Future Direction in Computing

A Group Assignment by

Group 2.11

Course: MBA 5107 Management Information System

Lecturer: Dr.Ajantha Atukorale

Trimester - II

Postgraduate and Mid-Career Development Unit

Faculty of Management and Finance

University of Colombo
GROUP MEMBERS

Registration Number Name Signature

2020/MBA/WE/109 M.A.D.A Samali

2020/MBA/WE/140 G.W.P Hansika

2020/MBA/WE/089 M.S.G.S Perera

2020/MBA/WE/079 S.K Pathirana

2020/MBA/WE/138 T.V Wijesinghe

2020/MBA/WE/107 A.H.M Sacky

01 - Introduction

Over the previous two decades, developments in computer technology have transformed the way
scientists operate, from processor speed to network capacity and the internet. Furthermore,
today's computing technology evolves at such a rapid pace that it allows for faster change and
advancement, eventually forcing the rate of change to become exponential. The way people do
business is changing. Individual divisions within a company are becoming as adaptable as larger
organisations, as they continue to pivot to stay up with rapidly evolving technologies. IT teams
are witnessing tremendous changes as their responsibilities expand to cover customer support,
sales, and even business strategy. As a result, IT is increasingly being used as a driving force in
many aspects of business and current trends are improving and presenting new functions in the
field of medicine, entertainment, business education, marketing, law enforcement etc.

However, technology trends and top technologies are changing; much more has changed this
year as a result of the release of COVID-19, which has made every professional realise that their
practices will not be the same in the contactless world of the future. Therefore, it's necessary to
examine the directions in each of these components of emerging computer technology in order to
understand the future directions in computing. Although it may be difficult to predict future
computers and related changes and enhancements, various levels of research and trends over the
last few years have shown that the massive development of computer-based technology has
enabled people and businesses to bring a variety of benefits and experiences.

Although the historical annual improvement of about 40% in central processing unit performance
is slowing, the combination of CPUs packaged with alternative processors is improving at a rate
of more than 100% per annum. These unprecedented and massive improvements in processing
power combined with data and artificial intelligence will completely change the way we think
about designing hardware, developing software and applying technology to businesses and
consumers. With the future direction of computing and with the adaptation of such improved
technology will result every industry to be disrupted and will be the driving force of Industry 4.0.

Therefore, this paper explores the cost and performance demands that future computer systems
may face and examines the future direction of computing by analysing the current state of
technology adaptation and new technologies that can be adapted to overcome the current
limitations so that consumers and industries can experience the full potential of the 4th industrial
revolution.
02 - Current Limitations

Rapid advances and increasing reliance on technology, merging of computing and

communication, the emergence of social networks, and the large amount of information in digital
form gives a business a greater amount of transformation opportunities to leverage their value
chain. We have progressed from a world in which computers make decisions for people.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most crucial aspect for every technology-oriented business. It is
a hundred times faster than human beings. For example, the types of AI continue to evolve from
facial recognition to speech and natural language processing, rendering videos, helping the
hearing impaired and even bringing augmented reality to the palm of your hand to more
sophisticated developed innovations. Even though there is a massive shift of technology over the
last decades in every aspect of human life and business organizations there are several limitations
that hinder the development of its benefits over their users.
Lack of Network Capabilities and storage

Network infrastructure and capabilities have advanced at such an incredible rate during the last
two decades. Despite several improvements and updates, there are still certain limitations.
Physical hardware and environmental factors have an impact on bandwidth. These limits have an
impact on the speed at which data travels over the network, as well as the quality of service
provided. Spectrum crunch is a serious issue in the telecommunications industry. Spectrum
Crunch is a real concern in the telecom industry and Companies in this space need to make plans
to overcome these challenges and continue to providing fast, high quality services well in the
future and network infrastructure need to be more flexible and more efficient

Storage capacity is a huge challenge for businesses with so many sources of big data and so
much data available. Simply put, more and more data is generated every day, resulting in an
increase in the scope and complexity of storage demands. AI, on the other hand, can save the day
for storage managers by assisting them in efficiently storing and managing data. The trend of
moving away from data centers and toward the cloud, users expect more than futuristic data
storage solutions. Users want a secure, searchable form of data storage .In the future, data
storage will be just as much as service as it is commodity.

