At the turn of another decade, the IT world is witnessing yet again another seismic shift comparative to the internet boom in the 90s. Back then the demand for technological skill is at coming into a rise. Programmers, systems developers, systems analyst and database guru lures the Information technology world who are task to modernize the software system. While the internet have grown into a universal appeal for IT people, systems integration have made a lot raised eyebrows.
Today we’ve seen the rise of systems integration taking over as IT has become less and less about technical skills. We have seen the key roles are now reserved and occupied for those who can easily adapt and best integrate readily available components – this maybe an existing legacy software, legacy applications and legacy systems. Legacy software migration have come into a point where systems developers are now doing or trying to find something that will hold and maximize available components from the legacy systems taking less time to deliver new solutions.
We can attribute to the fact that back then sharing libraries and software development kits was a common practice. Nowadays, we tend to lean on open API’s rather than be dependent in proprietary libraries. Software development have rather become more of like building blocks, with open source programs readily available via internet. This makes almost every single systems developer rely heavily in the available resources in the internet. Anyone with an internet connection and browser can tap into every thing freely so long as they can see it in the internet.
What does this trend means for the IT world significantly? Though there would still be room for IT personnel with technical experience a lot will have they’re role shift from systems implementation into systems architecture. Enterprise architecture then comes to mind – a person(s) who is not capable of hard core systems development or programming but rather someone who has the vision and can someone who execute it. IT leaders too will have to take the major role in the shift going from proposing and delivering large scale implementation and infrastructural project they would be than willing to delve in unfamiliar territory which is more commonly in outside technology being incorporated with an existing legacy system.
A lot might go sentimental and look back in the glory days when the strongest programmers and developers and/or knowledgeable technicians are kings of the IT world. But the great opportunity being presented by systems integration could represent a revitalizing effect in the industry. Days of when big companies have all the cutting edge tool are no longer the realm but rather for anybody who is capable of thinking out of the box and architecturing a new system out of the existing tools readily available at the click of a button.