IT After 2010 - Think About Your Company, Not Technology

In my recent article on the impact of the currentfor the creation of composite enterprise applications."
financial crises (plural - not a typo) on IT, I said "In ITThe implication in the entire Gartner discussion about
in 2009/2010, It'll Be about Jobs and Budgets." Nowmashups is the need for a lot of new stuff. In my
the question is: what happens when we come outopinion, the need is to do a lot of old stuff better.
the other side?Web is already the dominant model for composition.
It'll be a whole new world on the other side: YourThe trick coming out of the recession will be to
knowledge of IT's implications on your ownartfully decompose and recompose legacy
company's business plans (and the fortunes of theapplications. Whether or not you do it on the Web is
industry in which your own company plays) is goinga technology choice that it is not that important to
to be more important than a "commodity"your business.
understanding of how IT devices or software work.Other items mentioned in the Gartner advice - with
Analysts like me have been saying something alongthe possible exception of how you interpret its
these lines for years: to make IT more important indiscussion of "user-specific" needs - are equally
your organization, make it relevant to thetechnological rather than company-centric. Think
organization. The budget reductions and otherabout your business, not technology. In the future,
effects of the coming recession will make this mantraGartner itself will become much more heavily
a reality in a way no analyst advice could ever do.industry-centric in its consulting practices.
Also, make sure you are employed in an industry youAs for the IT market, the recession will repress the
like because, going forward, industry-centric IT will beroll out of many technologies. That slowdown will give
key and IT skills will not be as easily transferableyou a chance to catch up on incoming technologies
from one industry to another as they have been.such as Representational State Transfer (REST),
Coming from this business, rather than technology,mobile user interfaces and appliances. And give you a
perspective, I disagree strongly with the recent highlychance to help your company or organization get up
publicized analysis and advice from Gartner that putsto speed on current technologies such as Services
technology first. For example, Gartner says,Oriented Architecture (SOA), master data
"By 2010, Web mashups will be the dominant modelmanagement and cloud/grid computing.