Gartner's Mark MacDonald has an interesting post asking is technology going to drive IT strategy in 2011?
I think the answer is yes. Business strategy is affected by many factors including cultural, social, regulatory, political and technology trends.
The recession (economic) factor, has created a whole new way of thinking in this generation of business people. And cloud computing is a response to this changed business reality; move capex to opex, be more agile, and use elasticity to ride economic trends down and hopefully up.
I remember after the Enron and MCI scandals, the Sarbanes-Oxley bill became law, and for about 3-4 years, disrupted a large number of projects and priorities in IT. It didn't matter what your business strategy was, you had to go fix SOX compliance.
And in the last few days I've seen Blockbuster file chapter 11, and Barnes and Noble teetering - it's clear that the internet disrupted their business models.
The thing to understand is that when you have these big technologic driven changes; my or my mom's or neighbor's opinion don't count. Cloud will come into the infrastructure.
Cloud in 2011 is going to be like that; no matter what you think you want to do, cloud is something you'll have to go deal with. Unlike SOX, which didn't disrupt IT careers, cloud is a disruptor to not just technology vendors but also to the very structure of IT.
So we need to get ahead and participate in the change, or like a seagull in Louisiana, we are going to get tarred.
Enjoy the quote.
This question came up in a discussion with a CIO and their IT strategist. They raised the point after we talked about the impact of new ‘lightweight’ technologies on IT such s virtualization, cloud computing and social media. These and other technologies can have a profound impact on IT services, economics, resources and strategy,
Their idea was that it a focus on technology may be the best way IT to create value in the coming year. The shift to ‘foundational’ technologies in 2011 would give IT a stronger position to create business value in the future,
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