Amid the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of ComputerScope/TechPro, there is another significant anniversary, of a slightly more personal nature. 2015 marks my tenth year as editor of this august publication.
And while in this issue we have also invited our regular contributors to give us their reminiscences and insights, I’d like to take this opportunity to look back at my own time here, and the changes within that period, as well as some wild speculation about the future.
On taking over this role, my first exclusively non-technical role, there was something of a learning curve, to say the least. Despite having been a journalist for several years at that point, I had to learn the ways of the publishing industry too, and my first issue was the 20th anniversary issue of ComputerScope.
At that time, in 2005, some of major tech trends were the advent of 64-bit x86 processors, the emergence of Power over Ethernet (PoE), and Internet Telephony (IPT) was ruffling a few feathers. Another group that was ruffling feathers, were those people known as “self-enablers” — pesky users who insisted on bringing their own devices and using them for work. The temerity!
“I couldn’t have foreseen the way that hypervisor technologies would come together with orchestration, intelligence and automation to build the cloud platforms we now enjoy, but there was a distinct feeling at the time of being on the cusp of a great change. I have that feeling again”
Not only that but 2005 was a time before social media. YouTube did not emerge until later that year, Facebook and Twitter the following year and while LinkedIn had been founded in 2002, and in fact I believe I signed up to it in late 2004, the idea of social media hadn’t really coalesced.
Mobility too was in its infancy, compared to what is now viewed as the basic set of capabilities, and I believe I took over the post wielding a Nokia 6100. That said, I was already a sceptic when the first iPhone emerged in 2007, as I was already a committed Palm Treo user by then.
However, I recall one particular meeting in ComputerScope Towers, with the sales director of an open source software company that had developed hypervisor-style of virtualisation.
Now VMware had just released ESX Server 2.5.1, so hypervisor virtualisation was not by any means new, but this open source company had a very impressive list of supporters which included the likes of Microsoft, IBM and Citrix, the latter going on to acquire the company: XenSource.
Even as I listened to pitch, the list of supporters and the ambitions of the company, I could see the possibilities and how VMware would soon have not one, but hundreds of rivals in the field of virtualisation, and what that would mean.
Now, I will not claim to have foreseen the advent of cloud computing, but I see now that I was at least aware of the building blocks coming together. I couldn’t have foreseen the way that hypervisor technologies would come together with orchestration, intelligence and automation to build the cloud platforms we now enjoy, but there was a distinct feeling at the time of being on the cusp of a great change.
I have that feeling again.
One of the constant struggles I have as an editor is to get concrete examples of how new technologies can combine to increase capability and move things on. Virtualisation, cloud computing, Big Data, enterprise mobility, collaboration and more, all require good usage examples to really crystallise for people where things are going and what it means for business.
The potential impact of a combination of the widespread Internet of Things (IoT) — or as Cisco, in my opinion, quite rightly calls it, the Internet of Everything — analytics, intelligence everywhere and ubiquitous fast networks is greater than that of the Internet, cloud computing and cheap, reliable computing power put together.
I firmly believe that the level of insight that is possible from smart sensors in everything, combined with the ability to transmit, collect, analyse and act upon the data will fundamentally alter the way that we live, work, play, learn and heal.
In the same way that engineers immediately improved Formula 1 cars with the advent of telemetry that measured key aspects of engine, chassis and suspension performance, I think that the ability to see and analyse even common actions, tasks and processes as they happen, will transform vast sections of our lives.
Imagine road lighting that knows when there is no one on the road? Imagine buildings that know when people are present, and transport systems that can not only monitor loads and routes, but anticipate demand?
Sense and adjust has become not just a practicality, but a new vista that can be applied to almost anything because now almost anything can have a sensor applied to gain information.
I believe that the advances in analytics will allow us to derive unparalleled understanding from this data that will allow us to manage based on insight, not assumption — which is still the predominant method for so many important, though perhaps mundane, things.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will be a key part of this too. Certain systems will be allowed to act autonomically, governing themselves. Beyond that, there will be an ever closer approximation of human intelligence for use in services and support that will allow people to interact with them in an intuitive manner. No longer will people be frustrated at “talking to a machine”, as most will be hard pressed to tell the difference.
That too opens up a whole range of possibilities, for difficult, dangerous or dirty tasks to be automated through AI usage, putting the onus on people to develop skills to take them out of the machine realm.
All of the building blocks for these developments exist now. Just as in 2005, when our current world was coming together as a set of disparate technologies and developments, the world of 10 years time is already here, in kit form — if only we had the vision to see how they fit together. But some do, and that is why the household names of 2025 might be writ very small at the moment, just the way YouTube (2005), Facebook (2006), Twitter (2006) and Android (2008) were then.
I look forward to the coming years to see what edifice emerges from these building blocks and where it can take us.
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