back to article The perimeterless, ever-shifting enterprise: What would a real, red-blooded IT team do?

If you work in a manufacturing, plant measuring productivity is simple: you measure the number of widgets produced in a given time frame. A person in this environment must not be the one holding up the production line. Nothing more, nothing less. But what does productivity mean for less tangible "knowledge work" occupations such …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "They have their own empires to build"

    And that is the problem right there : more importance is given to the appearance of progress rather than to the security of the data.

    I wish them all luck, I really do. But I'm also willing to bet that all that empire building is going to look a lot less good for the first manager responsible for getting a hundred million or so customer details leaked because he chose a cloud solution that got hacked. Sure, he can try to deflect the blame on the cloud provider and it might even work, but his career will likely suffer, and deservedly so. Because he won't be able to hide the fact that his IT department did not think the idea was a good one.

    So go on and put your data on someone else's server. When enough of that has crashed and burned, the real solution will rise from the ashes.

    And then computing will really take off.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "They have their own empires to build"

      I suspect for better or worse, computing already has taken off?

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: "They have their own empires to build"

      "But I'm also willing to bet that all that empire building is going to look a lot less good for the first manager responsible for getting a hundred million or so customer details leaked because he chose a cloud solution that got hacked."

      Maybe the appropriate recourse for the IT dept. would be to hire a pen tester to go after the empire-builder's cloud so the data gets leaked back to IT who can then notify the manager responsible with some examples of the data.

      I suppose they could tell him that it wasn't a public leak. Eventually. When he'd completely emptied his alimentary canal.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That horse left the barn a while ago.

    If we're telling the truth here, no one gives a flying fuck about data security except those whose data gets compromised - and even that pool of interested parties gets smaller and smaller with every compromise. It's just becoming way too ordinary to cause alarm any more.

    Seriously, what are the real penalties for an org when they get pwned? Minor, temporary reputation loss perhaps, maybe some token fines, perhaps even a loss of sales (temporary again - we have really short memories) but then it's all forgotten and we get back on like it never happened. Executive liability? Zero. Just the cost of doing business.

    Companies have figured this out and it's full steam ahead. The only thing that seems to matter now is how fast and "agile" you are, and how much you've grown in the last quarter. Anything that impedes those KPIs gets shoved aside and labeled as "obstructionist" or "legacy thinking".

    I'm seeing this firsthand with a merger my company is going through right now. The acquiring company is all about fast, convenient and cheap. Security? Only if it doesn't interfere with one, two and three. There are no real consequences for this type of thinking and until that changes (and it won't), you can expect much more of the same. Sorry to be so cynical, but seeing it firsthand, seeing years of work to prevent it unravel in just a few months, makes me glad I'm about to retire from this business.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: That horse left the barn a while ago.

      "how much you've grown in the last quarter"

      Some really expensive sue-balls turning that growth negative might have an effect. At some point there's going to be one big enough to take a sizeable business down and raise insurance rates for those who haven't taken sufficient care. Insurance might be the key; if real security is cheaper than premiums security will be the answer. I wonder if all that user-owned IT will actually be covered in many cases.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: That horse left the barn a while ago.

      Companies have figured this out and it's full steam ahead. The only thing that seems to matter now is how fast and "agile" you are, and how much you've grown in the last quarter. Anything that impedes those KPIs gets shoved aside and labeled as "obstructionist" or "legacy thinking".

      This is spot on. And those of us who have an interest in our organisation succeeding, because - you know - they pay us and stuff, who are trying to apply some common sense to these agile/cloud discussions (which are now being applied to everything) suddenly find we're not meeting our objectives anymore.

      You're not cynical, AC. You're observant. And I'll wager that you and I and a bunch of others just like us will be getting begged to unpick this mess in about five years time.

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