Monday, November 9, 2009

The Big Rethink

Cloud Computing creates a fundamental paradigm shift for all actors in the technology business: buyers, software companies, service providers, infrastructure providers etc.

James Urquhart wrote an interesting series of articles recently on how the technologies encapsulated as Cloud Computing "...are enabling IT professionals to rethink the packaging, delivery, and operation of software functionality in extremely disruptive--and beneficial--ways". Read it here.

However, I like his 5th article in this series the best because it looks to the future - always my favorite topic! He considers several areas which are likely to significantly change. This includes:
  1. How software is packaged...
  2. How Enterprise IT will begin to bend technical architectures to align better with the cloud...
  3. How new organizational structures will need to emerge within the IT department...
  4. How the changing landscape of software development platforms will result in new philosophies of software architecture, deployment, and operations...
  5. How the need for tactical systems administrators will be reduced...

Read the whole series if you get a chance.

I also want to add a few areas I believe will be severely impacted:
  1. How IT Services companies need to evolve to embrace the Cloud...
  2. How software companies need to turn themselves into services companies...
  3. How IT management tools should change to allow for a holistic view of IT (internal and Cloud)...
  4. How Vendor Relationship Management will become a key discipline in IT organisations...
I will discuss these areas in more detail in upcoming posts.

Kevin
ZeroTouch IT Ltd