Information Management in Year 2020
The shape of information ten years from now will be a whole lot different then we see it today. Information will flow seamlessly across devices and the authorized individuals will be able to access the information. To understand the way information and its enablers will change in due course; let us look at the following assumptions–
1. Servers – Instead of having servers and in house data warehouse the IT of 2020 will rely on cloud computing or virtual servers. The concept of cloud computing will remain the same but due to vast acceptance the name will be different. Individuals and enterprises will rely on servers running applications, storing data etc. We see the glimpse of tomorrow’s revolution in today’s world. Not only individuals but companies as well will rely on cloud providers to store and access information. The convenience of anytime any-form and any type access of information will result in the expansion and mass reliability on cloud. The metadata on the cloud will get more comprehensive due to the massive volumes of data. New developments will make the servers in cloud very small and more powerful. The space used by one server will be enough to contain 10 servers each double the efficiency and storage of the ones available today. The servers of 2020 will also use ten times less energy and will not need the energy consuming HVAC system (Heat, ventilation and Air conditioning).
2. Access devices – Since most of the information will be on the cloud servers the access devices (clients) will get smaller and will consume less energy. The concept of ‘Sustainability’ and ‘going green’ will force the invention of smaller more energy efficient devices. To the most part the devices will run on solar or artificial light. The laptops/handhelds will have less processing power and will rely on internet connectivity both for processing in cloud and accessing information. The internal storage devices will get smaller in sizes and capacity will remain constant due to reliability on cloud. Thin clients such as netbooks and iPads will also replace paper and will add to environment friendliness.3. Applications – The application on devices ten years from now will be serve as the link between the application used for processing in the cloud and the device accessing the cloud. They will be just the authorizers and displayers. Since the processing will be done in the cloud the application on the device will take less space. With the increasing inclination on open source it is not wrong to anticipate that the softwares will mostly be open source whereas the platform and security applications will be commercially produced. The open source software will use data from the repositories along with computing capabilities from cloud to serve the required purposes. Business intelligence that is an important part of information management will become a service provided by the cloud vendors. Some of the vendors offer BI tools today but in 2020 BI will be a part of cloud and will be seen as part of the various services from the service provider.
4. Security – It would not be wrong to assume that the future of cloud computing can be bright only if there is a revolution in information security. The security of cloud will become synonym of Information security in 2020. So, the security drawbacks that cloud faces today will be addressed and the security and privacy of cloud will be much better in the future. New developments in encryption and advancement of SSL (secured socket layer) will help users rely on the cloud and in due course make themselves completely dependent on cloud for their computing needs.
5. Transmission Medium – Wireless technologies have shown rapid growth in last two decades and the future looks brilliant. The current state of Wi-fi IEEE 802.11n for home/office networking has the data transmission rate of 600 Mbps (Megabytes per second). On the wireless with mobility front both GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code division multiple access) have introduced 4G wireless data communication that gives a speed of 100Mbps. The constant development in wireless transmission medium will serve as a strong cause for cloud adaption. Thin clients (netbooks, iPads etc) will be preferred over laptops and desktops. In 2020, the developments in wireless technology will make desktops obsolete and PDA’s and light weight mobile devices will become smaller, lighter and more widely used.
6. Storage devices – Probably the biggest technology revolution will come in the way information will be stored. SSD (Solid state disks) will replace HDD (hard disk drives) in the cloud servers. The failure rate of SSDs is very less compared to traditional HDD’s as SSD’s do not have any moving parts and use IS’s to store data just as Random access memory(RAM) of Computers. RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) will be replaced with RAISSD (Redundant array of inexpensive solid state disks). The huge difference is that SSDs don’t lose data if power is switched off (just as HDDs). Another development in data storage that can reduce the size of storage devices and decrease their vulnerabilities is Holographic data storage that has the potential of storing 250 terabits per square inch, enough to store 10 DVDs worth of data on a pinhead.
Conclusion
Information is growing fast and exponentially. It is estimated that about 4 Exabyte (1018 bytes) of unique information will be generated this year, higher than ever before. It is easy to expect in today’s exponential time that the information generate in 2020 can be anywhere from 1 Zettabyte (1021 bytes) to 100 Yottabyte (1024 bytes). Increase in information will give rise to increase data storage space and extreme capacity storage devices. To carry huge volumes of information the transmission medium will have to be very fast and reliable. Security will come in play as the information will move more frequently and faster than ever before. With the increase in information requirements, environmental concerns will also grow leading to smaller, energy efficient devices and cloud servers.
