Holy Cow. More Information Technology Disruptors in the Second Machine Age!
July 11, 2015
I read a very odd write up called “The Five Other Disruptors about to Define IT in the Second Machine Age.”
Whoa, Nellie. The second machine age. I thought we were in the information age. Dorky machines are going to be given an IQ injection with smart software. The era is defined by software, not machines. You know. Mobile phones are pretty much a commodity with the machine part defined by fashion and brand and, of course, software.
So a second machine age. News to me. I am living in the second machine age. Interesting. I thought we had the Industrial Revolution, then the boring seventh grade mantra of manufacturing, the nuclear age, the information age, etc. Now we are doing the software thing.
My hunch is that the author of this strange article is channeling Shoshana Zuboff’s In the Age of the Smart Machine. That’s okay, but I am not convinced that the one, two thing is working for me.
Let’s look at the disruptors which the article asserts are just as common as the wonky key fob I have for my 2011 Kia Soul. A gray Kia soul. Call me exciting.
Here are the four disruptors that, I assume, are about to remake current information technology models. Note that these four disruptors are “about to define IT.” These are like rocks balanced above Alexander the Great’s troops as they marched through the valleys in what is now Afghanistan. A 12 year old child could push the rock from its perch and crush a handful of Macedonians. Potential and scary enough to help Alexander to decide to march in a different direction. Hello, India.
These disruptors are the rocks about to plummet into my information technology department. The department, I wish to point out, works from their hovels and automobiles, dialing in when the spirit moves them.
Here we go:
- Big Data
- Cloud
- Mobile
- Social
I am not confident that these four disruptors have done much to alter my information technology life, but if one is young, I assume that these disruptors are just part of the everyday experience. I see grade school children poking their smart phones when I take my dogs for their morning constitutional.
But the points which grabbed my attention were the “five other disruptors.” I had to calm down because I assumed i had a reasonable grasp on disruptors important in my line of work. But, no. These disruptors are not my disruptors.
Let’s look at each:
The Trend to NoOps
What the heck does this mean? In my experience, experienced operations professionals are needed even as some of the smart outfits I used to work with.
Agility Becomes a First Class Citizen
I did not know that the ability to respond to issues and innovations was not essential for a successful information technology professional.
Identity without Barriers
What the heck does this mean? The innovations in security are focused on ensuring that barriers exist and are not improperly gone through. The methods have little to do with an individual’s preferences. The notion of federation is an interesting one. In some cases, federation is one of the unresolved challenges in information technology. Mixing up security, “passwords,” and disparate content from heterogeneous systems is a very untidy serving of fruit salad.
Thinking about information technology after reading Rush’s book of farmer flummoxing poetry. Is this required reading for a mid tier consultant? I wonder if Dave Schubmehl has read it? I wonder if some Gartner or Forrester consultants have dipped into its meaty pages. (No pun intended.)
IT Goes Bi Modal?
What the heck does this mean again? Referencing Gartner is a sure fire way to raise grave concerns about the validity of the assertion. But bi-modal. Two modes. Like zero and one. Organizations have to figure out how to use available technology to meet that organization’s specific requirements. The problem of legacy and next generation systems defines the information landscape. Information technology has to cope with a fuzzy technology environment. Bi modal? Baloney.
The Second Machine Age
Okay, I think I understand the idea of a machine age. The problem is that we are in a software and information datasphere. The machine thing is important, but it is software that allows legacy systems to coexist with more with it approaches. This silly number of ages makes zero sense and is essentially a subjective, fictional, metaphorical view of the present information technology environment.
Maybe that’s why Gartner hires poets and high profile publications employ folks who might find an hour discussing the metaphorical implications of “bare ruined choirs.”
None of these five disruptions makes much sense to me.
My hunch is that you, gentle reader, may be flummoxed as well.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2015
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