100MB, 10GB, 2 TB? Where Does It End?

 

Bandwidth, speed, RAM, CPU’s, storage, backup, video, mobile, wireless…..bluetooth……crazy isn’t it?

We have evolved so quickly with our technology that the communications industry is in full acceleration mode.  A mere 20 years or so ago, dial-up internet was being born.  The US Postal Service was delivering free disks to us offering programs like “150 Hours Free” of dial-up internet from companies like Delphi, AOL, Prodigy, Earthlink, Ziplink, UUNET, NetZero, and Juno. 

Only a few years ago, DSL was the new trend for businesses and homeowners.  DSL provided a major upgrade over the 9600 “Baud” or “Bd” available on dial-up modems.  DSL is still available today and can reach speeds of 7MB or faster.

To jump forward, T1.5, DS-3, OC1, OC3, coax, FIOS, fiber, Ethernet over copper “EoC”, and Ethernet over Coax provide loads of bandwidth options in today’s market.  The need for bandwidth is growing so quickly, cellular technology, once thought of as the answer to our needs, is having a hard time keeping up.  With the onset of 3G, 4G, now 5G devices, cell network providers are struggling to meeting the needs of cellular users.  Many cell providers are currently deploying “hot-spots” where they provide a land based bandwidth option to off load some of the traffic on their cellular network.  

Remember these types of ads?

To utilize all this bandwidth come new devices.  No longer do we buy the “10MB computer for $5999”.  Now we have laptops with 1TB hard drives and 5GB of RAM, tablets, smartphones, iPads, iTouchs, Droids, Kindles, and even desktops.

While the improvement in peripheral equipment has been incredible, this has led to a need for even more powerful back office processing…..namely the onset of the “Cloud” technology.  The advantage of the “Cloud provides IT departments the capability to maintain enterprise level processing equipment with little or no CAPEX expenses.  The Cloud providers are in the business of providing state-of-the art equipment and security to private companies. With the click of a mouse, a company's IT Director can increase servers, add RAM, double storage space and many more conveniences.

Today’s cloud providers maintain secure, state-of-the-art data centers across the United States and provide inherent redundancy for your data.  It’s nearly impossible to keep up with the advances in technology and bandwidth today.  For a private company, technology is quickly passing by the capabilities of the average IT staff.  The cost of constantly upgrading in-house equipment, increasing bandwidth, staffing, security, power, backup, etc is heading beyond the reasonable expectations for any company but those in the Fortune 100. 

So where are we heading?  I’m guessing we’ve all got some great ideas and some good speculation?  I’d enjoying hearing your thought and having my readers participate in the discussion…..any comments, thoughts?

If you’re looking for direction or advice on your networking or processing needs, please drop me an email at dave@davehanron.com or reach out to me via Twitter @DaveHanron and I’ll be happy to help.