technology

I was thinking about our recently referenced articles that predict Corporate IT is ending:

• http://www.geeklawblog.com/2010/12/end-of-corporate-it.html

• http://www.geeklawblog.com/2010/12/corptechpocalypse-is-upon-us-end-of.html

The articles were fascinating, well-written, and even-handed despite the controversial subject matter.  I recommend you read them, but the author's points can be summed up simply: SaaS, consumer technology, and the U.S. economy are drivers that will lead companies to outsource a lot of IT – and outsource it to cloud and mobile businesses.

Though I think these articles are spot-on, and I wanted to add some more speculation to this – namely that this trend will not only occur, but are actually a version of a common economic transformation that happens after Recessions/Depressions, but one that seems different because it's technological.

In Richard Florida's The Great Reset, the authored noted how other economic downturns have often resulted in changes in what geographic regions get money, people, and industry.  People and money migrate from farm to factory, from city to city, even country to country, because after a major economic catastrophe different areas prosper than previously

An interesting thing has happened in this recession – it seems the big Megaregions that were already booming are going to be the wave of the future anyway.  There's not a lot of money and capital moving around like one would expect – the Big Areas are where it was and is happening.  If anything, as people want more urbanization and less suburban housing issues and commuting, they're heading to the regions where all the activity was happening anyway.

So our Great Reset seems to be Reset without any significant changes where business and people move to newly developed areas.

I'm thinking that conclusion may be wrong.  There is a move of industry and economics and people, but it's not a physical move.  It's a move of industry online.

The CorpTechPocalypse that the above author predicts, and I believe rightly, does represent a massive move of men and resources and industry.   It represents a move towards efficiency and doing things better and revolutionary change.  It's just it's happening by business functions and services moving online as opposed to different or new locations.

So The Great Reset really has produced a massive shift in industry (or one that is happening).  It's a move online, a move of taking jobs and positions and services that were inside companies and moving them to the cloud.  It's a move where people who support these things will have to change – or move into the megaregions we're all talking about.

This also leads to a second conclusion: The move of services online is not just backed by technology.  It's backed by economic history.  If Resets mean move and change of locations to places appropriate for the forthcoming economy, then we should expect such a move in this post-recession Reset.

If you work in corporate IT, I'd start thinking over your future plans very carefully.  You may want to get on top of history before it gets on top of you.

– Steven Savage