Johannesburg, 22 May 2001
Dr Hellmuth Broda, Sun Microsystems' chief technologist EMEA, predicts that the IT infrastructure of the future will not be based on product or functionality, but rather services.
[VIDEO]A member of Sun's Vision Council, Broda outlined his predictions for the future of technology, and his company's direction in tackling the markets of tomorrow, during his ITWeb-sponsored keynote address at Computer Faire 2001 in Midrand yesterday.
"Our industry is in a big transition from a product-based industry to a service-based industry. Products and content will metamorphosis into services," said Broda.
One inhibitor to the service-centric model is the lack of a single network protocol. Sun hopes its Jini protocol stack - a Java-based service protocol - will fill the role of a distributed computing foundation.
Broda said Sun's future direction is based on three key strategies: massively scaleable environments, an integrated stack and continuous real-time connectivity.
Under the massively scalable direction, Sun envisages outsourced computing power to allow for massive spikes in usage without the costs of purchasing unnecessarily large amounts of hardware to support the odd dramatic increase.
Continuous connectivity involves user devices that are always online, such as third-generation cellular phones and handhelds. Broda warned: "We don't have a service model for this yet. We don't even have ideas yet on how this will make money."
Lastly, the integrated stack refers to increased functionality in the operating system. Broda predicts that in three to four years, most e-business and e-commerce features will be integrated into the base system software.
Click here to download Broda's presentation at Computer Faire 2001.
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