Emerging_Technologies

Emerging technologies Abstract An emerging technology is the most innovative technology which is at the experimentation level or at the basic implementation level in the current competitive world. The advantage of the emerging technology is that this technology will be able to reduce the flaws or disadvantages of the traditional technologies. The emerging technologies are invented during the experiments and thus focused on the further developments with the introduction of these technologies to the general public. Even though there has been a significant progress in the development of the technologies, it is evident that the development itself is a very costlier process. Thus the wide use of the technologies is not yet initiated due to the lack of financial resources. Some of the important emerging technologies are WiMAX which is used for the network sharing solutions, robotics in critical surgeries and nanotechnology which is used in the manufacturing industry. The technologies which are being discussed in this document are cloud computing and robotics in surgery. Cloud computing will be helpful for the management of the network resources as a single pool and thus sharing the network resources by a group of people in the network. Robotics will be helpful in the surgical field. 1. Introduction The emerging technologies are the advanced technologies which are developed for the cause of better advantage when compared to that of the existing technologies. These technologies are used for the business as well as the social cause. The main advantages of the emerging technologies are the cost effectiveness in terms of manufacturing as well as marketing, lower resources for the processing of the processes, improving the efficiency of the processes and faster responses than the existing technologies. There has been a wide usage of the technologies in different sectors of manufacturing, aero space, health care services, automobile and electricity and are useful in the critical clinical surgeries, critical manufacturing techniques where the penetration into the high temperatures is needed, production of the electricity at low prices and wide local area networks which can be accessible for hundreds of kilometres. For this document, I have been discussing cloud computing and robotics. 2. Emerging Technology 1 : Cloud Computing Technology Cloud computing refers to a virtual environment of the network through which the packets of data will be sent and received and will be shared among the network and can be accessible by the users. A cloud is a virtual resource which holds the shared information and any user can access the information through the cloud. The servers and the databases are not stored in the cloud computing where as they will be maintained at the service providers and they can be accessible by the users by means of software called web services which will be used by the cloud computing. The cloud computing is just an interface which helps to connect both the internet users and the information provided by the service providers. Cloud computing will connect the different physical resources like the servers, routers and switches and the software resources like the databases which host the information (data), software like the web browsers, online operating systems. These physical resources are located at different locations and will be hosting different software. For example, a server will be setup at a location and the other will be setup in other location and these two servers will be connected through the cloud computing and the data in both the servers will be shared by the users and thus the data will be transferred through the web browsers or web services program. Taking another example, a company will be hosting the databases with the required information, other company will be hosting the web servers and the other company will be providing the cloud computing and these three companies will form a cloud computing grid technology thus sharing the information to the users. Whenever a user needs to access a resource from a cloud network will have to get an access from the cloud with proper login credentials and can access the information. There won’t be any need for the login to the internet connection, then authorization and then finally to the cloud computing routers. Only the authorization of the login credentials will give access to the cloud computing network directly. Also, the clouds will be shared among different users such that the overcrowding of the users won’t distract the existing connections. Whenever an user tries to access an information, only that particular cloud will be accessed by the user and thus the server load will be decreased and the through put will be increased. 2.1 The impact of Cloud computing technology on business The cloud computing technology will help to provide network based solutions to many businesses. According to this, the technology will be shared by the users and the businesses with fewer costs when compared to that of the traditional technologies. If a company is providing a cloud computing technology, the other companies can share the same technology and can start their own businesses with minimal costs and in fact there won’t be any set up costs involved in establishing the network. The first company will provide access to the other companies and these companies can share the login information with the users which prompt them to use the cloud computing network. If any service providers want to provide information to the users, it is not necessary to maintain huge servers instead the service provider can get cloud computing access from the cloud computing network and thus can provide the service to the users directly. This is a most cost effective business where there is no need to maintain large servers, network devices and the wired devices. This is the advantage of the cloud computing over the wired network where the maintenance of the servers and the information is necessary. The information technology firms and the product development firms manage large number of computers for the employees. Different software and programming environments will be installed in these computers. However, when