"IT 3.0" – This Time, it's Personal (Maybe)

IT 3.0 – This Time, it's Personal (Maybe)

With all due respect to Tim O'Reilly and the concepts behind "Web 2.0," I'm convinced there's a parallel change emerging in the cacophonous mélange typically referred to as "enterprise information technology (IT)." And in sidelong deference to Tim, I'm thinking of it as "IT 3.0."

The first versions of IT, in the Mostly Dark Ages of the early to mid-1970s, were largely about technology for technology's sake – geeks talking to geeks about geek stuff. The focus was largely on the hardware, then on the software, but often mostly operating systems, not applications. Computers for computers' sake, so to speak.

Then came "IT 2.0," and the focus shifted to applications and connections. Less about computers and networks, more about computing and networking – but still primarily focused on the technology bits.

With IT 3.0, the focus shifts again – away from applications and platforms, and towards people, tasks, and information. IT 3.0 posits and acknowledges that most business user thinking about IT goes something like this. "I don't want a particular computer or application, or even a service. Heck, I'm not even sure I know what a service is. All I want is secure, consistent access to the tools and information I need to do my job(s), anytime, anywhere, and from whatever device I choose or have at hand." In other words, people, tasks, and information.

Here's the IT 3.0-Web 2.0 connection. It turns out that the "poster child" companies for Web 2.0 – eBay, Flickr, Google, MySpace, and their ilk – couldn't do what they're doing without IT and business infrastructures based on IT 3.0 principles. Well, maybe they could, but it would be really, really hard, and really, really expensive, and they'd need even more really, really smart people than they have already to do it.

There are some interesting validation points out there in the marketplace. CA, the former Computer Associates, for example, is increasingly focusing on how to "unify and simplify" management of enterprise IT infrastructures. Such unification and simplification, CA argues, helps to focus resources less on getting and keeping things working, and more on enabling people to do work – both IT people, and the businesspeople those IT people support.

Symantec is another example. The company perhaps best known for the Norton Utilities is increasingly focusing on protection of information, infrastructures, and interactions – and two out of three of those focus points are directly related to people, tasks, and information. (Infrastructures are indirectly related as well, since it's impossible to enable people to access information and perform tasks securely and reliably without well-managed IT and business infrastructures.)

So now, IT is (finally?) becoming truly interesting, even to people not directly involved in the field. More and more businesspeople are taking greater interest in connecting the dots between IT at their enterprises and business tasks and goals. Admittedly, this is a double-edged sword, but it is also a clear sign of evolution. It ain't just geeks talking to geeks about geek stuff anymore.

Look for more signposts pointing towards "IT 3.0" in the coming weeks and months. Meanwhile, if you're an IT decision-maker, start making sure now that your enterprise's business and IT infrastructures, policies, practices, and tools are aligned to focus effectively on people, tasks, and information. And if you're a vendor, do the same with your portfolio of products and services. Maybe we can then finally concentrate on what IT does and can do, not just on what it it or is not. (That is, after all, why it's "IT," and not, for example, "T for I.")