Organic IT – would this work for you?

Over the past few months I’ve been on the road giving a presentation called “The Cloudy world of Disposable IT”. The presentation is all about the impact the advent of cloud computing is having on the way we build, buy and deploy software applications. These changes are happening very quickly and the ramifications on the entire IT world will be quite profound.

As an example of the way things are going I ask the listeners to consider the runaway success of the Apple AppStore. Its impact is nothing short of phenomenal. Within a year of its launch there were, according to Apple, more than 1 billion downloads and there were over 35,000 applications ready and waiting for iPhone users to access. That’s quite something. There are a few other examples I use to explain how “people power” is affecting the entire world of IT services and how these services are rapidly becoming consumer technology (CT) and Business Technology (BT) but you’ll need to come along to a presentation to learn about those.

However, one thing I’ve found myself talking about is the concept of, what I call, Organic IT. This has nothing to do with the green debate (but it probably impacts it in ways I’ve yet to consider) nor is it to do with not using any form of chemicals to rid the technology of bugs – no – this is to do with living, breathing IT that expands and shrinks as you need it. All this is made possible by cloud computing and is real. What I’m going to tell you can be done as you read this blog, and probably wouldn’t take that much longer to do either – so if you’re sitting comfortably I shall begin.

Imagine for a moment that I’m going to start a new business. Doesn’t matter what type of business, because this would work for any type, but for the sake of argument, let’s say it’s some sort of “intellectual” business such as a consultancy. The first thing I know I will need (after I’ve done all the tax stuff) is some sort of computer, a way of accessing the internet, some sort of word processing capability and probably a spreadsheet package. I’ve got lots of choices so I decide to make my first port of call the largest retailer for this stuff in the UK, PC World.

As I walk up to the door I get stopped by a mobile broadband vendor who offers me unlimited internet access for £15 per month as long as I enter into an 18 month contract. Well; I know I need access to the internet so I sign up – then he hits me with the bonus – signing up for the 18 months gets me a free laptop computer. Fantastic, I came out expecting to pay £300+ and I’ve got my PC and broadband with no capital outlay. So where next?

I carry on into the store (remember I hadn’t got in there yet) and look around for some office type applications. I look at the obvious choice from Microsoft and think that this is all I need. Until, that is, I look at the price. Small business edition £380 – I need smelling salts. I decide not to buy but go and search on the internet to see what else is available.

So I search, and I find readily available applications to use in the cloud. I can try them out for a while but after that I pay a $1 per week to use it. So I go ahead and sign up. Now I have a PC, Broadband connectivity and office applications, in fact, my entire office in the cloud and I’ve yet to spend any money. But I need more – I need some business support applications like billing and tax returns – is this where I start to spend money?

Spend money? Not me – I search and I find a marketplace where I can subscribe to a platform that will enable me to run little applications as and when I need to. So I subscribe and away I go.

I have everything I need to run my business: The PC, the connectivity, the office applications and the support applications. Not a penny spent from the money borrowed from the bank.

But where does the “Organic IT” come in to this? Well if I can do it for me I can do it for new employees. As my business expands I can take on more IT without spending capital. If I hit hard times and have to reduce numbers I can do that without having lots of expensive hardware and software lying about the place. So my exposure and risk is reduced significantly.

How will this impact the corporate IT world? Well on the face of it you might think “not at all” but think some more. In the future people will not want to own a “company PC” – they will much rather have one device for personal and company use. So corporate IT will be able to source virtual platforms with all the connectivity, applications etc. and load them on to personal computers allowing the employee to switch use as and when.

This means that Corporate IT will not have to buy lots of hardware, nor will they have to maintain it. The real advantage though comes from the fact that all of the corporate data will be held in the organization’s data centre not on an individuals laptop – if a laptop gets lost or stolen – who cares?

There’s no doubt that the way we use and acquire IT is changing – and it’s happening very fast and it’s happening today – be ready!

A disclosure – if you visit http://www.theprocessfactory.com you can start doing this today – simples – as my favourite meerkat Aleksandr might say.