Access to data is expensive and limited

The algorithm becomes stronger and performs well as the relevant data grows. The Information
system fails badly when enough quality data is not fed into it. With small input variations in data
quality having such profound results on outcomes and predictions, there’s a real need to ensure
greater stability and accuracy. Further, sharing of data among enterprises has the potential to
yield enormous societal advantages. For example there is the possibility to find remedies for
diseases and to respond to disasters more efficiently. However, very little of the data sharing
required for such activities is now taking place. This is due to a multitude of factors, ranging
from technological difficulties to reasonable privacy concerns, as well as the fact that many firms
are reticent to share their data because they believe it will provide them a competitive advantage.
Access to accurate data is crucial for future development computer technology.

Data Privacy and Security

In recent years there has been major concern over privacy and Security of user’s data. Most
companies have not updated their privacy policy and imposed strict rules on data Collection.
Almost every day brings news of a high-profile data breach or a cyber-attack that costs millions
of dollars in damages. As computers, mobile devices, servers, and smart devices become more
prevalent, the total danger exposure grows every day. While the corporate and policy
communities are still grappling with the cyber realm's increasing prominence, the application of
AI to cyber security is ushering in even more significant concern for future developments.

Ethical Issues

With these powerful new technologies both benefiting and harming human lives, this social
transformation will have a profound ethical influence. Being the externalization of human
intelligence, provides us with a more powerful version of everything mankind already is, both
good and bad. Lack of transparency, decisions are not always intelligible to humans and not
neutral, discriminatory outcomes, embedded or inserted bias. Surveillance practices for data
gathering and risk for Human Rights and other fundamental values.

Legal Challenges

A corporation may face legal issues as a result of an AI application with an incorrect algorithm
and data governance. This is another of the most difficult Artificial Intelligence issues that a
developer must deal with in the actual world. As a result, it is closely monitored and trained.
Algorithmic transparency, cyber security vulnerabilities, unfairness, bias and discrimination, and
a lack of contestability are examples of such difficulties.
03 - Technology Advancements

Industry 4.0 refers to a new phase in the Industrial Revolution that focuses heavily on
interconnectivity, automation, machine learning, and real-time data. Industry 4.0, also sometimes
referred to as IoT or smart manufacturing, marries physical production and operations with smart
digital technology, machine learning, and big data to create a more holistic and better connected
ecosystem for companies.

As it was discussed in the previous chapter, there are few notable factors that limit the complete
technology adaptation in most aspects of people’s lives and such mentioned major factors are
affecting the fast track of the 4th industrial revolution as well. This chapter of the report examines
how these limitations will be overcome in the future with the current direction of computing.

5th Generation network - 5G

One such limitation factor is network connectivity limitations. Even though limitations are in
place in the present day context, adaptation of 5G plays a major role to overcome such
connectivity limitations. 5G is considered to be one of key technologies that will usher in the
digital transformation of society including the manufacturing/production and related industries.
With the capabilities of the 5th generation of network connectivity it aims to deliver high data
speeds, ultra-low latency, more reliable and high network capacity, increased availability and
improved efficiency to users and connects new industries to be one of the main driving forces of
4th industrial revolution.
IoT - Internet of Things

The IoT is an ecosystem of physical devices and all other things that have the ability to connect,
collect and exchange data over a wired and wireless network. This can be with little or no
human-to-human or human-to-computer intervention which provides better understanding and
control over objects and environments that are at present beyond the reach of the internet. Iot
allows the power of internet connectivity to be accessed and expanded beyond computers to a
range of other things, processes, and environments by enabling machine-to-machine
communication. There are numerous real-
world applications of the internet of things,
ranging from consumer IoT and enterprise
IoT to manufacturing and industrial IoT
(IIoT). With the massive IoT capabilities of
5G, industries will get the opportunity to
exploit the full potential of IoT and
massive amounts of data can be collected
to gain complete control processes.
Industries can further enhance the
capabilities of such technologies by
utilizing the collected data with the use of
machine learning, communication and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This will allow better
integration between objects to make human life more simplified and comfortable with the perfect
mix of efficiency and productivity.

