Software Trends
for 2014
Computer technology is a fast-moving field and none more so than its
software component. We take a look at some of the emerging trends in
software technology for the year ahead.
S
ince the inception of computers,
software has been an integral
component to their operation.
Modern day titans such as Bill
Gates and Larry Ellison have built
their fortunes on software and it’s
never far from the cutting-edge of
computing.
It’s also a particularly interesting creature in that it morphs
to accommodate the shape of
the landscape around it. By this token, it’s possible to gain
some sort of view as to where the industry is as a whole, by
examining some of the dominant software trends.
Here’s a few shaping the IT landscape in 2014:
The Mobile Space
We’ve become accustomed to the major mobile phone
producers releasing new phones and hardware with monotonous regularity, but it’s usually the hardware which gets
all the limelight whilst we tend to skim over the fact that the
software needs to keep up as well, and is often a half-step
behind in the development process. As phone hardware get
progressively faster and more complex, it often outstrips the
latest available software, causing problems and frustration
for users. As developers rush to release new updated software which is optimised to take advantage of the upgraded
hardware, the urgency to stay ahead of the competition
often leads to an unfinished product.
User frustration is experienced when software has bugs,
lags, or worst of all causes apps or even phones to crash
and restart. Early March saw Apple releasing iOS 7.1, which
fixed the ‘random reboots’ bug that iPhone 5S, iPad mini
with Retina display, and iPad Air users had been experiencing, as well as an improved user interface and overhauled
Notification Centre. Expect this development cycle to continue for all mobile software throughout 2014 and beyond.
Android vs iOS
Is there a more visible ode to software development and
progress than the constant ‘battle’ between these two
operating systems? As the battle for ever more powerful yet
user-friendly operating systems continues to rage, there’s
only likely to be one winner – the user.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
Utilising the software layer to manipulate how and where
traffic goes within a datacentre is part of the idea behind
SDN and it can be accomplished at the virtual layer (VMware and Nicira) as well as at the physical layer (Cisco
and its NX-OS platform). These powerful network control
mechanisms can take datacentre traffic control methodology to new heights, and SDN is set to become ever more
popular throughout this year and into the foreseeable future.
Evidence of this is industry big players such as VMware, recently expanding their partnership with Palo Alto Networks
to move software-defined networking (SDN) a step closer to
production.
This will be done via releasing a reference architecture that
combines the Nicira-based NSX software with the network
security’s firm new VM-1000-HV firewall, its Panorama
centralised policy management platform and a set of subscription-based threat detection and mitigation services.
Customers can buy each component individually or wait
until the complete bundle becomes available through VMware’s channel beginning later this year.
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