My Bet on Technologies of the Future -- and Why?

Wed 12/10/208

Services Oriented Architecture (SOA): Hardware and Application Virtualization: Both platforms will decouple technology from the underlying information assets to help you make business decisions on-demand. Functional IT systems and assets will no longer push you. You will pull from IT, what you need to conduct your business and posture against your competition, which in the Web 2.0 world, can be just about anyone. After all, Microsoft has more cash on-hand than 2/3 of the banks in the United States. So, who is your next bank?

Ruby-On-Rails, AJAX, Single-Sign-On (SSO) and Configurable Personal Dashboards: Tired of slow application response time on the Web; disparate enterprise functional and application systems (SCM, HR, ERP, BPM, Finance, collaboration tools/GUIs) that have their own log-ins and interfaces. Technologies sighted above will speed your on-line access speed to Web services; allow you to sign-on to all your applications in one single user authentication ( SSO) and further allow you to create your own personalized interface dashboard and menu with AJAX. Now you, what you see, is what you want to see. And, that’s all.

Mobile applications, widgets and LIFE: Your future is information rich and un-tethered. You will always know the status of your back account, your investments, your colleagues’ whereabouts, your kids’ whereabouts, your favorite stores’ sales offerings, your specific travel deals, your car’s location and anything else that you’d like to know-about on real-time basis via your nomadic communication device (now a days called a cell phone, smart phone, blackberry, etc.). You will choose the applications you need by pulling a widget on to you mobile-screen dashboard and paying for it on monthly or per-use basis. You will be totally impervious to the network type, provider, devise and system. All you will use is what you need, by way of a desired application, to conduct banking, buy flowers, sending Mom a birthday card, and Dollar cost average in to your favorite mutual funds. Your nomadic device will decide what network to use for what application and at what time in order to get you the best rate for the application you are using anywhere in the world. That’s it. The rest is all about the utility you need from the system for your life needs and goals, be it personal or business. And, in all cases, you will have no key board on your nomadic devise. You will simply just speak your request, and wish, in to your nomadic devise and get the results.

Visible Business processes controlled by Business Rule Engines: Ask your desktop what is your sales pipeline in aggregate, the anticipated lead-to-sales conversion rate for the quarter, your channel cost, your manufacturing costs by product line, your ROI for the latest R&D and the satisfaction rate of your customers. Also find out if your prices and service SLAs are the best in class by asking an intelligent agent to scurry your competitors worldwide and give you a visual BI perspective on where you stand. You can also ask your SCM engine where you stand in your global logistics costs compared to peers in the same industry and find out why their costs are lower. That’s the real on-demand market and business intelligence world to come, compliments of business rules management engines, next generation search engines and real-time analytics bots and algorithms. Under this paradigm, you will not care if you own the application and the hardware it runs on. As a matter of fact, in many cases you would not want to own them. You just want the utility of the information you need, accurate and on-demand. That is why in the near-future, SaaS (Software as a Service -- renting your functional business process visibility platforms like CRM) will become the norm. And as a result, Cloud Computing will also become the norm. And, in less than 10 years, nearly all hardware, software and application will become a utility service (much like your electricity, gas, heat and monthly cell phone service). You pay for what you need a monthly or daily or per usage fee. And, that's it.

WIRELESS: 10 years out, the only likely cord attached to any devise in your home or at your work will be the electric power cord. Everything else will be connected to the Internet and to each other without a cord. Tether-less will dominate. This wireless reality will be delivered via UWB, 3 and 4G Nets, WLANs, PANS, Bluetooth and IrDA.

More technologies forecasts to come. Did you know that MEMS will be everywhere? Even in your body sending your health status in real-time via wireless networks in your house, in the street and at your work to your doctor!