Wearable computing is another branch of consumer IoT that enables significant new
opportunities. With hardware advancements and greater processing power, wearable
manufacturers will have the ability to develop new intelligent interfaces that will reduce work
and complexity and lead to new insights.
Wearable Computing

The global wearable computing devices market accounted for 181.5 million units in 2019, and it
is expected to reach 520.1 million units by 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 2020). Wearable
computers such as smart glasses, smart watches allow manufacturers to track consumers and
their data all the time with respect to the environment whilst ensuring mobility and allowing the
user to work, communicate, and entertain as well. The data that is recorded is analyzed with the
use of AI models to assist consumer’s tasks and improve the efficiency.

Improvements and use of technology on a larger scale will further enable companies to discover
user patterns that cannot be obtained otherwise. Information regarding a user's health is one of
the most important data that is currently being gathered. Wearable computing manufactures can
use the collected data with the combination of machine intelligence to improve the quality of life
by allowing data integration with other services. Exoskeletons, brain computers, 3D printing and
robotic organs can be considered as the future developments of smart wearables.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing can be defined as anything that involves delivering hosted services over the
internet. It lets you plug into infrastructure via the internet and use computing resources without
installing and maintaining them on premises which transforms IT infrastructure into a utility
service. These services can be divided into three main categories such as Infrastructure as a
service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS) and Software as a service (SaaS). Cloud computing
would reduce your IT costs and efforts in purchasing, maintaining your own infrastructure as
well as to improve mobility and disaster recovery. Vendor lock-in, IT governance and
compliance with laws are major throwbacks.

Advancements in processing power

Even though Moore’s law is not entirely accurate in the present day context, hardware
manufacturers are still able to achieve an annual 30% increase in processing power by
integrating multiple cores on a single chip, providing more features and higher processing speeds
using less power. With the advancements in computational power, complex processes where
higher computational power is required will be available on the device itself and the need for
centralized processing is getting reduced. Advancements and increases in processing power will
further become the driving force of the next wave of artificial intelligence. These unprecedented
and massive improvements in processing power combined with data that can be obtained with
the and artificial intelligence will completely open up new avenues of application which will
impact many aspects of the conventional processes.

Edge computing
The edge computing (EC) paradigm brings computation and storage to the edge of the network
where data is both consumed and produced and processing is pushed to the edge with faster
processors. This aspect of computing is necessary to cope with the increasing amount of
network-connected devices and data transmitted, the launch of the 5G networks will expand.
With the use of high power processors, edge computing will avoid the high latency and traffic
bottlenecks associated with the use of Cloud Computing in networks where several devices both
access and generate high volumes of data. Use of AI in combination with edge processing and
decentralized computing will enhance the capability of systems greatly which will be in use in
future.

Improvement of AI with faster processing and access to data

All the above mentioned technologies impact greatly on one key technology which is the driving
force of industry 4.0 and what shapes the direction of future computing. AI is not a futuristic
vision, but it’s something that we deal with every day and some time without even realizing.
Already AI is implemented in numerous industries like finance, security, health care, advertising
and so on. Even though we see AI being used in the present day context, in future technology
being adapted in mass scale and data being collected to a greater extent will impact the
development of the AI industry in an exponential manner. This is because we can utilize the data
that we collect through the technologies that we mentioned to train neural networks and the new
uses of AI will impact many aspects of our lives.
04 - Application on business organizations

In this century most businesses have a common question that; whether they can survive or exist
in the future without relying on technologies. Enterprises and business organizations are on a
never ending quest to implement new operational methods and tools to uplift their productivity
and in return increase the revenue. The use of electronics and technology at the workplace has
enabled the businesses to improve their B2C communication, increase the efficiency of
production and to save their money as well (B2C : Business to Customer ). Therefore, this
chapter tries to elaborate how future developments of computing applications can stand before
them to survive and grow their business in the future.

