The End of the Office Computer

What’s the Latest Development?

“Technology developments over the years have made software more hardware agnostic, such as the introduction of the web browser and Java,” said Dr. Jonathan Reichental. He predicts that as cloud computing becomes more commonplace, businesses may seek to reduce their expenditures on in-house hardware, including personal computers. Reichental points out that many employees already bring their smart phones to work and receive reimbursement from the company when costs are incurred doing business. Personal computers will go the way of the company car, he says. Employees will use their own but be paid by the company for work related uses. 

What’s the Big Idea?

Cloud computing uses out-of-house servers to organize and access data, eliminating the overhead of buying and maintaining expensive hardware. Sometimes it is advantageous to rent a house rather than tie up all your wealth in paying down a hefty mortgage. How far will the cloud computing trend carry businesses and their employees? To what degree will we communicate through far off servers? Offices may one day no longer provide personal computers just as very few still provide company cars. Will there come a day when we no longer need offices as a physical space?