Virtualization is the hottest new technotrend, with everything from commerce and supply chain management to storage and processing power migrating into the cloud and into virtual realities.

Daniel Burrus: We’ve been virtualizing and using advance simulations to do a lot. How can Boeing design their new gigantic jet and do it with teams all over the world? They simulate the whole thing ahead of time, just like Toyota. They’ve got simulated golf clubs, put them in the simulated trunk to make sure they fit. They have simulated accidents with simulated humans that have a pulse and temperature so they can even do a simulated autopsy to find out what happened if there’s a simulated death.

Using advance simulations and virtualization we’ve been able to not just virtualize desktops, meaning that you can have your desktop on anybody else’s machine, we’ve been able to not just virtualize servers, but we also are starting to virtualize processing power by putting it into the Cloud as we put storage into the Cloud. And we’re coming close to right now virtualizing your IT department, where the IT department is becoming a service. Rather than focusing on maintenance they can focus on innovation and strategic direction.

Remember, we e-enabled the enterprise in the last 15 years--e-call center and help desk, e-customer service, e-knowledge management systems. Well now, think of it as terms of v—we’re v-enabling all of these processes so that we can have a virtual supply chain managed by the Chief Financial Officer off of his cell phone, which is now part of a supercomputing system. These are game-changing technologies and virtualization is bringing them to us.