San Francisco –As the future of work, connected life and computing changes, Cisco Systems’ (Nasdaq: CSCO) chief technology officer, Padmasree Warrior, made five technology predictions that partners will need to pay attention to as the network evolves over the next three to five years.
At day two of the Cisco Partner Summit, Warrior said there are three trends that will influence technology adoption and consumption over the next several years. These include the future of work, the future of connected life and the future of computing.
With more inter-company collaboration happening in business environments, and Generation Y and Generation M (those born after the 1980s and 1990s) entering the workforce, the way in which people communicate in the workplace will change over time. The Internet, coupled with video and other multi-media tools, will also influence our connected lifestyles. Lastly, the computing space has quickly evolved from the days of the mainframe, to now the endless opportunities of what cloud computing can bring.
1. Internet will be the platform
Warrior’s first prediction is that the Internet will become a platform that will transform industries. “Once there’s connectivity may verticals are looking to leverage information access and connectivity capabilities to conduct business,” she said. “The network will play a significant role in helping to enable these business transformations across all verticals.”
2. The network economy
The second prediction is that we will shift from an information economy to evolve to a networked economy. “The networked economy 2.0 is were IT will play a central role in driving economic growth and new business models,” she said.
3. The Next Internet
The third area of focus is around the next Internet, which Warrior says will provide more media-rich experiences with solutions such as video.
At the Summit, Keith Goodwin senior vice-president of Cisco’s Worldwide Partner Organization, explained that four market transitions: video, collaboration, the virtualized data centre, and the cloud, are what will shape what the new Internet looks like.
4. Video
With respect to applications, Warrior explains that there will be a “huge demand” from customers to have partners deliver more immersive collaborative experiences, with solutions around virtualization, video and collaboration. “Video becomes essential here because it serves as the platform for collaboration,” she said. “This will be delivered as a hybrid-model, where some offerings will be hosted and some may be on-premise.”
5. New consumption models
Warrior’s fifth technology-driver prediction is around new consumption models for delivering and consuming IT. “IT, applications and services will change dramatically and will be deployed both on-premise and through the cloud,” she explained. “We need help from our partners to roll out solutions to our global customers in order to keep up with these trends and predictions.”
