The Changing Face Of Information Technology

To say that change is coming to the enterprise is like saying the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.

But even while change has been a constant factor in data infrastructure since the first mainframe was deployed, it seems that both the pace and the scope of changes taking place today are knocking on the very pillars of IT, threatening to remake the entire industry into something completely unrecognizable in a few short years.

Indeed, the very notion of what is and is not the enterprise seems very much in the air as virtualization and the cloud spread responsibility for data infrastructure across multiple independent organizations that could conceivably reside on opposite sides of the globe. At the same time, new technologies like SSDs and high-speed, unified networking are starting to tear down much of what is considered to be "the data center" to the point that the very role of IT as an enterprise asset is starting to come into question.

The drivers behind all of this are the increasingly sophisticated demands of the user. Where workers were once content to engage in data environments for simple communications and number crunching, the norm these days is a highly collaborative, always-on experience in which the entire relationship between individual and work environment is defined by the level of access to IT resources. And that means if you don`t have the means to accommodate user needs, they will simply go out on their own and get them.

"Cloud computing and social networking are two key drivers of change in the current IT landscape," said Michael Keen, vice president of presales at management and automation system developer ASG Software. "These drivers are forcing the hands of many IT executives to come up with a strategy, and a way to execute against that strategy, to drive agility and flexibility in their infrastructure so they can provide a quick and efficient way for IT to adapt to these changes. Traditional enterprise IT models have always emphasized an opposite view - that change is not the norm, but the exception. However, in today`s current IT landscape, rapid change is the norm and IT must evolve their enterprise models, people, processes and technology to acknowledge this shift."

The challenge, however, is to adapt to these changing environments quickly enough to keep pace with user expectations, but not too quickly so that the new systems and architectures are left obsolete before their full value can be realized.

"Being able to adapt to change is critical to any organization`s success, so it is imperative that (IT) develop a standards-based framework that leverages best-of-breed technologies and components to create a new level of integration between business processes and IT," Keen said. "In addition, IT needs to build their new organization with four fundamental ideals in mind; simplification, standardization, modularity and integration. By applying these ideals they can lay the groundwork for an infrastructure that will meet the demands of their customers, business partners, external customers, etc."