Beware! Lest You Turn into a New Luddite.

Image from Wikipedia

First, a bit of a history lesson.

According to Wikipedia, the Luddites were "a social movement of British textile artisans in the nineteenth century who protested – often by destroying mechanized looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life."

Artisans were a special class of people. They were masters of their craft, and added great value to their creations. Their crafts were specialized, and took years of training. They were also available only to those of means, the common person could never aspire to owning such fine articles.

Then along came technology, in this case the loom, which could create a reasonable (or even good) quality product that could be utilized by the masses.  The specialized expertise of the artisans was no longer required, and people sacrificed quality over affordability and accessibility.

Do you see where I'm going here?

Read the comment section of the Computerworld article I referenced in a recent post about how some organizations are increasingly bypassing IT in implementing cloud computing solutions, and the vitriolic comments about "users not being customers", and the theme of IT needs to protect users from themselves is prevalent.

Cloud computing is coming.  Just like the technology in the Industrial Revolution.  History has redefined the term Luddite from "artisans protecting the quality and value of their trade" to "a group of people who is scared of the changes technology is bringing to the world, and begins to actively resist progress".

If you are leading an IT organization, you don't want to be in this camp.

Security, compliance, and access are all in your portfolio, but don't stand in the way of the Cloud Computing revolution.

You may think that Cloud Computing is a passing phase, but I would encourage you to learn from a previous generation of craftspeople.