| |
Professional I.T. Services | |
|
Cost-Effective
IT: New Developments, by Richard Sonnier With the economic cycle turning up, it is a good time to look at the innovations in technology. The hot items today are: 1. Microsoft Upgrades 2. Wireless 3. Broadband Internet 4. Open Source 5. Web Applications Microsoft is in the middle of a new upgrade cycle in PC software. Windows XP was the beginning of the cycle and with the release of Office 2003 and Windows Server 2003 in Q4, 2003, we are nearing the end of this cycle. The level of integration in these products is truly amazing and they will slowly replace the older versions. They introduce new ways of mixing documents, data and the Internet. The payoff for these upgrades will take time so there is no need to rush. Plan on including these upgrades in your IT budget over the next few years. My company recently purchased a Treo 600 from Sprint. This PalmOS cell phone is the wave of the future as the best integrated voice, data and heldhand computer. With email and productivity tools integrated into the cell phone, mobile professionals will move away from the laptop PC. Over the next 18 months, the wireless data will get up to 10 times faster making these devices even more valuable. Wireless LANs are getting better and cheaper as well. Do not expect wireless LANs to eliminate wired networks. Wired LANs are much, much faster and more secure. However, wireless LANs will extend the benefits to more areas of the business. Coming soon are Treo 600 type devices that use both wireless LANs and the cell networks. Broadband Internet is available to most businesses now and costs are coming down. T-1 connections have dropped to $400 a month. ADSL is cheaper but has poor performance for businesses. SDSL is better for businesses but is priced near the T-1. If you integrated your voice lines and your Internet connection over the T-1, it pays for itself. Even more interesting is the prospect of Voice over IP that allows you to make voice calls over the Internet connection. These services work like nation-wide cell phones where you pay $50 per month for unlimited local and long-distance calls over your broadband connection. We are testing one of these services right now and will keep you posted. My company uses open source software at many of our clients. It is very low cost and often free. However, the real advantage is that since we have the source code for the software, we can customize it to fit the exact needs of the business. Linux, the open source operating system, was reported recently as the faster growing OS in history. Sun Microsystems is offering a Linux based business desktop called the Java Desktop System that offers all the functionality of Windows, Office and more for $100 per desktop per year. Finally, MySQL, an open source database, is excellent for business data and applications. Web applications are the future of business IT. They solved many IT deployment and support issues. They expand the reach of the business to everywhere the Internet goes from the Treo 600 cell phone to the world. As wireless and broadband networking improves and open source lowers the cost barrier to entry, web applications become a better and better value! Next week, I will discuss the importance of IT planning. |
| ©2005 Nimble
Services Inc. About
Us • Contact Us |
 Home
• Services
• Case
Studies
• Whitepapers
• Forum |