CeBIT 2010: Model IT after the iPhone

Businesses need to look to the iPhone for their next IT model, according to one industry expert, as the consumerisation of IT continues.

Speaking at CeBIT today in Hannover, Capgemini's chief technology officer Andy Mulholland told attendees that business users will demand do-it-yourself cloud services from IT.

"People have chosen to use the iPhone because they can choose exactly what services they want... they don't have to call IT for it," he said.

"Multiply that model up and what you have is a cloud services model for IT to use as an open model," he explained. "You see the potential, you see what's happening."

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Social networking

Mullholland also told businesses to make use of another technology well-loved by consumers: social networking.

"Social networks are the new tool to get everybody back together," he said, but warned that the "management community isn't part of this."

Rather nostalgically, he asked attendees if they remembered when email first hit businesses, how some managers printed messages rather than read them on screen.

Like email, and PCs when they first leapt into the business world, the technology is being driven by savvy users working on the front line not necessarily coming in top down from management.

"Today we're watching the same phenomena... businesses are changing around the edge and managers who don't do social networking aren't [keeping up]," he said.