Overview

I have had a number of CIOs bemoan the fact that they are unable to control their business partners from bringing new technologies to them as the latest silver bullet solution for their specific problem. No amount of explaining seems to get through to their users that the technology is either not stable enough to be relied on, or the technology does not fit the chosen architecture, or cheap solutions are often poorly supported or bug-ridden, or the company that supports the technology is on its way out, or any number of reasons for the technology being inappropriate. Or more ominously, someone in the business introduces a new technology without telling you. The first you hear of it is when they try to connect to the network, or can t get their regular programmes to run, or can t get support from the supplier. I call these undercover technologies.

It s like trying to hold back the tide , the CIOs say, referring to the story of King Canute who tried to do just that.

Apparently King Canute believed himself to be so powerful that he was able to stop the tide from coming in. Being a man to put his money where his mouth was, he had his throne positioned at low tide, and then set about stopping the tide from advancing. Evidently Canute hadn t had a good education because he would have known that tides have very little to do with water, and everything to do with the spinning of the...