the future depends on perception

[infinitelo]

Taking the present conditions of the economy, and the recent stategy move of microsoft(move toward security over new methods) Information technology will go back in the glass house. The best firewall to the internet being an air gap, Large companies will turn to intranet technology. those in the fields of encription and selling big servers, will grow. In the area of operating systems, we will see more projects like lynux going public, The advantage of using alternative operating systems is that it makes it harder on hackers. so programmers will be working to learn "new" operating systems. companies will expect a higher level of security and cross platform, hardware independence. i dont expect pda's to continue growth as those little calculators in the late 80's didnt take off as we expected (you mean you can run basic on that?)

In summary i expect all will be back to basics in the next five years. Those on the bleeding edge will fail. Start looking for your white shirts, and your neck ties.

 

[vaoldschl]

It should always be at basics. Information Technology is nothing more than a means to an end. Everything needs to be part of a business model to survive.

The 'Emperor's New Clothes' theory of business management only works for a short period of time because the consumer eventually figures out the game. The 'pay no attention to the man behind the curtain' theory of security has never worked.

It all goes back to what I've been seeing in a number of threads here: we need to stop looking at our jobs as what can I do with my toys today and start thinking about what business application they might have. If that slows down development all the better as far as I'm concerned, for the most part we're not smart enough or responsible enough to effectively handle what we have now.

Am I going to run out and buy a lot of white shirts and neck ties? Probably not but I am going to get really good at cost justifying my projects to the folks in those neck ties.