing and physical feedback will have applications beyond gaming. The possibility to ‘grasp’ electronically-generated objects, feeling their size, shape and texture will enhance education; for instance, in teaching medical students to feel the difference between healthy and diseased organs. The mobile cloud: Accessing software, systems and applications in the cloud began with software as a service (SaaS) and is quickly accelerating as confidence grows. Companies are now using time- and security-critical solutions outside of their firewalls. Mobile computing is an important new impetus for the use of ‘cloud’ and versatile mobile devices will become pervasive thin clients that would be ideal for accessing cloud solutions anytime, anywhere.
the author is CMD, Sai Info Systems (India) Ltd.