The Evolving Internet: A Look Ahead to 2025

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We’ve looked at what mobile can look like in the next decade. We then took a look at some internet trends for 2020. Now, we have a look at 2025 by Cisco and the Monitor Group’s Global Business Network. Here’s a snippet:

The four scenarios: The interplay of these uncertainties can result in a large number of plausible scenarios for the Internet’s path through 2025. The report focuses on four scenarios that portray challenging and distinctive alternative stories about how the world might unfold:

  • FLUID FRONTIERS: A world in which the Internet becomes pervasive and centrifugal. Technology continues to make connectivity and devices more and more affordable (in spite of limited investment in network build-out) while global entrepreneurship – and fierce competition – ensure that the wide range of needs and demands from across the world are met quickly and from equally diverse setups and locations.
  • INSECURE GROWTH: A world in which users – individuals and business alike – are inhibited from intensive reliance on the Internet. Relentless cyber attacks driven by wide-ranging motivations defy the preventive capabilities of governments and international bodies. Secure alternatives emerge, but they are expensive.
  • SHORT OF THE PROMISE: A frugal world in which prolonged economic stagnation in many countries takes its toll on the spread of the Internet. Technology offers no compensating breakthroughs, and protectionist policy responses to economic weakness make matters worse – both in economic terms and with regard to network technology adoption.
  • BURSTING AT THE SEAMS: A world in which the Internet becomes a victim of its own success. Demand for IP-based services is boundless, but capacity constraints and occasional bottlenecks create a gap between the expectations and reality of Internet use. Meanwhile, international technology standards don’t come to pass, in part because of a global backlash against decades of U.S. technology dominance.

Read the rest of the press release.

To read the full report visit the Monitor Group’s Global Business Network and Cisco Newsroom websites.

2025 is a long ways away. Think back to 15 years ago and the changes that have happened since then. Its safe to say that we guessed but couldn’t exactly predict what would happen now. Nevertheless, there were some lessons and prophets speaking things then that have and haven’t been heeded. What might we be entering into in 15 years that we aren’t necessarily listening to right now?