Will Internet access/services become a public utility?

[pctech]

I've been looking where best to go certification wise to ensure my employability in the years to come and/or perhaps to give people confidence when choosing to deal with me business wise.

With the adoption of tablets, phones as primary internet access devices along with server based services 'in the cloud' (I even got an e-mail from a company called Prometric who provide testing and validation services to Microsoft advertising 'Microsoft Cloud Services Expert' certification) it got me thinking.

Are we now at a point where Internet access and services are about to transition from being what is still a non essential novelty to being delivered just like gas, electric and water via a central company like National Grid as new homes and businesses have a small router terminating a fibre link and internally have ethernet ports.

You then buy your service from say IDNet and your traffic is sent along the network to be handed off to their equipment and then it comes back the same way?

I actually think National Grid would be best placed to build and run such a system.

And yes, I do know about Energis which was started by the electrical companies and built a fibre network along the pylons but I am talking about a completely ubiquitous system to bring down the costs, you can then buy additional services such as e-mail or domain hosting from the provider or another one as you wish.

What do you think?

[Rik]

I think you need a third-choice, Mitch, 'Will internet infrastructure become a public utility'.

In practice, though, we don't have any public utilities these days, they are all public companies, often foreign-owned. My concern would be that the same would happen to any broadband infrastructure.

[pctech]

Good point Rik but won't let me amend now.

[Rik]

It will me, let me know if you want a change of wording.

[pctech]

Please change as you see fit.

I'm off to get some breakfast, it's early for me to be up when am not working but for some reason I woke at 8 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep.

[Rik]

Breakfast... 

[Tacitus]

With tongue firmly in cheek, might I suggest that Apple certification might be useful......   

On a more general note, I think that certification related more generally to cloud services might be useful.  Since cloud services in general and SAAS are both in their relative infancy, tying yourself to one provider, even a dominant one like MS is not necessarily a good idea.

Might be best to sit back and see how it develops.  OTOH you could try writing to Trefor Davies at Timico, explaining your dilemma and ask what qualifications they are looking for.  He seems a decent bloke who has his finger on the pulse going by his blog at  http://www.trefor.net

[Glenn]

They grow on trees.

[Tacitus]

They grow on trees.

Indeed they do Glenn, which is why I thought if Mitch wrote to Tref he might get a better idea of the ones that matter.

[pctech]

Yep already looking at Apple and the CompTIA storage+ certification http://certification.comptia.org/getcertified/certifications/storage.aspx as all this data has to be stored somewhere

I might give the Apple owners here a ribbing from time to time, but it's always a friendly one.

I might well drop Tref a line or keep an eye on Timico's job boards to see what they are looking for.

[Tacitus]

Yep already looking at Apple and the CompTIA storage+ certification http://certification.comptia.org/getcertified/certifications/storage.aspx as all this data has to be stored somewhere

Looks as though it might be useful

I might give the Apple owners here a ribbing from time to time, but it's always a friendly one.

Didn't doubt it but seeing how the numbers using Macs have grown massively over the past few years, someone's got to service and repair them.  iPhone integration is something else that might be worth looking at.  BYOD seems to be growing in popularity at the moment - massive headaches for the sysadmins, but if it makes a more productive workforce, the bean counters will go for it.

I might well drop Tref a line or keep an eye on Timico's job boards to see what they are looking for.

Wouldn't hurt.  Like I say, he seems a decent enough bloke who might give you some general pointers.  The issue of qualifications might even give him some material for a blog post.....