Data centers will become the new 'cloud,' Woz predicts

"2013 is going to be the year of choice. Whether it’s your phone or the company’s, working from your office or the coffee shop, one option isn’t going to cut it anymore." 

That's the view of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, now chief scientist for Fusion-io, who sees a multi-platform, multi-technology tech world coming to fruition. He also says the data center -- with new collaborative and virtualized capabilities -- will be taking a front and center role in all this over the coming year.

In a new post in Forbes, he outlines what's in store for enterprise IT. (Wozniak credits Brett Shockley, senior VP and general manager of applications and emerging technologoes at Avaya, for these insights as well.)

• Data center technologies will be to 2013 what the cloud was for 2012. "The rapid transition from hard disk to NAND flash memories in the data center is drastically improving performance, reliability and the ability to distribute everything through virtual machines – which will lead to the de-centralization of cloud services," says Wozniak. "Enterprises with different offices in multiple cities will run the same cloud services out of each office and have the cloud services talk to each other to ensure synchronization – improving overall efficiency."
• Lots of emphasis on collaboration. "Companies will move away from deploying 'lite' collaboration apps in favor of all-in-one tools that fit nicely into existing structures and maximize this increasingly mobile workforce." Ease of use will still be a challenge, however, Wozniak adds. Plus, "it will be increasingly important for any given collaboration package or other app to run on a multitude of platforms – not just one. Taking the easy way out and developing for just one platform will not be acceptable."
• BYOD, BYOD, BYOD. "Businesses will learn that it is worth investing resources to diversify the platforms and devices they provide and support – not just for efficiency’s sake but to also increase morale. 'Choice' is happiness and will become a motivational tool enterprises use to their advantage." Plus, Wozniak predicts, expect to see consumer technologies blending with corporate systems in the workplace. "I honestly believe mobile devices will increasingly become our remote controls to the world. We’ll carry our software on our mobile devices, but display it on these communal screens – including those installed in conference rooms."