VPNs, Macs and the Misunderstanding of IT in 2011

I have been reading Ars Technica since it was all black and done from a dorm room in Boston.  Lately with the consumerization of IT, especially hardware (think Macs, tablets, and smartphones), Ars has been posting a number of articles (one, two, three) critizing corporate IT departments for not better supporting the consumerization trend.

Well, I am here to tell you that they have it wrong.  It is not the IT department that is resisting, it is the commercial off the shelf (COTS) software vendor for line of business applications that are the problem and our customers who are the cause.  These vendors, and to a lesser extend internal application developers, have not adopted coding practices that allow for us to break free of the Windows/LAN environment and for the most part our customers don't care, at least not until they get a new iPad for Christmas.

Yes, anyone can do email in the browser.  However, most organizations (except maybe writers for Ars Technica) depend on more then just email.  Many have line of business applications such as Financial systems, HRIS, and asset management that will not run in the browser or across take advantage of non-LAN based communications practices.  Think about of your line of business applications.  Which ones require Windows to run.  Which ones, even if not requiring Windows, run directly connected to the database.  How many are still in FoxPro or MS Access (this is not a dig against Access, which I like :-)?

I can not put application X, which requires direct/high speed access to the sql database, file based access to a Windows server and direct connectivity to the printer, on your tablet, Mac or smartphone.  Even to get it to work on your Windows laptop I must spend lots of time and money getting and maintaining a VPN solution. I have VPN as much as the user does.  It extends a foriegn system into our network.  VPNs are not a good security solution but they are better then opening ports to SQL servers and exposing our file servers on the Internet.

For the vendor, their profits lie in extending their old code base and adding business features and not in re-writing their code base to work across platforms and networks.  

Now you might be wondering why the customers are the cause.  Well, it is they, the finance department, human resources department or the operational department that ask for features from the vendors.  They demand more business functionality and not technical functionality.  And they should.  But the IT departments NEED their help to also ask for technical functionality that advances the code base (often a significant investment for the vendor) to one which supports the consumerization of IT.  The vendors only listen to the customers, not IT as it is often the customer that is footing the bill.

So next time you complain about not being able to use your Mac, iPad or Android smartphone to do your work, next time you complain about your VPN not working, tell your boss, NOT IT.  We tried but your boss wanted a new widget instead.

Note, this is not a reflection of my current employer, but a rant on behalf of IT managers everywhere.