The Hindu Business Line : Bone up on these buzzwords for tech bytes

Tech-savvy
Vista is the new version of Windows operating system.
Virtualisation means different things to different users.
GreenIT: Power efficient tech or just as an exhortation to make IT green.

Bangalore , Jan. 1

Thanks to incessant crystal ball gazing, trend sniffing, message-blowin'-in-the-wind reading and other forms of predictive journalism practised by the world's leading technology watchers for a month now, we have a reasonable idea of what the information technology industry is likely to be doing in 2007.

We can also guess at the buzzwords that senior executives will be unleashing in the coming weeks, to show how on-the-ball they are. For a start remember the `V' word: Confusing — but it stands for two things, hotting up in the new year: Vista and Virtualisation.

Two `V's

Vista is the new version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, six years and more in the making. It will be unleashed on the consumer world with due fanfare on January 30 or 31, depending on where you live.

It comes in multiple flavours from plain vanilla to casata supreme, so no one can complain that he or she can't run it on an existing PC platform. In 2007, Microsoft expects to see it on some 70 million desktops. In some of the versions, it will fuse neatly with the Media Centre release, so there will be good reason to upgrade for those who are already into the PC-TV sangam. However, Gartner says this might be the last major release of Windows, bringing to an end the era of monolithic deployments of software. Future upgrades will likely be more regular, almost automatic.

The other `V' is for Virtualisation, but be warned! This means different things to different users not unlike the fable of the blind men groping the elephant. For the storage industry, this means a customer who says: `I don't care where you put a particular chunk of my data, as long as I can get at it when I need it'.

This is said to release a lot of wasted disk or tape space, by parking data where ever there is a vacant slot — not necessarily in a traditionally orderly way. For those in the server business, virtualisation means the ability to run multiple operating systems on a single server. By year end, they'll be touting the virtualisation of all IT infrastructure in a data centre, making the organisation chart so complex, you can no longer flash it in your powerpoint presentations.

Self-healing

That is probably why everyone from IBM to Hewlett-Packard to Sun is touting self-healing computer technology - what IBM calls Autonomic Computing. This particular buzzword dates from 2005 — but it's going to be bandied about a lot more in 2007 — so mug up the bare essentials. It means adding intelligence into servers and large high performance computers so that they know when things are about to go wrong, and hopefully take some sort of corrective action, without having to haul the system manager from bed.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), is all set to be the most overused buzzword of 2007. It is an architecture for information systems, which is not tied to any one technology, but consists of a number of loosely coupled software services that kick in, when required.

Confused? Do a wikipedia search on SOA — you will get a five page tutorial, which will leave you slightly (but only slightly) better informed. When in doubt, and needing to impress say loudly, "The challenge with SOA of course is managing the metadata with appropriate levels of security and interoperability." No one will understand you enough to challenge you — though in point of fact, the statement is technically sound.

Green IT

GreenIT! This can be read as Green — that is, power efficient — technology or just as an exhortation to make IT green. Remember, after all those spectacularly inflammable laptop batteries, everyone is worried about power sources for computing devices.

Lithium Ion is the villain right now, but be prepared to be knowledgeable about fuel cells an alternative technology.

In recent days, Samsung has announced that it has devised a fuel cell that could power a laptop for eight hours a day for one month. It hopes to unveil the technology in 2007. SAAS (Software as a Service) (pronounced `saas' as in Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi). The thinking is that pretty soon if not in 2007, we will prefer not to have all those operating systems and office productivity tools taking up space on our PCs. Rather, we will go to Web sites where they will be available (for a small charge, is the hope of the creators) as and when we need them. Indeed they're betting after Vista, Microsoft will offer future systems this way, a sort of pay-per-use model.

`Disruptive innovations'

Commoditisation: The idea that IT is becoming a commodity that we consume, as we consume water from a tap or electricity from a socket, was mooted three years ago, by Mr Nicholas Carr, an editor of the Harvard Business Review in his book Does IT Matter? It was received with yelps of protest.

Today most industry watchers tend to broadly agree — though they add a corollary that still seeks a place for the occasional work of genius.

In his latest blog, Mr Carr seems to agree: he speaks of `disruptive innovations' both at the top and the bottom of the IT market. Be prepared to slip both terms into teatime conversations at IT seminars.

That should take you comfortably till mid-2007 at least. A happy and buzz-ing New Year to you!

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Bone up on these buzzwords for tech bytes