IT Suppliers & IT Consultancies

Again, Wired is inspiring me to blog - see their article "5 industry collusions we'd like to throw down a black hole".

There are certainly industry collisions in the IT industry. Unfortunately the end result is the same:

Deliver a poor user IT experience unless the customer pays extra for:

1. IT Consultancies' / resellers (think Accenture, Microsoft or HP) to "fit products" together (think Windows, PC's, Linux, web sites).
2. Vendor data lock in (think Apple or even Google).

To provide a healthy Ecosystem of IT services at a low cost we need to choose hardware which works with any software without the need for expensive consultants.

Wired inspired me to "draw" my solution of how small providers could start to build these working services - the Total Automation Appliance.

Solution Store not Hobby Kit

IT services could be complete, and there shouldn't be so many of them.

Why exactly does every student, accountancy firm, doctors surgery etc. all need to source software and hardware in kit form and then get it all cobbled together by paying for IT services that fail? It's hard to believe it's 2009 and not the 1980's!

Economies of scale are required to provide affordable and fully trusted computer configurations that can be cheaply maintained. Currently only some of the largest corporations (and then only the ones with excellent IT capabilities) manage to cost effectively provide an excellent end user experience.

The real cost of reliability often comes at the expense of digital freedoms as only the single vendor solutions can provide the "app store" style maintenance experience that "just works".

If we want to prevent a real 1984 experience (regarding digital freedoms) then shouldn't a way to share reliable and tested computer configurations become the sort after holy Grail of IT?

Shared IT configurations that can be deployed automatically could provide the economies of scale (for lowering maintenance costs) needed for reliable IT that is truly provided in the consumer's best interest.