Technology seems to be changing at lightning speed. But, what drives this constant evolution?

1. Money – Manufacturers of devices and systems that we use will continue to develop applications to serve our needs. The need to generate revenues motivates this process.
2. Mobility – We are a species that does not want to be restricted. We want complete, unrestricted access to our information from anywhere and anytime.
3. Immediate and Universal Access (The Cloud) – The Cloud is a marketing term used to define access to information and applications located in data centers connected to the Internet. The Internet has been graphically represented in documents as a cloud for many years. You may also hear this methodology defined as “hosted solutions”—meaning the equipment providing the services is “hosted” in a data center somewhere on the Internet.
4. Physical Security – This continues to expand and become more relevant in organizations. The perceived need for physical security systems continues to drive the development for better applications.
5. Medical Needs (Nanorobotics) – The medical research arena continues to develop better ways to address diseases and physical injuries. One of those developments is referred to nanorobotics—programmable devices small enough to be introduced into the blood stream. These devices can be programmed to address specific diseases, ailments, or injuries.
6. Virtuality – The ability to experience something without actually doing it (so-to-speak)—kind of the Star Trek Holodeck experience. For example, one might have the ability to test something virtually without the risk of any potential harm, like a heart transplant.
7. Energy Savings – The need to save energy continues to drive the development of more energy efficient devices, applications, and machinery, among other things.
8. Space/Oceans – We are driven to explore and understand what we do not know. This need appears to be a human trait.

 

Of course, these eight drivers are not the only influences on the industry. But they have played and will continue to play a major role in its evolution.