The New Data Center desktop

Have you given much thought to what today's increasingly sophisticated users will be like in a decade? Because you are building the infrastructure that will support these future workers, don't wait too long before you do.

One of the main differences that will define the next-generation workforce from today's is the level of individualization people will bring to their work. Pundits predict that in 10 years every employee will completely personalize and customize the IT environment for the task at hand. Likewise, the workplace will respond by completely customizing the workers and teams it hires for the project at hand.

Evidence of such individualization is already visible. Try as you might to provide a full range of technology choices, many of today's workers always want more, the ability to customize the desktop has become part of their social DNA. An employee in accounting downloads a media player because background music helps him better concentrate on his number crunching. A project manager asks team members to use an open source groupware tool he favors for collaboration and calendaring purposes. A workgroup begins using a free instant-messaging client, regardless of any policy IT may have set on its use.

In a recent poll, Gartner asked 170 people the extent to which they customize their personal workspaces by adding their own tools, devices, software, music, information resources and the like. Nearly one-half (48%) of respondents reported customizing their work environments aggressively or moderately. Only 10% said they did not customize at all.

Considering consumer behavior, social connectivity and the plethora of personal devices workers have at their disposal, each year such personalization of the desktop will increase and, by 2015, you can safely assume that the average worker will customize 90% of his tools and information resources, says Diane Morello, a research vice president at Gartner. This personalization will go hand in hand with the customization of an individual's work culture: A worker will have choices galore for job mobility, the ability to affiliate with global communities, the chance to become a "free agent" or to participate in globally distributed work teams, Gartner reports.