For the network the attributes are latency, bandwidth and scalability. There is also an additional attribute which is uniqueness. This affects availability and cost. We are in a time when plug and play hardware components provide ever lower cost computation. Three directions for concern are balance, fault tolerance, and system administration.
Balance refers to how hardware attributes match the attributes of problem suites.
What do problems of interest to industry require in terms of hardware resources. What are the needs of emerging small business. What impact does information technology have on this. How is balance and its impact expected to change over the next decade. Fault tolerance increases in importance as the time and space of computation grows.