Implementing Robotic Process Automation at workplace (RPA)

Today, most businesses are investing more money in finding simplified solutions for their
business process which would reduce their operational cost and time with the intention of giving
their full attention to customer behavior. Still a big portion of employees and human-hours are
allocated for day today business communication, generating responses and finding best solutions
to grow up by minimizing their business issues. This is an emerging technology to digitize
enterprise operations and reduce costs by utilizing robotic process automation to eliminate
tedious tasks and relax their corporate workers to focus on customer centric value creation, value
enhancing work.

This human automation can be used in various industries which supports them to speed up their
work.

● In the Healthcare industry patient registration, maintain patient records can be automated.
● In Human resources management, joining and scaling new employees, processing payroll
automation.
● In the travel and logistics industry, booking of tickets, and maintaining passengers'
detailed records can be automated.
● In the telecommunication industry, managing service orders and work orders, reporting
quality of services can be automated.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications

Augmented Reality (AR) is a digital tool which superimposes images or objects over the real
world scenarios and where the Virtual Reality (VR) brings a user into a dreamed world digitally.
These technologies make people tend to do something more than what they see physically. With
AR, most of the digital devices have the capability to help the people in their day to day
activities such as searching and navigation through web sites or maps & shopping etc. With VR,
people can be anywhere that they like, and can learn or get experienced about different places or
situations as if that person actually was there.

These AR and VR technologies can be used for many practical situations in business
organizations to interact with their customers also.

● Digitized services

Sometimes customers are requested to fill certain forms when searching or purchasing
some products or services. Instead of that they can develop or embed AR and VR, and let
the customers walk through the traditional application process. This would benefit the
organization, to acquire error less customer information or clear requirements and in
return customers also have more attraction towards the simplified, enjoyable interaction
with the company.

● Tourism

Rather than traditional on site visits, tourism companies can give their customers a kind
of illustration of the story behind that visited location and make them feel that they were
with those characters in the past. This could be a value addition method for those
businesses and will have a competitive advantage on investing in such technologies.

● Education and Training

AR and VR can revolutionize the traditional online classes by bringing students to a

virtual classroom and letting them engage in self understanding on lessons with exciting
classroom experience. With this high capability of re-creating the real life scenarios,
customer product training or employee training can be done in a more realistic and easy
to understand way while offering them a never forgetting learning experience.

Low latency and high Bandwidth network communication

Day by day research is going on in the telecommunication industry to create high bandwidth
low-latency network communication over long distances. The term low-latency and high BW
refers to a computing network that can efficiently handle a high amount of data volume with
minimum time delay. These networks are designed to carry out the operations which require
closer and real time data transactions of rapid changes of the situation. In practice 100
milliseconds is rated as an acceptable delay for the applications running on a network, whereas
scientists try to optimize it up to 20 – 40 milliseconds.

Here, we emphasize some practical milestones where the technology would reach, with the
advancement of low-latency and high BW network communications.
Self Driving cars

One of the most targeted products that automobile industries are looking for. Vehicles experience
a constantly changing environment, so for a self driven car it requires to react to the surroundings
with extremely fast alterations to ensure safety. And in processing those responses from
enormous inputs it requires a higher data flow too. These high bandwidth applications can be
realized with future 5G wireless networks or wired Fiber Optic networks. With the
implementation of these products, governments can reduce road accidents, as the driver behavior
is nearly 90 % of the causes for wrong judgments in driving.