there is any need for the upgrades, the upgraded software has to be installed in every computer individually which is a very tedious process. Hence, using cloud computing, the software can be directly installed in all the computers with a single click. The users can store large chunk of data in the cloud computing and this data can be accessible by any user from anywhere around the world. Just a user login is needed in order to access the information. This is very much useful for the employees who frequently share the information for their work purpose. The employees can share the information with the clients or managers or vendors and thus the data transfer will be very fast. Google is one of the largest search engine providers in the world and the services provided by the company like online spreadsheets, search engine and notebook have been implemented in the form of cloud computing. Zoho, an online spreadsheet provider is using the facilities of Google through cloud computing and is being distributed to the users. 2.2 The impact of Cloud computing technology on society The use of cloud computing can be extended to the society. The society very much needs the use of cloud computing in order to develop the living standards. Health care systems use the cloud computing for the treatment of the critical surgeries and course of treatments. Cloud computing can be helpful for the in home treatment for the diabetic and cardiac patients. The home based health care systems need to access the critical information from the doctors and the hospital resources regarding the course of treatments. This information will be stored in the cloud computing network and thus can be accessed by the client machine which is in the patient’s house. When times of emergency, the attendant of the patient can access the cloud computing and can perform the treatment according to the information that has been extracted from the cloud computing network. Many banks like Citicorp, J P Morgan and HSBC are providing mobile solutions to their customers regarding the online payment of the bills, online transfers and credits etc. These mobile solutions are accessible by means of the cloud computing network. The user data and the transaction data will be shared through the cloud computing network in an SSL (secure sockets layer) and the data can be accessible by the customers of the banks. This is one of the most secured ways of transacting through mobile networks by the use of cloud computing. The mobile transactions also include the bill payments, online stock trading and credit and debit transactions. Cloud computing will be useful for the academic community. The universities and the colleges will share the information of the libraries and the books available in the libraries to the students through the cloud computing. The students can access the information through the cloud computing and can read the study material that is available in the online library. [2] 3. Emerging Technology 2 : Mobile WIMAX Technology Mobile WIMAX is the wireless broadband technology which will be helpful for the continuous connectivity of the wireless network through the mobile network. This is a fourth generation technology which helps the mobile devices to shift from the wireless mobile technology to the wireless broadband technology and this process is called vertical handoff. The devices which can make use of this technology are personal and business computer notebooks, mobile phones, personal electronic gadgets etc. The mobile users can login into the mobile internet through this technology and can access the information across the world with high information exchange speeds. The main use of WIMAX is that it provides mobile broadband connection across the countries using the network devices and the wired connectivity can be eliminated through the implementation of the WIMAX. WIMAX will be setup by the service providers by creating an open mobile service network and the customers can directly use the service by logging into the network with valid login credentials and can use the broadband internet services. The users will have a movable mobile internet and they can roam freely around the place without sticking on to a particular place. This mobility of the technology termed the technology as mobile WIMAX. The cost effectiveness of the technology will be even more helpful for the service providers as well as the customers to increase the business as well as the usage. The cost of the mobile WIMAX is cheaper when compared to the traditional broadband networks. But, the technology is being used only by few organizations due to the high costs involved in accessing this service as the service is in the initial stages of development. Due to the diversified advantages involved in this new technology, many business organizations are developing the infrastructure to provide the service to the customers. Some of the delimitations of the mobile WIMAX are that the WIMAX signals are prone to hacking and the information can be hacked easily. With proper preventive measures, the data hacking can be stopped. The hacking most probably occurs from the client delivery point to the WIMAX signal point. When compared to the traditional WIMAX, the data transfer rate may be slow due to the low throughput rate. The existing mobile WIMAX services are using the IEEE 802.16e. Samsung is planning to implement the IEEE 802.16m (a standard set by international telecommunications union) and thus planning to provide its customers with lower latency and higher VoIP capacity. Mr. Woonsub Kim [4] has revealed that the mobile WIMAX is one of the widely growing technologies and there has been large scope for the development of the technology around the world. Nearly 150 operators are providing mobile WIMAX services in the world and is the best technology when compared to the other technologies in fourth-generation technologies. [4] 3.1 The impact of mobile WIMAX technology on business Mobile WIMAX is one of the best fourth generation technologies in the world. It is being used by many organizations in order to provide the employees with mobile broadband services so that they will have mobility during the work. When there is