Cloud CIO: Yes, Your Job Is At Risk

[Renew Deal]

This is a long but interesting article that is worth pondering by IT and non-IT workers alike.
_____________________________________________________________________________

<snip>
Here's the thing, though. If you're an I&O operations person, cloud computing is a threat to your job, whether it's public or private. Cloud computing represents virtualization supercharged by automation, and automation always threatens jobs—especially those of lower-skilled employees. Simply put, cloud computing will displace the jobs of those who perform routine operations tasks.

This fact was described in a recent InfoWorld article by Paul Krill. The most telling quote came from Forrester analyst Ted Schadler, who said "cloud computing poses a direct threat to 'blue collar' IT, such as admins and others who simply maintain IT infrastructure."
<snip>

The necessary skill in these automated, highly productive cloud environments is not basic installation and configuration; it's designing and implementing the systems that automate the environment—in other words, designing and implementing the information factory. The data center of the near future will have a standardized environment provided by a vendor (e.g., VMware (VMW) or one of the open source distributors). The organization will need the skills to operate this highly automated, standardized environment, which are much more complex than those needed to install and configure a single server. Being an I&O employee in the future is going to require a step-change in skills, and those who cannot make the transition will face significant career turbulence.
<snip>

Failing to rethink the delivery of services—and the organization necessary to deliver them—poses a threat to the job tenure of even the most senior IT executives. We've seen this previously in other areas of corporations, such as in HR. A new breed of outsourced HR service firms sprang up and proposed that companies could save money by shifting many of their HR functions to external providers. Many HR executives insisted that only their staff could provide necessary services to employees because of organizational familiarity, on-site access, better alignment with user organizations, etc. But in the end, the economics won out. Those HR executives who continued to run things the old way were eventually replaced by new ones who recognized that their job was providing cost-competitive services.

Similarly, successful IT executives in the future will be those who recognize that their job is infrastructure management at market rates, not asset ownership. If one accepts the information factory concept, then the question for CIOs is how to operate the factory (their IT departments) as efficiently as possible. To learn more, read this interview with the CIO of News International, who has embraced this approach.
<snip>

http://www.cio.com/article/683567/Cloud_CIO_Yes_Your_Job_Is_At_Risk

[snagglepuss]

1. bookmarked to read later.