At the end of December, everyone looks to the trends for the coming year. Let’s summarize what everyone else is saying. In 2017, more IT managers will virtualize and more operations will move to the cloud. Security is going to be not just a concern, but also a full time position for larger IT operations. Around the office, you are going to have to figure out if you really want hook up your new “smart” refrigerator to the same network where you keep your inventory and accounting records.

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In October of 2016, Gartner issued a report on the direction things will take in 2017. The vision is forward looking, examining what will come and begin to develop. They break it into three broad categories, Intelligent, Digital, and Mesh. They include Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Machine Learning, Intelligent Things, Adaptive Security Architecture, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and Digital Twins. They all have implications for today’s connectivity planning.

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Old IT hardware has a habit of multiplying. One afternoon during a system upgrade, you put last year’s server in the back of a maintenance closet. Before you know it, the mop bucket ends up in the hallway because the closet has become the IT graveyard. Most businesses avoid thinking about the closet, storeroom, or warehouse full of old IT hardware. Unused servers, switches, and routers are the dust bunnies of the IT world. Everyone knows they’re there, but no one want to talk about them.

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In IT, the words End-of-Life loom large. A manufacturer can designate a product end-of-life for no other reason than they are no longer supporting it. Manufacturers describe products as EOL long before the end of their usable service. Even the Wikipedia definition clarifies; EOL indicates, “the product is in the end of its useful life (from the vendor’s point of view).” That would be the same vendor hoping to sell new hardware.

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