a meeting with the client, the employees of the organization can attend the meeting through the mobile WIMAX connection. Even though the members of the team are away from each other, a manager can attend the meeting from the cafeteria; a team leader can attend the meeting from the house and the other team members can attend the meeting from the conference room. With the mobile WIMAX, the users can access the internet from anywhere inside the office premises and can be interacting with each team member easily. The mobile devices like the mobile phones can access the mobile WIMAX if the service is available. The customers can listen to the music, watch the video and browse for the information when the user is on a travel. The signal strength will be very strong when compared to that of the traditional GPRS network connections. The users can subscribe or unsubscribe to the service very easily and the billing will be done only if the service is used. Also there are chances that the technology will be overlapped due to the high congestion ratio and thus it is essential to improve the strength of the signals by allowing only limited number of customers per node. If there is a limited connectivity to the node, then the service will deliver the maximum throughput. Also, particular mobile devices like the notebooks, electronic gadgets can handle the signals with high frequency but the mobile phones cannot handle the WIMAX signals very easily and the data transfer rate will be slow in mobile phones. 3.2 The impact of mobile WIMAX technology on society The mobile WIMAX will be helpful in many ways for the society. The tourism departments can use the mobile WIMAX in order to provide the customers with the up to date information of the tourism places, guides and the resorts and food varieties. According to Dimitrios Buhalis, many airline carriers are providing the customers with the mobile WIMAX during the emergency situations and thus helping them to keep in contact in necessary times. During the emergency situations, the mobile WIMAX can be useful. During the times of natural calamities, the people can be saved by using the mobile WIMAX and they can be tracked and can be extended help. Due to the calamities, the cellular towers and the wires will be destroyed and the only solution in such times is the use of mobile WIMAX. The service providers can extend the signal strength and this can be helpful for the better signal tracking. During the times of wars, the soldiers will be provided with the mobile WIMAX devices such that they can track the army bases easily. The global positioning system can help the soldiers to track the army bases and thus the soldiers can easily keep track of the wounded soldiers and can be brought back in very less period of time. The doctors who are attending the patients in such calamities can take the help of the global surgeons for the treatment purpose. The patient and surgical information can be shared with the other doctors through the mobile WIMAX. In fact there are some disadvantages due to the mobile WIMAX. The anti social elements can use this service in order to communicate with their counterparts and thus create panic. Hence, the usage of the mobile WIMAX needs to be restricted by means of security measures and thus the connection needs to be provided to a customer upon strong physical background verification. If this is not the case, then there will be chances that the emerging technology will create a security threat to the society. 4. Conclusions and Recommendations The introduction of the emerging technologies to the general public will take large number of resources as well as time and is a very costliest process. Due to the high costs, the technology is being used only by few affordable users in the world. Cloud computing is a very advantageous technology which will reduce the infrastructure costs for the other businesses but due to the high costs involved in the setup of the cloud computing network, many organizations are not coming forward to improve this technology. Hence, the implementation of the emerging technologies will take time in order serve the general public. Cloud computing is effectively utilized by Google in order to store millions of billions of data and thus this data was being utilized by other organizations like Zoho, Yahoo etc. for their own customers. Cloud computing will be helpful for the surgeons to conduct the surgical operations in times of emergency. This technology can be widely used by the large organizations in order to provide the employees with a central repository through which they can share the information. Only 150 service providers are providing the mobile WIMAX services in the world which is a very less number when compared to the broadband service providers. Mobile WIMAX services can be utilized by many users around the world. The customers can use this service even when they are on a travel. During the times of natural calamities and war, this service can be utilized to identify the affected and they can be provided with good treatment and thus saving the life loss. The doctors at the fields can contact the staff in the hospitals to get instructions on how to operate and what to do during the emergency times. The emerging technologies will play a major role in the improvement of the living standards of the general public if used correctly. References [1] Peter O'Connor, 2008, “Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2008” [2] John E. Anderson, Floyd A. Wiles, Kevin P. Young, 2008, “The Impact of Cloud Computing On IS/IT Academics” [3] Doug Gray, 2006, “Mobile WiMAX: A Performance and Comparative Summary” [4] Woonsub Kim, 2010, “Samsung announces plans to advance commercialization of WiMAX2” available at http://www.physorg.com/news190388235.html [5] Toby Velte, Anthony Velte, Robert Elsenpeter, 2009, “Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach”, “Cloud computing at work” [6] Marcos D. Katz, Frank H. P. Fitzek, 2009, “WiMAX Evolution: Emerging Technologies and Applications”,”Mobile Wimax: the enabler for mobile internet revolution” [7] Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Marcia Kaufman, Fern Halper, 2009, “Cloud Computing For Dummies”