Microsoft’s Windows Vista will be the last major upgrade
to the Windows platform and the number of bloggers on the internet
will level out next year.
These two predictions have been made by analyst firm Gartner as
part of its top 10 forecasts for 2007 and beyond.
Gartner said, “Vista will be the last major release of Microsoft
Windows. The next generation of operating environments will be more
modular and will be updated incrementally.
“The era of monolithic deployments of software releases is
nearing an end. Microsoft will be a visible player in this
movement, and the result will be more flexible updates to Windows
and a new focus on quality overall.”
On the blogging phenomenon, Gartner said the blogging community
will peak in the first half of 2007 at around 100 million.
Among the other predictions are the view that by 2009, corporate
social responsibility (CSR) will be a higher board and
executive-level priority than regulatory compliance.
Also, by the end of 2007, 75% of enterprises will be infected
with undetected, financially motivated, targeted malware that
evades their traditional perimeter and host defences, as a result
of security technologies being left behind as threats increase.
In addition, by 2010, the average total cost of ownership of new
PCs will fall by 50%. “The growing importance and focus on
manageability, automation and reliability will provide a welcome
means of differentiating PCs in a market that is increasingly
commoditised,” Gartner said.
Through 2011, enterprises will waste £53bn buying the wrong
networking technologies and services.
“Enterprises are missing out on opportunities to build a network
that would put them at a competitive advantage,” said Gartner.
And by 2008, nearly 50% of datacentres worldwide will lack the
necessary power and cooling capacity to support higher-density and
more powerful equipment.
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