Consumerization is the impetus for a renewal of IT. BYOD will spur creativity, increase agility, and bring new benefits to business.

Consumerization will obliterate the hard-won efficiencies of standards and bring chaos to downsized IT operations areas. BYOD is the new technical Tower of Babel.

The consumerization of IT is a catchy term for a sneaky trend that has been going on for at least 10 years, in which consumer devices and applications are increasingly being incorporated into the workplace. While the enterprise was spending the past decade downsizing, outsourcing, and otherwise squeezing IT down to its essentials, all in the name of efficiency and cost savings, practically all of the innovation, revolutionary products, and hot technologies were being developed directly for the consumer sector.

The consumerization of IT is a catchy term for a sneaky trend that has been going on for at least 10 years, in which consumer devices and applications are increasingly being incorporated into the workplace. While the enterprise was spending the past decade downsizing, outsourcing, and otherwise squeezing IT down to its essentials, all in the name of efficiency and cost savings, practically all of the innovation, revolutionary products, and hot technologies were being developed directly for the consumer sector.

The "consumerization of IT" is a name we've given to a new phenomenon. A couple of new edge devices have come on the scene -- smartphones and tablets -- and they are quickly moving from being consumer gadgets to widespread elements in enterprise IT. Employees are bringing them to work and insisting that IT support them, and IT departments have gone from ignoring the devices to trying to regulate them to accepting that they will have to support users who bring their own devices (BYOD).

The "consumerization of IT" is a name we've given to a new phenomenon. A couple of new edge devices have come on the scene -- smartphones and tablets -- and they are quickly moving from being consumer gadgets to widespread elements in enterprise IT. Employees are bringing them to work and insisting that IT support them, and IT departments have gone from ignoring the devices to trying to regulate them to accepting that they will have to support users who bring their own devices (BYOD).

Consumerization is the trend for new technologies to first emerge in the consumer space and subsequently make their way into the enterprise world. But what exactly is it in the consumer world that is making users demand similar things from enterprise IT? In this article, I will focus on what the consumerization of IT means for enterprise business applications and explore the underlying user motivation for this trend. Before we jump into that, though, I'll provide a little background on what's driving this change.

James Cooper and Charles Bess reinforce a theme raised by all the authors in this issue in their article "BYOD Is Not Really About Devices." Despite the growth curves, despite the sheer numbers, IT departments are missing the boat if they focus on managing devices. Instead, Cooper and Bess assert that the real focus should shift to managing information and "personas."

James Cooper and Charles Bess reinforce a theme raised by all the authors in this issue in their article "BYOD Is Not Really About Devices." Despite the growth curves, despite the sheer numbers, IT departments are missing the boat if they focus on managing devices. Instead, Cooper and Bess assert that the real focus should shift to managing information and "personas."

In this article, Chaka Chaka adds an interesting twist. Are we consumerizing IT, as we've all been saying, or are we IT-izing consumer devices? In the move to social computing, have employees really made corporate IT bend to their will, or have they been maneuvered into using their own devices as platforms for deploying enterprise IT services?

"How agile are we?" is one of the frequent questions we -- and probably most agile consultants -- get asked.

In this on-demand webinar, Bill Keyworth offers insight into the concrete takeaways of IT operational excellence. It's not enough to be effective and efficient within IT operations, an IT service organization needs to be recognized for the value of the IT services it provides.

If you recall the tale, our young heroine Goldilocks had to choose from three beds. One was too hard, one was too soft, and the third was just right. I think we can draw an important analogy with architectural governance:

Open source software (as I am sure you know) is software that can be freely copied, modified, and redistributed, either in its original or derived form, for sale or for free. There are many variations in open source licenses defining the conditions for these activities, but those are the core issues.

Do we have a common, coherent view of the distinctive mission and subject matter of the academic and professional "IT" field? Does this make it difficult to effectively communicate our role to the business and to the people who work for us?

When adopting agile, many teams focus on specific agile techniques and methods and lose track of the values that motivate agile software development. These values are described in the Agile Manifesto:

Information technology in the modern large enterprise is becoming increasingly expensive.

With the explosive growth in mobile payments, security becomes a paramount concern. Increasingly, the security focus is turning to biometrics. Biometrics facilitate the automatic authentication of a living person based on his or her unique physiological or behavioral characteristics. Common physical biometrics include fingerprints; hand or palm geometry; retina, iris, or ear shape; or facial characteristics. Behavioral characteristics include signature, voice, and gait. Of this class of biometrics, technologies for signature and voice are the most developed.

Back in October, Oracle acquired Endeca. Last week, IBM announced it is buying Vivisimo.

Back in October, Oracle acquired Endeca. Last week, IBM announced it is buying Vivisimo.

Agile is an iterative method for taking requirements and applying them in a flexible and interactive manner.

Businesses depend on products to meet customer needs and processes to deliver and support products. Product and process are at the heart of business -- yet are frequently on the periphery of business and enterprise architecture.

I am once again back at my local McDonald’s sipping a cup of coffee and eyeing the competitive landscape that continues to change before me. This particular McDonald’s sits in Central Park, Virginia, one of the largest concentrations of retail stores in the US.

There are those lucky few: the ones who strive, thrive, and succeed in spite of the chaos and confusion in the ever-changing landscape of IT.

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Most IT professionals agree that the implementation of cloud computing has reached greater acceptance in the IT industry over the past five or six years.