Video Gaming

One of the major software industries which undergoes continuous development, marketing and
monetization due to the inherent enthusiasm nature of that product. Today’s trend has become
towards online versions of computer gaming rather than typical standalone gaming. Due to this
demand gamers need super fast and minimum lagging time end to end connectivity to perform
their part at best. Fiber broadband networks offer them a higher upload and download speeds up
to 10 Gb per second, which enables the gamers an ultimate competitive advantage over the
opposition. In the business industry perspective they are continuously trying to enhance the
computer graphics, sounds and visualization. And from the gamer’s perspective, they expect a
virtual reality gaming experience that allows them to have real time interaction with game
characters. So with emerging 5G networks and ultra high speed fiber connectivity, this industry
will have enough bandwidth and speeds to evolve.

Telemedicine

Is one of the key requirements in today’s world as healthcare decides a lot in human lives.
Telemedicine is the transmission of medical graphics between specialists, healthcare centers for
diagnosis and operative purpose across distances.This technology tries to provide world’s
demand of bringing the patient and the doctor to close to each other, without spending long hours
of travelling. On the other hand small and rural villages sometimes have only one doctor for all
kinds of health diseases, thus implementing this technology can offer immediate medical relief
by real time examination of patients in all aspects. The medical surgeries are the other most
important part which tries to accomplish this with technology. As mentioned in the above the
latency is a critical point which should be extremely low during the surgery. Recently china was
able to perform a 60 minutes animal surgery at 50 km apart with high speed 5G connectivity
with very low lagging time. Therefore with the continuous improvements in fiber and 5G
technologies, medical associated applications, remote diagnosis, remote caring and even remote
surgery will gradually evolve in the future to promise the quality of medical relief all over the
world.
05 - Conclusion

This report studies the future direction in computing becoming more crucial for each and every
business entity. In the rapidly growing environment, technology plays a vital role and creates
opportunities. With the future direction of computing and with the adaptation of technology,
every industry will be disrupted and will be the driving force towards Industrial 4.0. Current state
of technology adaptation and new technologies that can be adapted to overcome the current
limitations so that consumers and industries can experience the full potential of the 4th industrial
revolution. Accessibility of data helps to improve the proper functioning of Artificial Intelligence
(AI). Further 5G, IOT, wearable computing and cloud computing strengthen and overcome the
current issues associated with AI. AI applications create more potential business opportunities
such as autonomous vehicles, robotic process Automation, customer relationship management,
Logistic & delivery , digital marketing and so on. However there are several threats like data
privacy and reliability issues. In overall, individuals & business enterprises need to adapt to new
technologies to gain the competitive advantages.
References

Vennam, S. (2021, March 29). Cloud Computing.

Https://Www.Ibm.Com/Cloud/Learn/Cloud-Computing

Chai, W. (2020, December 7). cloud computing. SearchCloudComputing.

https://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing

McClelland, C. (2021, February 4). What is the Internet of Things, or IoT? A Simple

Explanation. IoT For All. https://www.iotforall.com/what-is-internet-of-things

Jhajharia, Smita & Pal, S & Verma, Seema. (2014). Wearable Computing and its
Application. (IJCSIT) International Journal of Computer Science and Information
Technologies. 5. 5700-5704.

Cass, J. (2021, January 10). Internet of Things: What It Is, How It Works, Examples and

More. JUSTTM Creative. https://justcreative.com/internet-of-things-explained/

Top 10 artificial intelligence problems you should know. (2021). CloudMoyo | Enabling

Digital Transformation with Cloud and AI. https://www.cloudmoyo.com/blog/ai-ml-

automation/top-10-potential-ai-artificial-intelligence-problems/

Mikhalchuk, D. (2020, September 27). What is wearable computer: simple guide to the

technology. TESLASUIT. https://teslasuit.io/blog/what-is-wearable-computer-simple-

guide/

Markets, R. A. (2020, June 24). Global Wearable Computing Devices Market (2020 to

2025) - Growth, Trends & Forecasts. GlobeNewswire News Room.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/06/24/2052588/0/en/Global-

Wearable-Computing-Devices-Market-2020-to-2025-Growth-Trends-Forecasts.html