Wired Magazine did a Q&A with Nicholas Carr last month that some of you might find interesting.
Many of Mr. Carr’s points are valid – however I still take issue with his primary point – that IT does not matter.
I also wanted to clarify something from my previous post…
I believe that companies will always need IT staff… but the value that IT staff delivers will always come from the composite technology delivered in support of a business plan which differentiates it from it’s competitors.
When IT focuses on delivering that value (and not on owning “technology” for the sake of owning it) IT does matter and adds value at the bottom line.
Mr. Carr emphasizes the source of the technology instead of the point at which the technology is transformed from a commodity into something of value. The point at which the composite technology contributes to the competitive advantage of a company by enabling differentiating business plans.
Will we source some the the component technologies from the “cloud”, yes. Will we simply buy end to end technology supporting the business from a third party, no. Simply because there is value in differentiation and to the extent that we need specific technology in composite to deliver on that differentiation we’ll pay a premium for it.