Emerging Technologies Favorites or Fads: Can you tell the difference? David Strom, VARBusiness Daly Computers Technology Showcase Baltimore, April 2003

Fad or Favorites? What makes a technology a fad? Inconsistent standards Lengthy paybacks Microsoft’s meddling The march of time

What makes a technology a favorite? Profit potential A true interoperable standard (in your dreams, Strom!) Commodity usage but high margins for services or support The ability to kick off recurring revenues

Wireless Networks Rapidly becoming the standard networking technology in any new engagement Has the twin virtue of reducing costs and increasing productivity Convergence of 802.11 LANs and cellular networks creates new network fabric for mobile computing applications But watch out for security, incompatible standards (802.11g)

Midrange Applications Times will continue to be tough in the high-end enterprise space, but mid range environments are spending IT spending in mid size companies traditionally trails enterprise New modular implementations lets these companies play like a leader New offerings from IBM, Microsoft, others geared towards mid-market

Web Services SOAP, XML and related technologies significantly lower the cost of integration Unrealized benefits of e-business due to lack on integration EAI gives way to a new generation of business process integration Open source coming on stronger every day Middleware hurdle drops to enable integration of business intelligence applications with production systems

Systems and Storage Consolidation New generation of server hardware allows IT organizations to reduce costs Re-engineering of data centers to leverage low cost 32-bit distributed data architectures driven by Windows.Net and Linux Centralization of storage using NAS Better virtualization products from Hitachi and others as $ per TB costs drop Appliances proliferate

Security Intelligent security products Emergence of flexible frameworks Focus moves beyond the network level to include application and data security Managed services become crucial Not just about anti-virus any more Identity management is a happening place Better threat identification and insider protective tools

Subscription Services Pace picks up at an even faster rate as VARs realize the value of recurring revenues Technologies to facilitate outsourcing, such as broadband, web services and network management, all have subscription models Hosted services gain momentum Security and managed network services get better

Network printing Color is almost a commodity, but which technology will prevail (laser, ink, wax)? Speed vs. first-page out Managing printers is still a challenge Ethernet-attached printers moving into homes, smaller offices Consumables is where the profit is! Wireless printing coming on strong Digital cameras driving new printer development and innovation

Real Time Batch updates of business transactions no longer good enough Manufacturers want all data immediately in order to take just in time manufacturing to another level to reduce costs Mass customization of products is major requirement to drive profits

Gigabit Networks Desktop deployment on the rise Wire plant needs upgrading -- is CAT 5 good enough? How to evaluate/test your plant? More new apps that require gig speeds Price differential nearly zero for 100 mB How long until Gig E. in motherboards? Can the PC bus keep up with Gig speeds?

IP Telephony Voice over IP finally hits the big time Rising telecommunication costs push companies to build their own internal phone networks. Many disaster recovery plans use VoIP Need to reduce travel cost is helping drive adoption of collaborative applications, including video conferencing. New apps that ride on top of IP phone networks and more to come -- promising more revenues for the VARs in the know