Although rapid change has been a part of the computer industry since its inception, new developments seem to be coming faster than ever in recent years, both in the hardware and software areas. Many of these hardware changes are likely to have major impact on the distributed file systems of the future. In addition to all the improvements in the technology, changing user expectations and applications are also likely to have a major impact. In this section, we will survey some of the changes that can be expected in the foreseeable future and discuss some of the implications these changes may have for file systems. This section will raise more questions than it will answer, but it will suggest some interesting directions for future research.