The Power of it survival Guide for the cio
Evolution of the IT Industry
Download 1.93 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- About this book
- Online Resources
- IT Business Analysts
- IT News sites
Evolution of the IT IndustryThe IT industry is an extremely varied sector of the economy, including thousands of small, medium-sized and big companies serving many different markets. One way of looking at it is to distinguish three segments, centered on hardware, software, and services. Until the 1980s, these three segments were structured vertically. Customers selected an IT solution from a few vendors, such as IBM, DEC, or Wang. These delivered complete solutions, including hardware, software and the adjoining services. Because of the proprietary nature of these solutions, customers were tied to their suppliers and there were few opportunities left for other vendors to offer complementary products or services. Two events led to a fundamental change in this situation: low cost microprocessors and open software standards. These events transformed the IT industry; vendors became specialized in hardware, software or services. In every segment, many competing or complementary products exist, all complying with a limited number of standards. The IT industry is currently one of the most dynamic in the global economy. As a sector, it not only creates millions of high-level jobs but it also helps other organizations to be more efficient and effective and it stimulates innovation. The importance of IT is not so much the growth of its share of the total economy but in the changes that are introduced in the organizations that use and assimilate it. Recent events seem to be showing that a new evolution is going on. A tremendous shakeout is now taking place in which smaller vendors are taken over by the big players who are now completing their portfolio with complementary products and services. It looks as if the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction and we can expect new – even more severe – vendor lock-ins. To be watched very carefully by the decision makers! About this bookIT is not just about computers; it connects at least eight different domains stacked upon each other as building blocks: 
Fig. 1.1 – Domains of IT This framework will serve as the structure of this book. Every chapter will discuss one domain in more detail. Do not expect a comprehensive survey but a management summary. Only the topics contributing to this work will be put in perspective, others will be just mentioned or simply dropped. Several links to Web sites and good books will allow the reader to dig deeper in the discussed items. As this book has to be a practical help for the IT manager, there will be an important part about the best practices in the different domains of IT. A best practice is a policy, procedure, technique, tool, or method that, through experience and research, has proven to lead reliably to a good result. Best practices are a source of competitive advantage as they are often the result of significant experience and costly trial and error. In this work, these best practices will aim at four objectives: information liquidity, availability, agility, and costs.
It is worth noting that these objectives can be conflicting: for increasing the availability, important investments have to be made, which conflicts with lowering the costs. On the other hand, a close integration will probably get in the way of agility. A good balance will always be required and this balance will depend on the situation your organization is in. Finally, an extensive glossary ends the content of this book. It can be useful as a quick reference, to “debunk the junk” in the gobbledygook used by IT professionals. Online ResourcesIT management magazines and newslettersByte Magazine - http://www.byte.com CIO Magazine - http://www.cio.com CIO Worldwide - http://www.cio-worldwide.com Computer World - http://www.computerworld.com Info World - http://www.infoworld.com SearchCIO – http://www.searchcio.com ZDNet Magazine - http://www.zdnet.com IT Business AnalystsAberdeen Group – http://www.aberdeen.com Bloor Research – http://www.bloor.co.uk Boston Consulting Group – http://www.bcg.com Business Intelligence – http://www.busintel.com Butler Group – http://www.butlergroup.co.uk Cambridge Market Intelligence – http://www.cmi.co.uk Forrester Research – http://www.forrester.com Gartner Group – http://www.gartner.com Hurwitz – http://www.hurwitz.com IDC Corp – http://www.idcresearch.com Headstrong – http://www.headstrong.com Jupiter Research – http://www.jup.com Killen & Associates – http://www.killen.com KnowledgeStorm – http://www.knowledgestorm.com Meta Group – http://www.metagroup.com OVUM – http://www.ovum.com Patricia Seybold Group – http://www.psgroup.com Strategic Focus – http://www.strategicfocus.com
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc http://slashdot.org http://www.cnn.com/TECH/ http://www.techweb.com http://www.wired.com/news/technology Download 1.93 Mb. Share with your friends:
|