This was a great! article and the timing couldn't have been better as I was surfing the net and doing some research for my small ASP company I started last year. The last paragraph nailed it right on the head as I'm an IT professional of 22 years who plans to provide computing outsourced services to SMB's
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Web services
Thanks for the great article. The author points to a number of factors that will help move computing into the cloud and lessen the relevance of IT. I would add that the emergence of standards based web services and orchestration engines (e.g. BPEL) makes it more and more possible for non-IT employees to assemble applications that serve their own needs without having to involve IT.
Web Metrics in IT
Thanks for topic about web services,
what are you think about web metrics and balanced scorecard in IT department?
If you are interested in various metrics in business and IT department, check this web-site to learn more about Metrics and Balanced Scorecard
http://www.business-development-metrics.com
has this guy ever used a computer?
I can't believe this non-sense. How intelligent do you think the general public is? Do they manage their utlity lines? Do you see them out there on poles with hardhats? Your analogy is flawed. Try working with legions of people who can't even remember their passwords, much less service their own issues. If the IT department is dead, then I could just leave and everything will be OK, right? The office wouldn't survive a week without an in-house tech. The days up setting up servers and letting them run are far gone. Equipment from routers to switches to servers to PC's require routine maintenance and upgrading. The internet "cloud" can barely support itself now, much less adding more overhead to it...try again in 2 decades...
Apologies, but you just made his point.
You just did a very good job of making Carr's overall point. You don't see customers out there on poles with hard hats, but you also don't typically see someone with a degree in electrical engineering doing that either. Its more likely you'd see a lower-wage, moderately trained utility worker doing this.
As distributed computing and remote applications become more reliable, computing may very well become more of a utility service (mind you, this is a LONG way down the road, probably 20+ years). You can already see this trend in its pre-infancy right now with the movement towards mobile computing devices (Blackberries, PDAs, iPhones, etc.) These are largely service provider supported devices with limited processing power. The bulk of these devices' capabilities and features aren't actually handled by the device itself. Of course, this isn't directly pointing to a future controlled by Mom's Friendly Cloud Computing Corporation, but it does indicate a movement away from centralized desktop systems.
However, there will always be a need for "IT people" (even if "IT" is replaced by some snappier acronym) just as there will always be a need for electrical engineers who specialize in high voltage to work for electric utility providers. There just won't be a need for _every_ company to have them, just their computing service providers. This could foreshadow problems for a workforce that may be over saturated with highly trained IT professionals... I guess, it would be more accurate to say that IT is going to evolve into a new beast rather than to say it is going to die altogether...
Anyway, its time for me to get back to work in the server room...for now. ;)
IT won't die off, but there will be far fewer internal IT staff
First of all you won't have to worry about in-house servers. All of your data will be housed out-of-house. Same with your applications.
The need for in-house routers and switches will contract. Electrician-like techs will drop by on an as needed basis to swap black-boxes wires. Smarter and more reliant redundant networking devices will also help to push this.
Sure there will still be some software engineers and IT techs around just like there are a handful of EE's that still work on power engineering, but there will just be a handful. You will also see new requirements for state PE licensing of software engineers and IT technicians.
When you converge better and more reliable networking, distributed computing, faster and multi-core CPUs, and smarter self maintaining software and hardware it means fewer people will be needed. Even if it doesn't come together quite like how the author thinks it will there will still be a reduction in the IT force needed.
hate to bust the bubble here
Alright, to all you supports:
Have you ever used "out-of-house" supported systems or apps??? There is a reason that a lot of the systems are "in house". They may do the job, but how well? What about reliability? What about if the power goes down and because everything is "out-of-house" all of your systems go down with it??? Anyone think about the amount of work it would take to make what Carr is saying possible??? If we were to start now focusing soley on this idea, there would still be more than enough jobs for all the IT professionals in the field.
Just another fine piece of work from someone who knows how to baffle the ignorant with bs.
I agree. Analog power is a
I agree. Analog power is a totally different entity compared to sensitive digital data. Most prudent managers need to have some measure of internal control over business critical information. The "Cloud" probably won't be that reliable for at least another decade.
IT doesn't matter? Ha!
So true! The guy has an English degree! He probably has the problem-solving skills of squid, just like most people out there, who give up and panic at the first error message. And what does our information-based economy have in common with the extraction-based economy of 100 years ago? Lame!
This guy needs a new crystal ball
All the companies that were mentioned in this artcicle were tiny shops that were probably not very efficient operational wise and if they were is was only because of their small size. Once you get into an organzation w/ hundreds and thousands of employees then there will always be a need for IT support whether outsourced or in-house. Let me guess my swiches/routers/firewalls etc... all reside in the cloud right? I am sure this mysterious cloud will produce all the software necassary for customized reporting and it will produce all the custom software you need to run a large organization or government. Oh and all your data will be secure there to. I do beleive the industry will change and technology innovation will indeed effect that change but at the end of the day peaple create technology and technology constantly needs people. This guy is just trying to get negative attention and I would not take his book for free little less buy it.
Crystal ball
Anonymous just needs to look at his home model to see what goes on. Yes my DSL modem/router resides in myself, but it's pretty automatic. My firewalls resides on my computers, but AT&T just made a big jump by contracting with Norton and providing it for free on all my computers..pushed from the "cloud." Your data in the "cloud" is a lot more secure than your own hard drive because of the http:// protocol, just as electronic banking is a lot more secure than the mailbox at the end of my driveway. Things are definitely moving outward.
Tribefan
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