A Little About Technology of the Future
3 min read
To get a good sense of technology of the future, think back 20 years. You probably already had computers in your office. But if you needed even the smallest shred of information in the middle of the night, you had to drive back to your office or you were stymied. If that ever happened to you, at the time you were probably thinking that you were better off when everything was stored in a paper folder in your briefcase. Well, we’ve made a lot of progress since then, but with so much progress, with so many products and devices sitting on real and virtual shelves, that it’s hard to know what’s best for your company.
Among these advances are Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that gave you access to your information from your home computer. Now that capability has expanded and we can access all our data through a phone or tablet…assuming your network is set up properly. And thanks to Microsoft, we can also use Word, Excel and PowerPoint on these small devices. But this can be a potential problem as our devices tend to morph into each other…laptops, tablets, phones, cameras…many are performing the same functions. We have to be careful that in the future, this convergence into simper devices and/or more advanced applications doesn’t come back to bite us.
Here is an example of how this can happen if companies are not prepared for this convergence:
There are companies that went straight from Windows XP to Windows 10, bypassing Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. There is nothing wrong with making that transition providing the company provides proper and adequate training on the upgraded application. For those companies that did not, workflow came to a screeching halt. While it can be expensive for a company to always upgrade to the latest version of Windows, it is much easier on employees to move to each new version (baby steps) as it is released. (As an aside, as an IT Support provider, this is one reason we recommend Windows 365, which functions online and is always updated automatically with the latest and greatest, at no additional cost.)
Looking towards the future, we expect that the day will come when your data is in the cloud protected by encryption that can only be unlocked by your DNA or a chip that is actually embedded in you. It can already be done through iris recognition and retinal scanning.
Because of these advancements in primary technology, we will also see tremendous improvements in supportive technology. For example, early laptops came with about 30 minutes of battery power. Not much compared to the eight hours some provide today. But expect batteries that will last days, not hours.
Internet speeds have grown from your old dial-up of 56kb to up to 1 GB (not actually available yet, but coming). That’s 18,000 times faster. There are already 20 MB business internet speeds available. That’s still 3,600 times faster than dial-up. And soon you will be able to recharge your devices without having to plug them in. Wait! You can already do that with some simply by laying them on a charging pad. But you will soon it won’t be necessary to do even that. The electric power will flow through the airwaves.
As a managed IT support provider, we keep on top of all these developments, sometimes long before they are available so we can be prepared to prepare you. Over the next few months, we will be posting blogs about upcoming technology in many fields, so keep on reading!
