C dares to think just before the dinosaurs esting uers ? Big, big and powerful, had no opponents in a position to trouble, but then one day comes the meteorite (or whatever it was) that they would be wiped off the face of the earth.
ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in a large company is currently experiencing a similar situation: it's like a big dinosaur, a mighty beast and seemingly unbeatable, but also heavy, slow, clumsy and especially less inclined to adapt to constant change that has now become the rule.
But where are these beasts? A bit 'of history:
- 1950 Before computers, paper, pen and " ruler "
Before the advent of computers electronic course there was no ICT or something that might resemble each other. The data were stored on paper in files tend to be distributed in individual offices or departments.
1960-1980 EDP (Electronic Data Processing)
EDP, that the era of large computers (mainframes) departments. Expensive and delicate (required, air-conditioned rooms with filtered air) were ridiculous computing power when compared with the CPU of an iPod, but by then, being able to replace the work done by hundreds of employees, were considered very powerful.
are the years in which those who work in the computer room posing as a "priest of the temple," white coat over a jacket and tie is a real professional farm untouchable.
This creates the basis for what will be the future "ICT", but is yet to come the revolution of "personal"
1980-1990 PC arrives
IBM invented the PC and trouble for everyone (first of all for the same IBM), the computer becomes a personal and distributed computing becomes fact, programs like VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet), then a lotus -2-3 "maximize individual productivity," as we read in the slogans time.
The computer returns to be a personal tool, in a sense, back to paper, pen and ruler, only much more powerful.
In fact, the EDP, the temple and its priests, it loses importance to almost disappear.
1990-2000 Networks, Client / Server, ERP Triumph
The personal computer is productive but the company you are working in groups, or better network (Local).
The mainframe gives way to the unix server, or database relationships begin to take hold.
Start the reaffirmation of ICT (which is now known as IT) that manages the server (and data) in the company regains weight.
But it is only with the deployment of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), especially in large companies, IT is becoming what it is today: the nervous system of 'company itself, to quote Bill Gates.
2000-2010 Internet time
E ' the era of the Internet, the Web in its infancy "transactional" (never mind the Web 2.0) which forces the companies to exhibit their jobs directly on the Net and online, interfacing their systems with web front-end architectures that overload and stress inadequate to the new scenario. The competition triggers the "flux" which requires the ICT chasing rather than leading, innovation. The complexity increases and so the operating costs.
We arrived today, and this triggers a mechanism apparently physiological and virtuous: the massive reduction in costs through outsourcing.
The rationale does not make a fold: to delegate less critical activities and (theoretically) less valuable, such as application management and coding.
Unfortunately, the so-called "third party" is not always more efficient than the buyer, also squeezed by lower tariffs always react by inflating costs or lower the level of resources at the expense of quality of the software product, which results in increased complexity and increased costs and so on.
In short: you are what you pay for, and that is a little poor.
But the company now can not do without ICT. So pay, but unwilling to what is increasingly perceived as a tax and not an actual value.
But just because there is no alternative to the "dinosaur".
And here comes the meteorite. Two, in fact, that the Cloud Computing (or Software as a service , ICT as a service or whatever you want to call it) on one side and the Great Recession of 2009 other.
Recession forcing companies to severe budget cuts and Cloud Computing offers an alternative to tailored information systems (or rather, heavily customized) to a fraction of the cost, often with the highest quality of service.
We can say that at this time the meteorite is not yet firm on the planet, we are at the stage where it can be seen to come from far and not yet a lot of fear. But the impact will be powerful, the consequences devastating.
The first effects are already ossarvando: some have already switched to a business approach "Cloud" for the consolidated and distributed computing applications, such as corporate email, but also individual applications type word processor and spreadsheet that will be replaced by online tools.
Then comes the turn of the systems themselves, beginning with mission critical systems "such as HR, Business Intelligence , procurement . Well-known companies like IBM and SAP are already proposing solutions on demand.
ICT business will not disappear, but will remain with an advisory role, or generic "government" solutions, while the real decision-making power will be back in the hands of the users of the systems that will select in the cloud "service with the features most appropriate for their business.
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