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| Nasstar CEO: 'I was wrong about the death of the IT department' Charles Black, CEO of Nasstar, caused a stir across the IT industry last year when he predicted the IT department would be extinct by 2013. But Black has admitted he was wrong in that assessment. "Since I made that prediction in March 2008 the economy has worsened. We're now officially in recession and the move towards cloud computing has gathered pace considerably as companies look to trim costs without denting efficiency. I now think it's entirely likely the IT department as we know it will be a thing of the past as early as 2011", said Black. "The financial crisis has forced IT departments and their employers to re-examine spending and look for new ways to cut costs and deliver more value for less investment. That has dramatically sped a move toward hosted offerings, software-as-a-service and cloud computing", said Black. "Companies are shifting the overheads of cost, infrastructure and management outside their own four walls and choosing simply to pay for what they use." However, Black believes this development should not mean talented IT staff will automatically find themselves out of work. "In a recession there are always a lot of emotive headlines about job losses and it's up to individual companies to manage their staff numbers as they see fit. "But while technology has always reduced costs and automated many manual roles, skilled IT staff are still at a premium in the UK. The problem is many are simply being deployed on IT chores when they're qualified and capable of delivering real growth and innovation." write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Computing News :: home page |