Howdy folks! Been a while since I said anything in a blog so I figured I'd try again. Over the next few weeks I will be catching up on an entire summers worth of content. Then you should see something on a weekly basis, at least.
This is a much better blog solution. The last one had a few issues and we should be able to communicate a lot better here. To get things rolling, i'm going to reprint something I submitted to the WEB400 list over at midrange.com. if you have never been to midrange.com you are truly missing a treat. The ability to subscribe to a couple of lists where some very smart people (and a couple of crackpts like me) hang out and exchange ideas is extremely American. And our host, David Gibbs, does a great job of provisioning the forum.
This is a little lighter and it might help if you knew the context. The WEB400 listers wer kicking around the merits of fat client applications vs. browser types of technology. Specifically comparing technologies like MS Windows Word and GoogleDocs, and a whole lot more. I saw the yin-yan of centralize / decentralize argument and was inspired by some recent observations at companies in the i5 space. Enjoy!!!
"Greed is good", as Mr Gekko taught us in 1987. Centralize then decentralize... centralize then decentralize...I think we will continue this for a while...why? GREED!
System admins and developers want everything right here so that when the boss comes in and asks for "this" then they can give him "this". Accounting and financial groups want the data to themselves so they can give the boss what they think "this" is. But if the data is here, there and everywhere then getting "this" becomes difficult. So they play around a bit, buy a new package, and give the boss "that". They are pretty proud of themselves since now they can build "that" faster than they ever could have built "this". The CIO hands out bonus' and the world is great. Then the boss says I didn't ask for "that" - I wanted "this"! The system admins say you can't do "this". The boss says you told me I could have "this" not "that"! The developers blame the confusion on the lack of specs and poor documentation and insist that "this" is "that" and muse about how unreasonable the boss has been throughout the project. The boss gets frustrated and orders in a new CIO who says you can't get "this" with "that" technology. You need to get "those". Because, with "those" you can get "this" and "that". The boss is impressed with the young man and offers him twice the salary of the old CIO and promotes the old CIO to "special projects". In the interim, the new CIO recommends bridges between "that" and "those" using "these". Once "that" is replaced, we won't need "these" anymore and all you'll have left is "this" and "that" from "those". After a 7-figure cash infusion the CIO doubles the staff and estimates how long to complete the implementation of "those". He wisely identifies a couple of impressive projects from "those" and his new staff cleverly uses "this" and "that" to get there. He kills about 3 years and while "this", "that", "those" and "these are all humming along nicely, he gets an offer to do "that" somewhere else. Half the staff leaves with him and manager of Special Projects comes in to restart "this". Fortunately, the old boss got canned for allowing IT to overspend the budget and the new boss says "this" really is "that". Everyone stands around wondering why they needed to invest 7 figures when they had "this" all along.
Can anyone guess what "this" is? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first five names don't count!
Stay tuned!
Mike
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How many letters in "this"? :-) Unfortunately however you are right on with "this" and this piece. A strong CIO realizes that it's all about the data. Without the data there is no "this" or "that" and "those" won't help you get it. Own the data, know the data, protect the data's integrity. Then all of "those" can help you deliver "this" and "that". Those of use who do participate at midrange.com know what "this" is and why we have them.
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