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Implications of Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies are beginning to significantly impact both personal and organizational IT systems, requiring more powerful infrastructure and leading to increased costs. While they offer advantages such as convenience and productivity, they also present challenges like high costs and over-reliance. Examples include virtual reality, smart devices, and 3D printing, which are reshaping how we interact with technology in daily life and business.

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15 views5 pages

Implications of Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies are beginning to significantly impact both personal and organizational IT systems, requiring more powerful infrastructure and leading to increased costs. While they offer advantages such as convenience and productivity, they also present challenges like high costs and over-reliance. Examples include virtual reality, smart devices, and 3D printing, which are reshaping how we interact with technology in daily life and business.

Uploaded by

xehadex134
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Implications of Emerging Technologies

Information Technology Systems Emerging Technologies Implications of Emerging


Technologies
IN PROGRESS

An emerging technology is one that is just starting to make an impact in the


wider world. These are usually very new or are still developing and growing
into their full potential.

For example, Virtual Reality has been around for some time but is still very
much growing and only recently has started to have an impact on our lives.

While these emerging technologies often have great benefits for us, there
are also many drawbacks too.

In this lesson we’ll learn about:

1. How emerging technologies affect the performance of IT systems.


2. The implication of emerging technologies on personal use of IT
systems.
3. The implication of emerging technologies on the use of IT systems in
organisations.
Media Attachments: PresentationVideo

1. Emerging Technologies Performance

The growth of the IT industry has led to constant innovation with new
emerging technologies appearing all the time. Businesses need to and are
expected to embrace these technologies in order to keep up with
competitors and to try and gain an advantage over them.

However, keeping up these technologies comes with some downsides.


Often we do not have the required infrastructure to make use of these new
technologies effectively as they require more powerful processors,
increased memory, greater storage and faster networking.
Here we’ll look at a few examples of emerging technologies that affect our
IT systems performance.

Technology Impact on Performance

This requires powerful graphics processing capabilities and large main


Virtual Reality memory in order to use. Video game console manufacturers are having to
release upgraded consoles to provide VR capabilities to keep up.

Home networking & internet connections are often not fast enough for
Media Streaming smooth media streaming. This is especially true for 4K content driven by
emerging technologies in the TV industry, such as Ultra-HD TV screens.

Lidar sensors, mobile broadband communication & powerful processing


Self-Driving
are all required for self-driving cars. Tesla said the computer used for their
Cars
self-driving cars is 40 times more powerful than previously used.
These are just a few examples of how emerging technologies are putting
pressure on the performance of our IT systems and forcing us to increase
the power of our computing devices. This, in turn, has placed increased
costs on businesses and consumers as we are constantly needing to
increase the power of our devices.

Further Thought
Research emerging technologies online and create a list of a few different
examples.

How do you think they may affect the performance of our IT systems?
2. Personal Use of Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies can often drastically change the way we live our
personal lives. This is often for very positive reasons, but it can be negative
too.

If we look at a historical example, the smartphone, we can easily see how


this has changed our lives. This slowly grew for some time from the mobile
phone market and exploded with the iPhone in 2007.
This suddenly brought a mobile phone, portable MP3 player, internet
access & gaming all into a single device. We now rely on these devices in
most aspects of our lives. Suddenly we could access so much
entertainment & communication technology so much more easily and
conveniently.

Some modern examples that are just starting to impact our lives, or are
soon to impact on them include:

 Smartwatches – A wearable device that provides similar functionality


to a smartphone, such as accessing messages, email, phone calls &
even games. It often includes health functions too like heart rate
monitoring or run tracking.
 Smart Speakers – Devices like the Amazon Echo that allow us to
automate our home by speaking to a device to turn on the tv, music
system, central heating, etc. This is very convenient for many people.
 Self Driving Cars – Vehicles that can drive without human
intervention. This isn’t something we can buy right now but it is being
tested on the roads extensively. These can reduce accidents &
congestion to save lives and reduce commuting time. It can also allow
disabled people to get around easier.
All of these emerging technologies have had positive and negative
consequences to us. Here are some example advantages and
disadvantages.

