The Internet will eventually emerge as a global networked computing utility, replacing computing as we know it today, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
PricewaterhouseCoopers this week released its Technology Forecast: 2002-2004, Volume 2: Emerging Patterns of Internet Computing.
During the boom, many companies and service providers just threw resources at an IT problem until it went away. That`s no longer an acceptable strategy.
Doug Franke, partner and e-business leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers SA
Among other things, it predicts that Internet computing of the future will result from the convergence of several developments already under way.
As an example, grid computing enables large-scale aggregation and integration of computing, storage, network and other information resources across organisational boundaries, but its use today is limited to experimental scientists analysing large amounts of data.
In much the same way the Internet began as an effort to share computing resources among academic researchers before spreading to businesses and then to consumers, grid computing will eventually be used by enterprises.
More important, research into grid computing will lead to the creation of software that will solve critical problems companies now faced in building distributed inter-enterprise applications.
"Earlier this year we predicted Web services would take longer to gain acceptance in inter-enterprise use than anticipated because of unresolved problems with reliability, security and business models," says Eric Berg, MD of PricewaterhouseCoopers` Global Technology Centre and editor-in-chief of the forecast.
"Our latest finding is that the development of grid computing architectures, protocols and middleware by the research community is likely to lead directly to solutions that will overcome these obstacles and allow Web services deployment to proceed."
In the shorter term, three key trends characterise major developments in computing and communications: the ongoing increase in the capabilities of commodity technologies; the increased emphasis on scalable computing and communications infrastructures; and a renewed emphasis on the flexibility, reliability and manageability of those infrastructures.
Doug Franke, partner and e-business leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers SA, says enterprises today are finding it essential to operate their computing environments in the most cost-effective manner possible.
"During the boom, many companies and service providers just threw resources at an IT problem until it went away. That`s no longer an acceptable strategy, so products that enhance flexibility, manageability and reliability are at a premium in the marketplace."
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