News Item Dated: 23 December 2002
From: InfoWorld  (12/16/02) Vol. 24, No. 50, P. 40; Schwartz, Ephraim; Shafer, Scott Tyler; Conolly, P.J.

The past year has witnessed significant developments in the areas of pervasive computing, edge computing, Web services, open source and open standards, and virtualization. The expansion of handhelds, wireless networks, and mobile infrastructure and standards from the likes of IBM, BEA, and Microsoft enabled wireless technologies to penetrate the enterprise even further, an important step on the road to pervasive or ubiquitous computing; the introduction of the 10GbE standard was a notable development, while wireless LAN technology matured.

Edge computing emerged in 2002 as an important complement to centralized computing: Aberdeen Group research director Dana Gardner explains that centralized/decentralized computing hybrids will boost productivity and network value, while edge computing and identity management have started to converge to expedite intercompany information exchange and clarify data management procedures. Although Web services still require improved security, they advanced this past year thanks to the development of tools from Google and Macromedia designed to expand their usability, and moves to standardize back-end operations so that Web services can seamlessly interoperate.

Open-source technologies, Linux in particular, made progress in 2002 thanks to several trends, including the creation of the Web Services Interoperability Organization. Meanwhile, companies such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM unveiled products and services that support Linux and other open-source technologies. Finally, virtualization made a sizable impact in the storage sector, and is making inroads into data centers. A key breakthrough was the debut of virtualization across heterogeneous systems, although the technology still lacks a universal description.

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