“Virtual” Tools
Filed under Blog
What does it mean for IT professionals, marketers, and social networkers when the tools we use become almost purely ‘virtual’?
Every day, it seems that researchers and engineers take another big step forward in the ongoing pursuit of placing more and more capacity into our computers. For a technology-based marketing agency such as Sierra, these are exciting times for developing the right branding strategy for each customer by tapping into a rapidly expanding array of web-based tools. However, while the capacity of our hardware is growing by leaps and bounds, the hardware itself appears to be shrinking, or even disappearing
Not long ago, a single transistor (i.e., one of those little metal black bugs that fell out of dad’s radio that day you dropped it on the sidewalk) was large enough for you to easily hold between your fingers. Today, we have transistors that are literally one one-thousandth the width of a human hair. One of the biggest challenges now facing developers lies in finding ways to squeeze light through these gadgets. Can you believe it? We’re almost at the point where light won’t be able to “fit” into the transistors we’re building. It’s fascinating, but also hugely problematic.
Additionally, with the advent of virtualization, software and other data are no longer tied to any single piece of hardware. In fact, today’s virtualization solutions enable data managers to easily move ‘virtual machines’ (which might be running a company’s email system, or ERP solution, or high availability program, or whatever) from one server to another without ever interrupting the flow of information throughout the company. Better still, since virtualization enables the operator to run several solutions on a single piece of hardware, companies are actually reducing the physical “footprint” of their server farms by more than 75%.</p>
<p>At the same time, the convergence of cell phones, PDAs, cameras, GPS devices, social networking and so much more onto devices that become smaller every week means that the solutions driving our ongoing communications, social networking, web surfing, etc. are becoming less tangible and more virtual.
So, what do you think – Will communications in general, and marketing in particular, soon become a hardware-free enterprise where a webinar, a whitepaper, and a podcast can be delivered in the blink of an eye with no hardware component? If so, will that make our interactions more efficient and productive, or will we soon be “crushed” by a virtual mountain of “Tweets,” “tags,” instant messages, email, and good old-fashioned phone calls? Comments?
