As with any industry or
sector such as the automobile industry and the media sector, the computer
industry has improved with time and new technological innovations are
consistently introduced to the world. These new technological innovations and
recent technological changes are diverse in nature and monumental in their
impact. Over the decades, since the mid-1900s until the present year, computer
technology and associated sectors have experienced tremendous development and
as mentioned above, this has influenced the entire modern society in a highly
significant manner. When analysing this significant influence on society, it is
evident that one of the most common factors of this influence is the constantly
lower costs of computer hardware and software. Today, most households in
developed nations as well as in developing nations possess personal computers
while many companies also depend on computers. Furthermore, the world of
business as well as most industries, from banking institutes to military
organisations, operate with the assistance of computing technologies.
One of the computer
technologies that are widely covered by media, including leading websites of
the Internet, is “cloud computing”. The term "cloud computing" can be
defined as a system through which users share computer resources. These
computer resources can include a variety of different entities, ranging from
business applications to hardware storage space. According to several studies,
there are a number of benefits that users as well as organisations receive due
to cloud computing. One of the major benefits of cloud computing is the reduced
responsibility of managing the hardware and software that is being shared. This
is due to the fact that special vendors of cloud computing handle these tasks
and therefore users do not have to be completely responsible for the hardware
and software.
Apart from this benefit,
another primary advantage of utilising the technology of cloud computing is the
efficiency of expenditure of a user or an organisation. With cloud computing,
users and organisations only pay for the resources and quantity of resources
that they actually use. This results in an efficient mechanism of spending
monetary resources. Traditionally, a user or organisation would purchase and use
hard disks available in the markets even though they do not actually use the
full capacity of these hard disks. Due to cloud computing, the costs are
calculated only for the capacity of storage used and this reduces the amount of
money spent. Furthermore, specialised vendors and retailers provide business
applications such as customer relationship management (CRM) tools and human
resources management (HRM) software through cloud computing. As the vendors and
retailers provide state-of-the-art and well-tested and proven computing
software, it is beneficial for business organisations to use these cloud-hosted
applications rather than purchasing available software or creating their own
software. Using software solutions via cloud computing leads to lower costs and
higher productivity and support.
Another innovative
technologies seen in computer systems today are touch screen displays. Touch
screen technology is now popular in computer systems and a touch screen can be
defined as a display that interacts with a finger or stylus pen. Touch screens
have been in use for years in smartphones, ATMs, and car navigation systems but
these have not yet become widely used in computer systems. It can be said that
touch screens initially became popular in society in 2007 when the first touch
screen was introduced in handheld devices. There are many advantages created
due to the integration of touch screens in computer systems. Users can use a
computer touch screen easily and this eliminates the use for traditional
computing hardware accessories such as the computer mouse and keyboard. This
would reduce the strain on users as well as increase the speed of operating
computers. At present, several touch screen integrated displays and laptops are
available in the market but due to the relatively high prices of these new
devices, only a limited number of people use them. However, in the future,
touch screen computer systems could be highly used worldwide.
When discussing recent
technologies in the world of computing, it is vital to analyse "augmented
reality". This particular technology, which is simply known as
"AR", is a technology that is categorised as a type of virtual
reality. Augmented reality in computing tries to create or duplicate an actual
environment within a computer. Augmented reality in computer systems generally
provide a display or view to the user in which the user can observe a created
or virtual reality world of an actual environment. This concept is utilised
widely in several industries including the computer sector as well as in
construction, military training, and robotics. The video as well as audio in
addition to other types of data is duplicated by augmented reality computer
systems. Even though the concept of augmented reality has been discussed and
researched for several years, major developments in this particular field are
yet to be accomplished. With the development of augmented reality in computer
systems, medical operations, military tasks as well as other activities can be
accomplished in a more effective manner.
As evident from the
technologies discussed above, the new technologies and trends in the computer
industry have created a number of benefits for society. However, this also
would result in several negative consequences for society. One such negative
effect is the higher level of industrial waste generated as more and more
computer systems are disposed. Furthermore, several health issues could occur
due to extensive usage of computers. While it is important for us to stay in
touch with recent trends in the world of technology in order to use new
technologies effectively and efficiently, it is also important to be aware of
any negative effects of these technologies so that these effects could be
avoided. Despite these disadvantageous
issues, computer technology helps to develop the world around us constantly.
The future would lead to a large number of a variety of different new
technologies that aim to make our lives more convenient and also help us in our
academic and professional work.
