Moore (co-founder of Intel) predicted that the data density of a chip doubles approximately every 18 months.
This has proved to be true in practice and most experts expect it to remain true for at least the next 2 decades.
We are all aware that the brand new computer we were so proud of just a couple of years ago is quickly relegated to the barely adequate with the associated pressure to replace it with a better model at a much lower cost. It is very annoying.
Without us really noticing it a more serious qualitative effect occurs as a result of these massive changes in the quantity of power that is being put at our fingertips.
Examples
The Yamaguchi toy that was so popular a couple of years ago has more processing power than the Apollo rocket that landed on the Moon.
A modern digital watch has more processing power than all the computers in the world in 1960.
Scientists at Japans NEC report a breakthrough in the development of a quantum computer In theory a 100 qubit computer would carry out 3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 simultaneous operations. I don’t really know what that means either, but it sounds very fast. It would also mean that any current day encryption system could be broken by brute force in next to no time at all.
(Note: I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these commonly quoted examples!)
Business
Only a few years ago Email and the Internet were technological curiosities that only leading companies were treating as serious business issues. Today they are indispensable tools that wreak havoc when they go wrong even for a short time.
IT must now take its place with Product, Sales and Accounting as the fourth wheel of any business. And as a constantly evolving part of the business it needs to be a key element in the budget process with its own set of integrated goals to help meet strategic objectives.