Return to the Post data scientist era

When I started in the world of computing in the early eighties it was in the hands of the data scientists.  i.e People that had degrees and ran the mainframes typical of the times.  When Personal computing had appeared it had been natural for them to manage this.

Their approach was the same as the approach they had used previously. To control anyone using computers.  To be fair in those days PCs were very expensive and much more fragile than current PCs.  People were actually afraid of them, concerned that one wrong press of a key would bring the death of the computer and their career in one stroke.  This seems strange to people today, however it allowed the computer centres to remain in control.

Into that arena was injected people like myself,   early "digital natives".  Yes I know there is controversy over this term however I maintain it to be better than millennials or any other generation based term.  Digital natives implies people that are comfortable in the digital domain, and though many more sprouted in the late 90s and onward, some of us were already there by then.  We entered this arena along with Gen and Windows and took to it.  We used its flexibility and our wits to make the computers do what the business needed.  We did this while the computing departments insisted we used text based interfaces and software until they were ready for graphical interfaces.  Eventually we could do almost everything we wanted without the computer centres and they became relegated dis-empowered.

Fast forward to the 2000s and we started to deploy windows in a standardised way, largely because it was somewhat unreliable at that point.  Patching then was only done rarely yet the increasing threat landscape forced something better.  We deployed standard PCs with packaged software in an application repository and we locked them down so that people could do only what we let them.  Often this would take quite some time and the business just had to swallow this and wait.  We fell into this as the only way of working to keep costs down and unwittingly became the very computer centre that we had destroyed years before.

Late 00s saw the rise of cloud computing and of Apple and its iPad.  Apple essentially marketed a device already locked down.  They provided the application repository, turning it into a shop.  They provided the regular updates the devices needed and they made the device simple to use.  Essentially they reset computing.  In the 10s Windows 10 appeared, and it has matured rapidly.  A new major version of it is now released every 6 months, a 10 times increase in speed compared to the past.  Along with this Microsoft's Office 365 environment has matured at similar breakneck speed.  With the release of Windows 10s earlier this year and the functionality to server Win32 applications out of the App store Windows too is moving into that more strongly managed environment.

The techies and the IT departments won't like that, the innocent users however will.  No more will they have to wrestle with where to get software.  No more will they need to trust that the download site they found really did make sure the software is safe for them.  Techies know how to do this, frequently though their parents and friends do not.  If I had asked for a Tenner for every piece of advice thus given I would be a rich man.

Where am I going with this?  Well it seems to me that we are again approaching a time where the rigid control of the computer centre can be broken.  Business departments can buy computers from anywhere assured that they are safe.  They can access and pay for software that they need and can sign up to cloud services that can provide a lot of their functionality.  They need to do this because they are working in a world that is changing faster than their IT department is willing to.  Similarly the suppliers are doing the same, making changes so fast that IT departments cannot keep pace.

At this turning point we have to decide what to do.  Do we dig in our heals and fight back?  Or do we turn and face, help the business find the value.  Make sure they are picking secure and appropriate cloud services.  Negotiate the best deals on licensing and work with MS and others to develop company specific stores.  Rewrite internal applications to be deliverable out of the MS store.  Help people get the best value from the cloud services and computers they have.  I know which I think we should do, I suspect many IT departments are picking the same route as the computer scientists though.  Which route will you pick?