10 Technologies Every Executive Needs to Know

Though the authors had executives in mind while writing this book, I feel a more appropriate title of the book would have been 10 Technologies every educated person needs to know. This is because an educated person in his or her day-to-day life uses almost all the technologies mentioned in this book. The ten technologies mentioned in this book are: Web services, Nanotechnology, Security, Grid Computing, Linux, Wireless Technologies, XML, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), J2EE and Mocrosoft.Net . I will cover here some of the technologies which I found quite interesting. Web Services enable software applications to communicate with each other over the Internet. In other words, with the help of Web Services software applications talk to each other. They pass data and commands. According to the authors, Web Services are the next wave of Internet revolution. Web Services will allow seamless integration of any application. Web Services are still developing and it will take some time before organizations can use them fully. Nanotechnology is one of the latest tech jargons in the field of evolving technologies.

Eric Drexler invented the term nanotechnology. Nanotechnology if fully harnessed will surely make the world a different place to live. It simply means using machines and building things from 1 to a 100 nanometers. One can get an idea of the size of a nonometer from the fact that a single human hair is 50,000 to 100,000 nanometers. Billions of dollars are being spent by governments and firms to develop this technology. Nanotechnology is mostly likely to be used in medical and defense areas. Fleets of nano-robots will unclog arteries in human bodies.

Aircraft manufacturing will become far easier with the help of nanotechnology. Super-strong, lightweight materials would be available to build spacecraft. The authors write that nanotechnology will become an integral part of our lives in another 15 years. This technology will be used in every area of our day-to-day lives.

Though the new technologies described in this book will change the way business is done, but there is also a threat to all these technologies. System failure or system attacks can jeopardize our efforts to do business efficiently. Thus, the authors have devoted one chapter on how systems are attacked and how to protect them from viruses and worms. Worms and viruses have in the past attacked systems and created havoc. Who can forget the Nimda worm which manifested itself in 2001? According to experts, such attacks cannot be fully prevented and so firms must make sure that their networks are protected by an up to date security and firewall package. One interesting area in systems security where work in going on is Quantum Cryptography.

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