Pervasive Computing and Its Impact on Next Generation Military Systems

The former CEO of IBM, Louis Gerstner, once defined Pervasive Computing PvC as a billion people interacting with a million e-businesses with a trillion intelligent devices interconnected. This is the vision of pervasive computing a web of interconnected and interoperable devices, information, services and people. Enabled by the advent of broadband wireless and wired networks, the increased power and commodification of information technology IT components, and the emergence of a new class of software called middleware, technology companies around the world are spending trillions of dollars a year to make this vision of PvC a reality. This paper examines PvC, or, as it is sometime called ubiquitous computing, within the context of the greater IT-based convergence phenomenon. It also reveals how the technologies and solutions supporting this new compute paradigm will soon impact our next generation military systems.