IT staffs tend to love technology; it’s who they are. They want access to the latest technology to learn how it can be used. But outside IT, not so much. Other parts of the organization tend to focus on achieving financial, operational, performance and service delivery goals, not using technology just for its own sake. Career prospects for those perceived as pure technologists can be dim. It is also true that creating new business opportunities with technological enhancements and propositions can change that. Unfortunately, more often, the introduction of new technologies is delayed, which is not good for the individual in IT or for the organization as a whole, especially in today’s world.
Why? Simply put, it’s an explosion in the application of technology that
is upending traditional business/organizational operational models which drives
much of today’s success. Mobile, Big Data, IoT, open systems, etc. combine with
global competition to make the data center critical to the successful
resolution of 21st Century problems. It is increasingly evident that
the acquisition and implementation of new technology is justified on the value it delivers to the organization.
This isn’t hype. At the recent OpenPOWER
Foundation Summit[1], an international
mix of technology leaders and executives from more than 113 high tech
organizations told story after story of how fast-moving, innovative, and
responsive IT staff in their data centers were driving organizational
transformation and success. The payoff was in the solution to seemingly
intractable problems in medicine, retail, research, telecommunications, mobile,
etc. Driven by open-source software, led by Linux, and embodied in true open-source
hardware and open systems, technical IT can exert a powerful influence as the
key driver of business (enterprise) transformation.
How can you progress new technology and advance careers? One tactic is
to identify a technology with a unique business value needed by your
organization. An open systems example is POWER8 with Linux. A unique benefit is
its ability to easily manipulate and manage very large data sets. Necessary if
one is implementing applications that will generate, manipulate and analyze
large amounts of data. POWER8 with Linux is a perfect fit (see examples
in an upcoming blog[2]).
Become the person in your organization who identifies where a new
technology’s unique features can deliver greater business value. For example, an
application on Power8[3] with
CAPI (an accelerator) can quickly analyze massive amounts of data to discover insights
on an individual and use it to create messaging tailored to that specific user.
You will need to reach out and demonstrate to the business or the operational
side of the company how they benefit directly. Identify what problems are
solved, e.g. improved user experience, more timely reporting, better decision
making, etc. You may want to form cooperative partnerships with other groups to
identify more opportunities. Being identified as the one who can leverage
technology to gain a business or competitive advantage will make it easier to
justify new technology and benefit your career.
[3] For more on Power8 go to http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/REDP5098.html?Open
and download the PDF or EPUB, skip to the Architecture and Technical
Overview section. Power8 material starts on page 28. The early parts of this
book cover many configuration details about the IBM Power Systems S812L and
S822L of interest when configuring a system. CAPI (Coherent Accelerator
Processor Interface), a key hardware innovation in Power8 is described
beginning on page 35.
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