What makes working in IT so rewarding is to see the massive change that is occurring across the whole spectrum of our lives—at home, work and even in sports and hobbies.

 

When I first started working in IT, Novell Netware was all the rage, with 3Com network cards a necessary addition to every PC—back then, network cards (or NICs) weren’t built-in. IT was certainly seen as providing a paradigm shift in how we worked. The benefits were often considered but seldom measured and most people happily invested on the basis that the latest technology would provide some remarkable return.

 
Today, the IT world is a very different place: as hundreds of commentators have said, the internet has changed the world forever.
 

Take a recent change to Picasa, the free photo suite from Google. The most recent release scans your photos and analyses them for faces. After you literally put a name to a face it will then try to catalogue your library of photos by person. I now have 10-years worth of digital photos meticulously stored by date and event, which I stream across my home network to my TV or PCs. We can now look at the photos and browse though the life of our family or friends.

 

While we’ve been through several economic realisations—dot com and the GFC to name but two—we’re now seeing the real benefits of IT paying out big returns in the business world as IT has significantly matured.

 

For me, the biggest change has come from IP, part of the TCP/IP standard. The notion that has really struck a chord with me is IP over everything and everything over IP.

 

Traditional data has continued to expand through the huge exchange of information, voice is predominantly VoIP in the enterprise, and video is fast becoming a key communication tool.  (Frame has been involved in several recent projects where solutions include video-conferencing and video on-demand, and digital signage solutions are a real growth area.) Add there are a myriad of other services running on IP including building management systems, CCTV, terrestrial TV, radio and just about anything else digital.

 

I love the outcomes that technology is now bringing to our lives, however, when they come to plug me into the electricity grid (aka The Matrix) I might well head for the country!

0 COMMENTS SO FAR...

YOUR NAME:
Your website:
TITLE:
COMMENT:
SECURITY CODE ENTER THE CODE SHOWN ABOVE IN THE BOX BELOW
ADD COMMENT   CANCEL