iN2015

Introduction
This report focus point is on the impact and future of IT in Singapore. With the fast pace, speedy advancement of technology, especially in the IT aspect will grow even faster. As Singapore has place a significant high priority for IT, willing to invest and integrate IT into many areas such as Education, commerce and defense etc. Future of IT in Singapore has been organized into a Masterplan, named iN2015 which look ahead of 10 years development of IT infrastructure and this plan will be revise annually due to the changes in technology. Regarding the future of IT, wireless technology will be one important key function to be improved to provide convenience and internet connectivity even on the move.
Challenge for professionals to carry out this Masterplan to reality. Singapore has the advantage of local available IT talents to support and the ability to achieve availability of affordable and fast broadband. Eventually would benefit various industries and economic sectors in Singapore. Beneficiate such as games developers and animation studios will be able to transfer huge multimedia documents within Singapore or to foreign countries. Strong network infrastructure and data centers will attract more foreign investors to expand their business in Singapore.
Security issues, cyber threats will also be arising due to economic growth. Better implementation of security is required to protect e-commerce, valuable digital data.







Digital home
“Digital home” house integrated with digital lock such as biometric fingerprint devices. Better security and easy access to theirs home. No more worries of misplacing home keys. For added features, the digital lock has function like automatic lock-down of the door after a few unsuccessful tries, built-in alarms that sound when door is not close properly. Install internet camera, allow live remote monitoring of the housing while owner is at work.

Society
Singaporeans prefer to work on computer with internet access. Even online shopping had become popular. Consider very convenient and just view and purchase products by a few mouse clicks. Online job seeking is also efficient, a lot of company willing to pay a low price to post hiring articles on the web site as compare to newspaper. And the documents like resumes can be sent and communication between employer and employee via email. These online job seeking website also provide service to email employee of any latest available jobs which matches their qualification. Payment of taxes, water and electricity bills can be process online through secure e-payment service. Singaporeans depend heavily on internet access.

PDA phone
PDA phones are set to get even smaller and trendier. Beside the practical usage as a planner and a phone, the new model does provide huge storage space for video or mp3 media. PDA phone provide convenience to allow user to check email, watch full-length of movies, read PDF documents instantly. These great features make the user more work efficient and not bounded inside the office.



Voice over internet protocol
With the roll out of (VOIP) voice over internet protocol, user can make overseas call with no trade off with the smooth and voice quality. There are available single portable phone-like device which doesn’t require a computer, all it need is to be connected to wireless network to make phone call anyway in the world. This will force big telecommunication company to rethink how they can handle competition from cheaper internet calls.

Wireless broadband
For those people who required to check email or make internet calls on the go, islandwide wireless network will soon be introduce to facilitate them. Offering speeds of at least 512kps which is faster than the current 3G’s technology which cap at 384kps. This speed is sufficient even for online video streaming application. Current 3G’s subscribers are more likely to switch over to this new islandwide wireless network as the price for 3G’s connectivity is rather high. Because the government is partly funding the islandwide wireless broadband service and its wants the local internet service providers to offer this service at a reasonable low cost. The government believe that eventually people will get used to be connected while they on the go. With new islandwide wireless network, existing 3G’s or wired broadband service providers would have to review their prices to fight against new entrant.

Business & E-commerce
More (SME) small medium enterprise IT-related companies will be establishing. Because increase in demand of IT-services such as software development, advertising, solution. A lot of innovative business can be created with the assistant of IT. Advertising on website is as efficient as other media like radio, magazine etc. Exists a lot of data management and finance software can be easily purchase by company, scrape away old tedious method of keeping records or generating company statistical reports. And many IT Firm can provide customized software which is more cost-efficient and satisfy wide range of customers. Nowadays, almost every company owns website which hold their organization information, contacts and business. End-user can easily access this information through the internet. Phone calling and searching over the yellow pages for information can be avoided. Another reason for the growth of IT Company in Singapore, software infrastructure required constant maintenance and upgrading. More IT-related jobs opportunities will be created.
For the wired network in school, offices and homes, current copper cables will be replace by fibre optics cables to achieve the surfing speed of 1Gbps. This new structure will attract more content-based firm to setup in Singapore.

Professionals within IT field
Although there are a lot of IT-related jobs, the job requirement is rather strict which request for a wide range of IT-skill including security certification and all those up-to-date knowledge of technology. In order to grab these jobs, one must get some addition IT-certifications to stand out from the rest. Even for the current IT-specialists and analysts, they must go for courses and talk about hacking/ethic/security issue. Since organization has adopted IT-plan, indirectly will create security threats from external and internal threats are more deadly. As important information is store in the database, protecting scheme must implement to prevent any leakage of this valuable data. Security investment can incurs much expenses will trade off with the advantages of IT. The current management skill is insufficient for managers and directors. Now company will look out for talent who is knowledgeable in IT-security and good business management skill. Company need managers to protect their assets, deploy IT-security and minimizes risks.

Cyber security
Faster speed for wired and wireless network indirect increase or invite more security issues. More users will subscribe to internet service and get connected even more frequently. Thus if there exist a widespread of virus, high percentage of internet users will be affected. Privacy issue will arise due to mass sharing of huge video or audio files over peer-to-peer application. As faster connectivity speed enable more illegal server to provide free mp3 download or movies. More accessibility to the internet also means open up more chances for hacker intrusion. Organization must implement secure network defense against any disastrous event. Home internet user should protect themselves with firewall and anti-virus program. With more mobility solutions, Anti-virus clients might become a must for all smart phones like the PDA phone, palm devices.




















Summary
The key of the impact and future of IT in Singapore is internet networking. With cheaper, faster internet access not only benefit end-user, also will attract more foreign media and content firm to setup in Singapore. Faster broadband will boost all kind of IT industries. With internet connectivity, E-business can achieve global market easier. Another aspect is the infrastructure in Singapore is reliable and robust, build up confidence for new IT firms to be established. Some industries will suffer in term of these new faster broadband. Telecommunication will face the competitive factor of new substitute, VOIP. Third generation service (3G) will be replace by new wireless broadband which able to achieve equivalent area coverage. Wireless broadband service will soon be launch, provide island-wide internet access, make phone calls via IP telephony, banking transaction which is practically anywhere and no worries about finding wireless hotspot.
Since fast internet service is provide at an affordable price, many existing company would want to restructure their business to make use of internet as a medium to reach their customers. Nowadays, computer users are able to accept online transaction of payment, getting digital form of information through the internet. They enjoy the convenience and benefits of internet. Therefore they do welcome more services such as billing system, purchasing of house can be process through the internet. For current employees to secure their job position, must attend IT-skill course to be able to handle the coming up new job scope.
Although eventually will increase the economic in Singapore, serious issue regarding cyber security will also be arise respectively. Therefore security measures and management must be part of the IT Masterplan, iN2015.




References

Digital Life, 24/01/2006, The Straits Times
Digital Life, 7/03/2006, The Straits Times
Digital Life, 14/03/2006, The Straits Times