Thoughts on "Enterprise IT sees phones/Facebook and tablets - oh-my" article

Some thoughts on this article:

http://gigaom.com/cloud/enterprise-it-sees-phones-facebook-and-tablets-oh-my/

(I tried adding a comment to the article but it seems to be taking a while t appear so thought I'd make a blog post instead - read the article first for the thoughts to have a context):

If people are already able to do so much without IT systems/processes/services changing then is this an issue? The reason things are taking off is because mobile tech has finally reached a point where it can deliver a near desktop experience for web browsing (and with many apps) - so the IT systems don't actually need to change to be usable.

Also, IT systems have adopted many open standards for a long time so things like email, calendars etc all "just work" as far as users of mobile devices are concerned. Yes, there are security issues etc which they are probably stumbling into without knowing the minefield they have entered, but with the genie out of the bottle, I can't see many areas successfully closing the door now the horse has settled down in a nice villa and completely forgotten ever running away.

Next, there are now so many IT services provided "for free" in the cloud that users can effectively by pass any/all corporate IT services and still work effectively if they choose to - and because it's their own device on their own (mobile) network and often in their own time, there's very little that IT policies could do to reign this chaos in. Of course this chaos is also a creative maelstrom - sometimes time wasting, risky or even reckless but also agile, flexible, responsive.

Lastly, investment. Most IT departments are being squeezed to cost the organisation less rather than being seen as an area requiring investment. This is no surprise when senior execs see services provided for free out there and an old creaking IT system which has lost it's shine - not seeing it as needing investment to improve the overall organisational efficiency.

I also see these things in waves. Mainframes used to be single task systems, then people were liberated to be able to run their own jobs on them in batch runs. Then mainframes became seen as centrally controlled and PCs became popular as people felt they had control back. Slowly as networks took off and PCs became subservient to centrally controlled server, people lost that sense of control again. Now, people feel liberated from all central control again and are running free - eventually, the problems with this will become more apparent (data loss etc) and corporations will find a way to regain control again and eventually, something else will come along to liberate people's creative spirit again. Things look so dramatic right now as we're in the middle of a transition - this isn't the end of the world or a periminant condition, it'll settle down and balance out again eventually...or not.

Perhaps it's a reverse industrial revolution where the individual in an organisation becomes independent and the whole nature of corporations will eventually have to change to be more amorphous and fluid?

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On the NOTW closing

Opinion:
Firstly, NOTW closed not because of a twitter campaign etc but because the brand became tarnished when previous scurrilous (illegal) activities eventually came to light.

Once that happened, advertising revenue was going to vanish and print media needs that as it's life blood. The choice was to keep running at a huge lose or close.

I don't doubt that some element of parent company/owner brand management/protection influenced the decision too.

However, the real news will be how and why did the met police fail to follow up on the significant evidence they had for years until left with no choice. Once that story comes out, I'm sure some very big names and influential people will find their time pulling the strings will reach an end...leaving the corrupt influence in the hands of another set of people who may be even worse but will at least be more careful - for a while at least.

Cynical? Me?

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