Is This IT?

Once, Information Technology was a scarce, precious resource. It had to be guarded, coddled, hidden in basements and metered out in minutes. And the sages who rationed out access were tasked with risk reduction, cost management, and care. But those days are over. We are seldom more than a foot from our smart devices, and everything, everywhere is connected always. Technology isn’t scarce—it’s so abundant we take it for granted. We landed on the moon with the computing equivalent of a Speak-and-Spell; today, we have a supercomputer in our pocket.

It’s time to take a stab at the elephant in the room: In a world where consumer technology outstrips enterprise IT, does IT matter? Or is it just an impediment to inevitable progress?

Get ready for a no-holds-barred Oxford-style debate—complete with audience voting and untold bragging rights for the winners—about the proposition, “dedicated IT departments are no longer a useful part of a business.” It’ll be a pitched battle to the finish as we decide whether enterprise IT is an outdated fossil, or a critical cornerstone of modern organizations.

Panels & Firesides