January 03, 2011, 10:07 AM — The next generation of personal computing is here, and it looks a lot like the holiday shopping list of a tech-obsessed teenager.
Also read: Virtual, mobile, social endeavors drive IT in 2011
Android phones to check e-mail. Apple iPads to give presentations and share documents, and Google Docs to store files in the cloud.
But the consumerization of IT isn't the only trend complicating the personal computing picture for IT management. There is the whole Windows 7 migration issue, questions about desktop and application virtualization technologies, bring-your-own-PC scenarios, and the big hairy issue of how to make a user's desktop persona accessible from a variety of business and consumer devices.
Cloud-based services like Google Apps and hosted versions of Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint also are on the table for companies that want to expand employee access options.
After all, for many workers the desktop of the future will no longer be a physical device that houses all their critical productivity tools, all their data, all their contacts, all their secure network connections to core corporate resources. The "desktop", if we may even still call it that, will be available from any device, anywhere, anytime, allowing access to both personal and work applications without running afoul of IT security and compliance policies.
