IT ‘will be gone by 2030’, says CA CTO Otto Berkes

The business technology landscape is changing so fast that IT will have been completely eradicated in less than 15 years, CA's chief technology officer has claimed.

Speaking at CA World 2017, CTO Otto Berkes told attendees that the accelerating pace of change within the tech sector is fundamentally changing the nature of how businesses consume technology and tools.

"I believe that by 2030, what we've come to know as 'IT' today will be gone," he claimed, "or will be virtually unrecognizable."

Businesses are currently in the midst of a struggle between entrenched ideals and culture, and rapidly-evolving technology and workflows, he said. Increasing end-user engagement and the democratisation of access to tools has flipped the process of IT decision-making from a prescriptive, management-led approach to a 'bottoms-up' model driven by workers themselves.

Berkes also pointed out that businesses need to be willing to take chances on offering new products and services, saying that today's fast-moving markets necessitate a certain level of risk-taking.

"The new world won't wait for a complete set of requirements to start a long waterfall execution process. Today, you need to start with what you believe about the future, and then iterate with your customers to continuously shape and re-shape what you deliver."

However, he also warned that businesses should try and avoid getting too far ahead of themselves. While he advised attendees to build products to meet future demand, that demand can't be too far in the future.

"This is where a lot of companies get into trouble," Berkes said. "They either take a leap of faith and tackle something that nobody even needs yet, or they build something for today that becomes almost immediately obsolete, or is simply an attempt to catch up to the competition."

"Start with what you know and what you believe will happen, and iterate quickly. Making this fundamental change is hard for everybody, but we can make it easier for ourselves."