IT directors have been urged to lobby their MPs following concerns
that the next generation of desktop computer systems could contain
technology that will make it harder for IT departments to switch to
alternative suppliers.
Trusted computing technology, currently being developed by 190
leading suppliers including Intel and Microsoft, has the potential
to lock businesses more deeply into propriety technology than ever
before, delegates at a London conference heard last week.
Ross Anderson, head of the Computer Laboratory at Cambridge
University and one of the most vocal critics of the Trusted
Computing Platform Alliance and Microsoft's Palladium operating
system, urged IT professionals to be prepared for the impact that
trusted computing will have on their IT contracts in a few years'
time.
"You may find that large quantities of your corporate data are
sealed to applications written by specific suppliers. This means
that even now you have to start thinking, when you commit to new
application suppliers about what sort of terms you put in the
contract," Anderson said.
There are a couple of years in which IT professionals can lobby
politicians, he said.
Supporters of the technology, however, believe competition will
ensure that suppliers do not do anything to upset users. Stefek
Zaba, computer scientist at HP labs in Bristol, said Anderson's
concerns represented only a theoretical risk. "I am not sure it is
the right time to say, 'This dark future is staring us in the face,
we need to mobilise now brothers'."