Scared, anyone?
Judging from the other responses to this, a few of you have your heads in the sand... The 'heads of business' closely value their IT staff, so long as they can't get the same skill sets and availability cheaper. Otherwise, we're just a necessary evil.
Jason's article IS probably a bit premature. It hinges around 'The Cloud', and the 'Perfection' that are outside consultancies and external IT providers. Quite a few companies bought into these notions, driven by the promise of penny-pinching, and quickly got burned. The Cloud is a rehash of an idea that's been around for awhile, and while there are a few IT gurus out there that can seamlessly take over the IT operations for a number of different types and sizes of companies, there are WAY more that sell themselves WAY over their heads. Once the bills and complaints start rolling in, a lot of executives realize that things were much better as they were.
But this is definitely coming. 'Real corporations keep IT depts.?' Please. I can name a few large ones that have successfully transitioned, usually by just hiring the recently let go internal IT staff at a reduced salary and benefits level, to outsourcing. Instant 'expertise' they can offer that corporation, and as long as the outsource company can keep the wool over the corp.'s accounting dept.'s eyes, the more money for them. I'll be talking to a company shortly that, since I know some of their techs personally, COULD ACTUALLY DO MY JOB (albeit for more money in the long-term). 'The Cloud' IS quickly becoming a viable, and even preferred, way to do business, and in the next three to five years will probably be at the point operationally that they claim it is now.
