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The annual computer fair CeBIT 2010 was a huge and impressive event. Yes, there were fewer exhibitors this year and fewer visitors. It is no longer the only such event. Now there is competition with the recent Barcelona Mobile World Congress and the Las Vegas CES, nevertheless, the CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, is still the largest and most comprehensive show of the global ICT industry.

Not one single device, gadget or invention was the outstanding feature of this year’s fare, rather it was the ubiquitous penetration and interconnectedness of ICTs into all aspects of public, business and private lives. Always on, always connected, anytime and anywhere. Mobility, cloud computing, desktop virtualisation, ICT security and green ICT were the catchwords “twittering” around everywhere on the exhibition ground. ICT is no longer hardware and software, ICT is everywhere, it is going to become a commodity, something like water or electricity. There is no sector in the economy left today, where ICT does not play a major role as facilitator for business models, be that agriculture, construction, printing, commerce, health care or services. ICT is also on its way to play a major role in building management and more and more in the organisation of private households.

Cloud computing is certainly going to change the ICT world again profoundly, it means lesser desktop power and fewer applications, services, software, memory, etc, all that will be virtualised and available on demand, on pay per use basis from the “clouds”, which are actually, huge server farms and data centers run by Amazon, HP, Microsoft and others. Cloud computing requires high-speed broadband everywhere and there are still limits to its full functioning. Cloud computing offers new possibilities to re-organise work and work more mobile. However, it is also likely to change existing business models, as software, applications, desktop power, are no longer needed at an office, it will all be available with mobile technology everywhere, when and as it is needed. This will certainly have an impact on the way work is organised today. We will see the emergence of virtual office services 24/7 all year round.

German company Software AG is offering virtual company networks, kind of enterprise Facebook platforms, connecting people in the clouds, not through a traditional company based local area network any more. Those clouds will be operated by Amazon Web Services and the software provided by Software AG.

Working in ICT was not a key subject at this event; there was the magazine ComputerWoche, with a permanent stand and a whole range of panel debates around careers in ICT. There was a stand of the German trade union IG Metall, there was the federal employment service and some kind of job fares, yet those were small as compared to for example the huge, attractively designed IBM or SAP exhibitions and did not attract the masses, in particular not the young crowds, which flogged together at Intel’s “Extreme Masters Season 4 World Championship” (e-gaming championship) and at CeBIT Sound, the platform for the music and entertainment industries.

Green ICT of green by ICT was the other prominent feature of CeBIT 2010. The industry is keen to portray itself as the saviour of the environment. Through ICT applications, such as smart metering, smart grids, intelligent traffic solutions, telework, etc. enormous energy savings become feasible and projection of carbon dioxide reductions are incredible. Green ICT is still a topic more for the ICT industry and not yet for the user industries, though they are certainly interested in the saving energy costs.

CeBIT 2010 was also the place where the first European e-skills week was launched. This initiative mainly driven by large ICT companies, Digital Europe and the EU Commission, has as its goal to make work in ICT more attractive for young people. Surveys of the industry related IDC show that the numbers of young people taking up computer science, engineering, physics and mathematics at universities decline. Industry is concerned that against shrinking numbers of graduates and the demographic change, skill shortages will hamper the further development of ICT. However, the e-skills week as an institution, will certainly have to do more to become a real multistakeholder project.