Advantages
 Convenience – We can access services and perform tasks much more
quickly and conveniently, such as controlling our thermostat and lights
through voice commands. This saves us time and frees us up to do
other things.
 Accessibility – People with disabilities can get around easier and can
perform tasks and access services that would otherwise be
inaccessible to them. For example, self-driving cars may in future allow
people with disabilities to travel to the shops unaided.

Disadvantages
 Cost – Technologies are ever changing and with new emerging
technologies appear all the time. It can be very costly for individuals to
keep up. An example is games consoles releasing updated versions to
allow the adoption of VR.
 Over-Reliance – We have become so reliant on many of these new
emerging technologies that if we lost them we often struggle to
manage. For example, people who cannot access their smartphones
can often become extremely stressed and agitated.
Further Thought
Think of some example emerging technologies that you use in your life and
write down what you think the pros and cons of these are.
3. Organisational Use of Emerging Technologies

Businesses are constantly being impacted by emerging technologies. In


many cases, there is pressure on businesses to adopt new technologies
early in order to keep a competitive advantage and not fall behind.

For example, look at self-service tills in supermarkets. Several years ago


you wouldn’t have seen them anywhere. Once the technology becomes
practical and available it was adopted by a supermarket and in no time all
the other supermarkets had to adopt it to keep up with their competitor.
We’re now seeing similar with contactless payment methods in
supermarkets.

Some modern examples that are just starting to impact on businesses, or


are soon to impact on them, include:

 Augmented Reality – Superimposing a computer image on a real-


world view. This could allow for targeted advertising in the real world for
example. Some mobile apps use a basic form of this and the Microsoft
Hololens is a specialist AR device.
 Internet of Things – Time-consuming tasks can be limited through IoT
devices. For example, smart sensors can be used to monitor the
temperature in a warehouse to avoid spoilage.
 3D Printing – Simplifying the manufacturing of parts & products by
simply printing them out from a design. We see this used in
architecture for creating scale models of designs, dentists for producing
false teeth, and car manufacturing for producing parts.
All of these emerging technologies have had positive and negative
consequences to businesses. Here are some example advantages and
disadvantages.

Advantages
 Productivity – A lot of emerging technologies in business are
designed around making tasks quicker & easier to complete to save the
business money. For example, contactless payment methods have
made it quicker to complete a sale at the till.
 Reduced Errors – Many of these devices also aim to reduce human
error. IoT devices could be used for tracking temperature in a
warehouse to spot if it was accidentally set too high for example.

Disadvantages
 Cost – As businesses need to constantly adopt new technology to
keep up with competitors this can be very expensive, and can often be
a big gamble. For example, purchasing 3D printers to produce
components may save money in the long run, but the initial cost of
purchase may be quite high.
 Staff Training – Implementing emerging technologies will often require
significant training to ensure staff can use it. This is a further cost. For
example, giving staff new smartwatches to help with their work may
require initial training on how to use them effectively.
Further Thought
Can you think of any other technologies you’ve seen recently being used in
shops or at school? What are the pros and cons of these?
Lesson Summary
So to summarise what we’ve learnt in this lesson:

 Emerging technologies are technologies that are just starting to make


an impact in the wider world.
 IT systems often require much more powerful capabilities to handle
emerging technologies. E.g. Tesla self-driving car computers are 40
times more powerful than previously used.
 Examples of emerging technologies in our personal lives, or soon
coming, include smartwatches, smart speakers and self-driving cars.
 The advantages include the convenience and accessibility, the
disadvantages include the cost and over-reliance on them.
 Examples of emerging technologies in business, or soon coming,
include augmented reality, internet-of-things and 3D printing.
 The advantages include productivity and reduced errors, the
disadvantages include the cost and staff training.

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