Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

The last few columns have been about the future of business computing. We have discussed some new developments that could allow us to change the way we use computers for business. Computers can now be made very small indeed, once we are free of the need for keyboards, mice, and monitors for input and output. Computer could be the size of iPhones, or smaller, and slide easily into a pocket or a purse.

The effective use of computers like this assumes a couple of other advances in technology. The first is that most applications would run on a world-wide network, and that most storage would also take place on that network. The second is technology that would allow us to have secure, wireless access to this network (the World Wide Web or a successor) from every place on the planet.

We already have WiFi, but it is not everywhere, at least not in the bandwidths necessary for all computing needs. But look at the strides that have been made in a short period of time. In the last fifteen years or so, private and public wireless computing has gone from a rarity to something most of us take for granted. We don't have to invent this technology. We are already using it over wide areas of the globe, and just have to make improvements, especially in bandwidth and security.

Technology certainly already exists, both land-based and space-based, to handle the bandwidth issues. All we need to do is implement them. Security, however,  is a more complex infrastructure issue. People and businesses are not going to commit to this kind of technology until it is truly save to do so. This is important enough when we are talking about all of a business's private information, but goes up a few orders of magnitude when we begin talking about wiring our brains directly into these networks.

So far, to be honest, we have not had much luck in securing wireless networks. Where there are safeguards, they have been broken through, by and large. I hope and believe that people are working in this issue now, so that when we are ready to embrace truly mobile business computing, it will be safe to do so. Next time, we'll talk about the advantages of truly mobile computing.