The
itSMF conference, as you would expect, was all about process, governance and
management. It discussed integrating people aspects into your processes and
products: BYOD and Cloud were approached from a strategic perspective, i.e. what is the benefit.
At the CA
Expo, understandably, it was more (if not all) about products. Various CA
partners showed how their products made it easier, faster, cheaper, ... to
design, transition and operate IT. And whilst Cloud and BYOD were once again approached,
now it was by using the products to make it easier to manage.
As
an ITIL Zealot I of course felt more comfortable at the itSMF conference, but
the juxtaposition of the different approaches made me rethink something that
has been simmering in my thoughts. Perhaps it is time to lose the 'T' in IT?
IT
or Information Technology is probably the best know description of the field
where (I guess) we work in. There
are some alternatives: ICT, IS, IMS, ... but IT is still part of the vernacular
of most, including many ‘non-IT’ people. So, where these two words are almost
thoughtlessly put together, perhaps we should start separating them: the I from
the T, the information from the technology.
Technology
is becoming more diverse and at the same time more pervasive. No longer are
there just two flavours of desktop (Apple or Microsoft), two in the network
space (Novell or Microsoft, or am I showing my age?), in databases (SQL or
Oracle) etc., but there is now a myriad. And it is no longer just the myriad of products\brands
out there but also the different type of devices: not just desktops but laptops, tablets,
smartphones even certain watches, TVs or fridges ... And on the backend there
is virtualisation, cloud (private or public), the internet, extranet ...
But,
as I was made aware during the CA Expo, it really doesn’t matter. The products
are out there that make all these brands, types and devices almost seamlessly work together.
And this is done more or less by separating functionality from application and
then the application from the infrastructure. BTW every time I see a picture separating
these, I am reminded of the good old OSI layers that I learned in university back in the 80s...
This
chain of functionality-application-infrastructure can easily be renamed to be
value-utility-warranty, in ITIL terms, or for the purpose of this blog: information-service-technology.
It
is therefore no coincidence that the most used C-title in the IT field is CIO:
Chief INFORMATION Officer, and not CTO (Chief Technology Officer). This as
information creates the value (always a nice point-of-difference between ITIL
and COBIT, one uses value as the outcome, the other information). The CIO is responsible\accountable for determining and agreeing the
information requirements of the business, and the subsequent delivery of this
information to the business (with SLA targets).
The
technology used for this is almost irrelevant, or at least can be more easily
outsourced (or cloudsourced). I
am not saying technology is not important, far from it. I marvel at what
technology can do and applaud how we create layers of technology for
management, portability and transparency.
However, from my POV, it is the
information-stream that is most important and which requires the necessary
governance, processes and management. And
so I suggest that it is time to cross the T out and dot the I (perhaps augment
with the word services to make IS).
Slightly of-topic, but if you want to know
what a difference (the removal of) a T can make, have a look at this
advertisement.
the ITIL Zealot
August
2012
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