Don’t get used to this. I won’t be here for long.
Although I’m taking over as editor, this space, like much of Computing Canada, is about to change. The context of the changes brings to mind an annoying cliché that has become accepted wisdom throughout the industry: that technology needs to be properly aligned with the business in order for IT projects to succeed. Sure, there’s some truth in it, but that stock phrase leaves a lot out. It suggests, for example, that CIOs and IT managers are installing new hardware and applications just for the fun of it, which is hard to believe. It also assumes that all other departments are aligned with the business, which usually isn’t the case. Whether it’s a company digesting an acquisition, suffering through a restructuring effort or even preparing for growth, there are bound to be parts of the enterprise that are not contributing very well to the whole. That’s why senior management occasionally needs to step back, re-evaluate the situation and reinvest as appropriate.
That’s what we’re doing with Computing Canada. You can’t run a successful IT operation without a corresponding networking strategy in place, which is why we’re folding Communications & Networking magazine back into these pages. We will use our Networking section to help systems administrators ensure their projects and processes are in synch with what’s happening on the application and infrastructure side of the IT department. We also recognize that you can’t really get a sense of what Canadian enterprise IT looks like if you leave out the segment that accounts for 50 per cent of all technology spending in the country. While we will continue to recognize the unique challenges of former Technology In Government readers, you’re going to start to see public sector content throughout Computing Canada’s pages. To use another IT industry cliché, we’re merging silos of information.
We’re also expanding our coverage of another major enterprise pain point: integration. A new section we’re launching, called Architecture, will touch on everything from choosing the appropriate middleware and connecting electronic services to developing a plan for application development and managing the data centre. Look for Architecture, along with a number of other new columns and features, to debut in the next few months.
My move to Computing Canada represents integration of another sort. I have spent the past six years running ITBusiness.ca, which provides daily news for all our end-user audiences, and, in that time, I’ve learned readers want control and quality over what they receive in either media. There is no team of people better equipped to deliver great content about the Canadian IT profession than the people in our newsroom, and we’ll be offering a lot more choices about what you can receive from us via e-mail, podcast or in other formats on the Web.
Computing Canada has thrived for more than three decades, thanks to the quality of its staff and its focus on what IT managers need to know. This is not a market that ever stands still, and neither will we.