I was driving with my kids the other day (4 and 8) and they asked me what time it was.  My response was “At the tone, the time will be 10:30 – ding”.  You can imagine the look I got.  They asked me what I was talking about so I explained to them when we were kids and wanted the exact time, we would call a phone number and this was what the voice on the other end of the line would say.  It occurred to me how times have changed and I started to think about other things kids may or may not see in the future.

Three things my kids will never see

1)      Calling (XXX)-POP-CORN for the correct time

2)      Vinal

3)      VHS

Three things kids who go into IT I hope will never see

1)      Punch cards

2)      Backup tapes

3)      FC Switches

Three things they may see

1)      All data in the cloud

2)      Biometric data centers

3)      FCoE

The future of IT holds software as a service, end users with iPads and no laptops, and all data services just happen.  No more backups, just copies of data where users need it when they need it (what a nice dream).

Think about the evolution of music for a moment.  Records, tapes and CDs all required unique individual devices and content came from different source that needed to be acquired and reacquired when the medium changed.  Then it all changed – not sure if it was the medium of the music or the device but today the music we hear is in a standard format and can be played on multiple devices and can be acquired in the way we want to acquire it, by the song, not the whole album.  Additionally, your music is protected and can be wiped from your device if you lose it or it gets stolen.  It is also portable in ways which you never had before.  All new features you never had when music was on a record album.

This is the future of IT.  Secure, portable and flexible.  The cloud will be the big player here and soon all data and applications will be stored there.  This will remove the need for the laptop.  I also recently picked up my iPad.  I can now get Wired magazine from the cloud.  Technology has made the magazine interactive – just like the WSJ (and my wife doesn’t have to collect them from the stoop every morning while I am traveling).  I actually watched a commercial of the new Mercedes in the WSJ on the iPad.

Kids today that get into IT will have no idea what it was like in the past but will have a whole new set of challenges, like figuring out where to store 1,000,000 Exabytes of data.

The fun will be in architecting this solution for the future.  As times change they change faster.  The time between the record and 8-Track tapes was exponential as compared to the cassette to the iPod.  As you build the data center of the future, keep your kids in mind.  Flexible and secure will be key.

The future will require new insights and ideas and the new generation of talent will fill the void.