Goodbye PC, Hello Devices and the Cloud
A recent study of nearly 10,000 information workers by Forrester Research shows that devices are in, and PCs are out. The argument I’ve been hearing for the last 5 years is that tablet computers and smart phones are just “flashes in the pan.” Looks like that’s not the case.
All of these devices are powered by clouds, providing data and documents for these devices. Indeed, smart phones and pads are more like “data terminals,” with the real work occurring on back-end cloud-based systems. If you don’t believe me, try using your device without connectivity.
We no longer rely only on local storage. Our devices are thus easily replaceable with other devices that become new front-ends to our data in the cloud.
Things are certainly changing. As new workers enter the workforce, they bring these devices to work, and choose to work on these devices. Older workers, including myself, find that using these devices can enable better productivity and freedom of movement.
The future direction will be the use of personal clouds more so than devices. While our data and devices are fragmented today, we’re clearly heading to a day where we can use any device, and once identified to that device, we will have all of our applications, data, and files available. If you’ve been paying attention, you understand we’re already almost there.
