Cybernomics

In an earlier post in January, we started looking ahead at 2008 has in store for IT. We will discuss these trends, as well as other important topics in the world of IT, in more detail in upcoming posts. So to conclude our previous post, which launched the Cybernomics Blog, here are the final 5 of our Top 10 IT Trends for 2008.

Trend #6: Connectivity Improvements

2008 will see much improvement in the speed and cost of internet solutions. Wifi is said to be coming to airplanes and other forms of transportation, and in some cities, will be provided to entire city areas en masse; soon the days of “wireless hotspots” will be over and the ability to connect, literally, anywhere will be upon us. In terms of mobile connectivity, Blackberries are just going to keep getting better, and with the advent of the iPhone in 2007 in the US and its approaching release date in Canada, well, it’s only going to go up from there.

Trend #7: Flash Drives

Flash memory and drives are now being considered faster and more durable than current magnetic-based disk drives. Improvements and cost reductions in flash-based storage solutions in 2008 will only further enable companies to become more efficient in their business continuity solutions as well as Green IT, both at the office and the datacentre. Not only boasting higher storage capacity and higher performance, flash drives use significantly less power than traditional drives. Not only that, but their much smaller size mean additional improvements in terms of mobile device speed and storage in 2008 as well.

Trend #8: Focus on Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery has been stressed as an important part of IT for years, but small and medium sized businesses don’t often have the means of implementing true Disaster Recovery methods, e.g. duplicating every server for redundancy, investing in a separate Disaster Recovery space and planning and testing of the DR plan. Fortunately, another advantage to virtualization technology enables fewer servers to be required for DR, which means without a large capital investment, most businesses can implement

Trend #9: Web 3.0 Defined

Web 2.0 has taken the web by storm in 2007 - from the successes of Facebook, Twitter, del.icio.us and the like. Those early adopters who think web 2.0 is already passé have already branded the next version of the web as Web 3.0. There is some discussion as to what Web 3.0 entails, in fact the only aspect that most web enthusiasts agree on is the name. Want more details on the Web 3.0 debate? Check out Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3

Trend #10: Mac is the Mac

Partly because of Microsoft’s slip on the market and release of Vista, and partly because of their exception lifestyle marketing campaigns and premium product offerings, Apple is only going to continue its growth in 2008. 2007 saw some interesting changes in the industry and at Cybernomics in terms of Mac products. With the release of software like Parallels and BootCamp, which bridges the gap between Apple and Microsoft in terms of hardware and software integration, Cybernomics is proud to say it now has 6 Mac computers as part of its office infrastructure: 2 Mac Powerbooks and 4 iMacs. All 6 are running technologies that allow them to natively and virtually run Windows XP. As more and more offices follow in our footsteps and the gap between Apple and Windows functionality is closed further, expect to see a lot of businesses switching to a Mac-based infrastructure.

Looks like there’s a lot to look forward to in 2008!

Tags: 2008, apple, connectivity, flash drives, green it, it trends, mac, virtualization, web 3.0