Information technology is advancing extremely fast. The society is adapting to the changes, but the changes have not been understood by many in the societies. The forces of changes in information technology have not only impacted in the communication sector but all sectors of the economy. Information technology through the internet has resulted into a global village where geographical distance is no longer a limiting factor for two parties to do business. For those who are in the information technology sector, it is not easy to predict what will be the next state of information technology. The fact is that the technological improvement and transformation are real, coming faster and becoming relatively cheap. Innovation and inventions have been evident with the advent of the internet where information sharing is the key concept. Looking at the current trend in information technology the question is what will be the future with information systems. By focusing on the future of information technology, we want to look at what will be the key shifts in this sector also referred to as paradigm (Holden, & Karsh, 2010).
Paradigm shift is the reinvention of information technology enterprise while paradigm is a set of beliefs that are used to set boundaries and focus problem solving. Paradigm shift occurs whenever there is a new framework that changes the understanding of the way system operates. Information technology and the increasing high-bandwidth wireless communication are the backbone the world economy. In this paper, the paradigm shifts in the medical field referred to as geospatial, political systems, organizations, human resource management and marketing will be discussed in relation to the use of information technology. Information technology, software-hardware communication and decision making are some of the most crucial part of the economy. There will be an inter-link of these tools to create a new world order. With this, there will be work-flow paradigms and tools to integrate and transform data into useful information to make decisions.
Shift in information technology is evident in many sectors for instance; geospatial technologies such as GIS, GPS, Digital Photogrammetric and Remote Sensing are going to shift how medical diagnosis and treatments are going to be carried out. Another major shift in information technology will be the virtual organization. Geospatial technologies include GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing which enable high resolution of satellite images and SmallSatNets in getting information about a given location for decision making. There will be widgets that will be designed to assist medics in the process of decision making process. Information systems will be designed, developed and embedded in medical equipment to optimize the work-flow process. Virtual organization is just a concept or an activity and not a building or a place. Handy (1995) defines virtual organization as the process of conceptualizing of an activity without a building. For those who are in the information technology sector, it is not easy to predict what will be the next state of information technology. The fact is that the technological improvement and transformation are real, coming faster and becoming relatively cheap. Innovation and inventions have been evident with the advent of the internet where information sharing is a key concept. Looking at the current trend in information technology the question is what will be the future with information systems. By focusing on the future of information technology, we want to look at what will be the greatest shifts in this sector also referred to as paradigm. This paper will look at each area sectors where the future of technology is predicted to be a significant shift.
Paradigm shift
Tapscott and Bhattacherjee and Barfar (2011) assert that reinvention of business enterprise is essential by leaders if they want to remain in business in the dynamic work environment. Old business order was characterized by bureaucracy, unresponsiveness, inwardly focused and stifling. The five main reasons why enterprises must adjust to the future technological shift which guarantees success of the company is; talent, time, technology, tools, and tasks. The significant paradigm shifts in information technology are illustrated in the figure below.
The future technology paradigm
There are going to be many changes in technology in the future. Mass production is an example of what is going to take place. The principle of mass production where continuous production is achieved will be facilitated by continuous flow of chemical industries for the assembly of products. Technological convergence will be realized in the future where small devices and widgets will have the capabilities of combining several technological functionalities. Currently systems such as Geographical information system, have the ability to combine mathematical concept of topology, geometry, computer graphics, computer aided design, database management and other disciplines to form a powerful tool. Medical sectors and education are also going to experience the same technological changes. In the future, there is going to be a significant information technology shift in the education sector. The changes will include self-learning since the trend has moved from teaching to learning. Virtual lecturers, learning institutions and working environment is going to be realized in future.
Inventions in IT have resulted into the high-performance team structure which functions as an integrated business regardless of high business unit autonomy. Virtualization will be realized not only in storage of data but set up of IT services. Information technology is going to establish a trend where employees do not have to be physically in the office building. Mobile applications and computer based task assignment and monitoring tools will be set out to facilitate virtual organization. There are going to be many changes in technology in the future. Mass production is an example of what is going to take place. The principle of mass production where continuous production is achieved will be facilitated by continuous flow of chemical industries for the assembly of products.
Another major shift in IT is going to be in the hardware sector; recently we have seen the size and weight of computer devices reduce drastically while speed and storage increase at the same level of speed. The human computer centered paradigm is a trend that in the future will reach another level. Information systems need to be developed in order to meet the needs of their users. This is a shift from the current graphical user interface to voice driven user interface. This is a relationship that is going to be beyond Voice over IP which we use on and off light scenario to something different. Figure 2 shows human interaction with a computer where the computer adapts to the way human communicates.
Shift from microprocessors based systems to advanced microprocessors
The microprocessor established a new way of computing in the IT industry up to now after its invention. Distributed computer architecture is in place now which supports networked organization. This has resulted into a new way of exchanging information over the internet. More complex technologies are going to be implemented to assist in the safe exchange of information. There is going to be another way of offering services and products. IT future is going to be where data is transmitted at a extremely high speed compared to the current situation (Ngwenyama, 2012).
Cloud computing paradigm shift
Cloud computing, which is being realized now, is going to be another crucial IT shift paradigm. These paradigms represent a case where users store, access, and utilize data remotely over the internet. This is the mapping of water and electricity services model into IT where software, hardware and services are commoditized.
Fig 2 future cloud computing (source: designdamage.com)
The major components of cloud computing are; software-as-a-service (SaaS), where users access software services online, platform as a service (PaaS) which is computing platform and software stack of the internet. This component enable programmers to use resources over the internet where they can design and deploy their applications online without the need to care about hardware requires. Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS) is another service that cloud computing has to offer (Bhattacherjee, & Barfar, 2011).
Cloud computing is going to be an IT shift paradigm in the future because not many companies have realized its potential. There is an increasing need of data backups and disaster management plans which will see in the future. Many companies storing their data in the ‘cloud’ instead of physical storage within the organization. Information technology, software-hardware communication and decision making are some of the most crucial part of the economy (Ngwenyama, 2012).
References
Bhattacherjee, A., & Barfar, A. (2011). Information Technology Continuance Research: Current State and Future Directions. Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems, 21(2), 1-18.
Holden, R. J., & Karsh, B. T. (2010). Methodological Review: The Technology Acceptance Model: Its past and its future in health care. Journal of biomedical informatics, 43(1), 159-172.
Ngwenyama, O. K. (2012). PEOPLE IN A TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN FUTURE: On The Social Relations of New Information Technologies.
