The work of the future will certainly be molded by technological evolution, sector-specific tendencies and globalization, among other elements and, preferably, these occupations will not be restricted by corporative procedures nor economic problems. Having said that, a current debate, organized by MuyComputerPro magazine, indicates that you will find three facets that could most influence and shape our jobs in the next decade: virtualization, management and security.

Mobility and virtualization

According to a research conducted by IDC, the total number of mobile staff worldwide will reach an incredible 1,300 million by 2015. That's more than a 3rd of the world´s productive population, with the USA, Asia and the Pacific region taking the lead. The reasons for this amazing wide-ranging and increasing success of mobile jobs could be found in new technology trends, and even more specifically, through the virtualization of one's jobs.

Virtualization is an increasingly popular concept which includes any technology that allows a PC to access applications and data located on a remote system. In fact, a report created by Gartner claims that, by the end of 2013, close to 500,000 PCs will likely to be virtualized, and approximately 25% of all existing corporative PCs will likely to be virtualized over the next 3 years.

The advantages of virtualized jobs are noteworthy, both for the company and for its workforce. On the one hand, repairs and maintenance expenses of offices and office equipment are considerably cut down, in addition to the time needed to get a PC up and working at 100% after an IT system failure. At the same time, business data is handled far more flexibly and safely, because this data and all corporative software programs are now located on a central system controlled by the organization.

Also, as Cloud Computing is now being implemented by a rising number of firms, many providers are presently launching virtualization systems designed for the Cloud.

Security and management

Security and handling of professional devices are the most important elements of concern for companies and employees. Actually, most firms are more worried about the security and secrecy of their corporative information than about the equipment on it's own. This means that IT departments typically are not blocking professional devices anymore, in its place, they're installing business apps that allow employees to securely make use of company´s data, at any moment and location.

This innovative strategy has given rise to a new concept in IT: mobile sandboxing, also referred to as containerization of mobile devices. This expression identifies a process that creates a sandbox or container of sensitive data on a device. These containers are only accessible via valid user authentication and run independently from the security settings configured on the device itself. Containerization is directly linked to the more and more popular phenomenon called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). This latest tendency shifts ownership of the device from the company to the workforce, while corporative documents on the device is controlled and supervised by the enterprise. For this reason, a number of organizations consider containerization as a means to safely and securely embrace BYOD and effectively make use of BYOD strategies.

Aside from sandboxing or containerization, the industry offers a wide selection of data protection systems for virtualized jobs. This can include, for instance, a modern generation of processors that protect devices and virtual PCs from potential threats while putting the actual control in the hands of a company´s IT specialists.

The future is already here

The modern technological innovation developments already have permitted the creation of mobile jobs, and mobility will undoubtedly be more and more important over the following ten years. Easy access to enterprise documents, in real time, is promoting new options for working across the world, and many companies are trying to adapt in order to make use of virtual and mobile jobs.

Having said that, workers will have to face other types of changes, particular to the new decade. New software, virtual communities, social networking sites and teams that are comprised of several generations - each with its own methods of working - are a significant challenge equally for businesses and workforce.

Information sources: Gartner, MuyComputerPro and IDC