Well, if you've slogged through this sequence of posts, my congratulations -- and my thanks.
Put together, the handful of megatrends I've tried to identify paints a very complex picture with very few simple, obvious simplistic choices.
But the picture isn't so grim -- and might be even thought of as an opportunity.
Let me explain why.
The Picture So Far
If you've kept up with the sequence, we've covered an enormous amount of ground, so to speak.
- We've talked about the IDC study, and how we're rapidly becoming an information economy (and an information society). 70% of all information will be created by individuals, 85% entrusted to organizations. The amount of information we're all generating (measured in zettabytes) is an indicator of what's going on behind the scenes -- information is becoming the single most important entity in our lives.
- And, when we consider "corporate information", IT is finding themselves drawn into a new role -- information governance. If information is going to be our most important asset, shouldn't we be managing it using the same principles as we manage money? Or, put differently, who should be the "CFO of information"?
- If all this information is so important, how will we identify and manage the new set of risks that inevitably result from the wrong information in the wrong hands?
- Who will be generating the most valuable information? The answer is "knowledge workers", and how IT's historical model has resulted in underserving this increasingly important user community.
- If IT defines itself in terms of applications, and the basic nature of applications are changing, how does this affect how IT thinks of itself?
- If virtualization changes the economics of computing, what are the consequences and outcomes for IT organizations?
- If IT becomes specialized and liquid, how should we think about "clouds"? Do we use them, build them, or both?
- What are the consequences when we inevitably demand control of our personal information?
- In a world where information has increased meaning, how will the role of metadata change?
Nobody ever accused me of not asking hard questions. Personally, I think these are some of the hardest (and most interesting!) questions we face around information and our use of it.
Nobody Has It All Figured Out
I spend a lot of time with some pretty smart IT thinkers.
If you think that the other guys have it all figured out, you're wrong. Sure, some companies have an advantage in one aspect or another, but I can safely say that no one I have ever met has fully considered strategies for all of these issues, or even a significant subset of them.
If you have, and I'm wrong in this regard, please drop me a line. I'd love to chat with you.
So, in many respects, it's a level playing field. Why? I belive that traditional IT -- as we all knew it -- is being reinvented in this decade.
To me, that means that the advantage will go to the people who figure it out first, and that's not necessarily the largest (or best funded) shops.
Have You Figured Out The EMC Angle?
If not, let me make it clear: EMC has made substantial investments in each and every one of these topic areas. Sure, so are other vendors, and -- of course -- no one has the perfect, complete solution to any of this.
But, make no mistake -- there's a clear and obvious connection between each of these trends I've described, and EMC's investment strategy over the last few years. If nothing else, we have the courage of our convictions as to how the future will play out.
Pick any one, and I could put together a few hours of material about how we see the problem, what we've done so far, and what we plan to do in the future, and so on. This is not a shallow powerpoint discussion; there's real meat on these bones.
And, not surprisingly, you'll find many of the core technologies (e.g. VMware, Smarts, Documentum, RSA, etc.) playing key roles in multiple discussions.
One way of looking at EMC's notions of "information infrastructure" is a common set of platform technologies and delivery models to tackle these challenges with a common, integrated set of capabilities.
No one will have the luxury of putting in a dozen or so different architectures to solve a dozen or so different problems -- many of which I've outlined here. We're all going to be searching for extensible technology platforms that can address multiple concerns with a single investment.
Where To Start?
Very often, it's the case that we can pile up challenges faster than people can come up with answers -- and, as a result, one can acquire a rather defeatist perspective about it all.
That's not the intent here. Life will go on pretty much as it does today if nothing gets done about any of these topics.
But, at the same time, there's that inherent duality that's associated with any set of complex issues -- is it a problem, or an opportunity? For me, it's more of the latter, and less of the former.
Personally, in the near future, I think IT is going to be really, really cool again.
I hope you feel the same way as I do.
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