The IC3 Blue Train - A little journal about design, marketing, sales and other matters

Hundred years ago, in the early 1900s, if you wanted electricity, you had to do it yourself. Businesses had to put a generator in their basement and employ specialists to take care of the whole installation. In America, major corporations had their own VP of Electricity ***.

During the late 1800s and in the early 1900s, electrification was fragmented and individualised. In 1900, London was characterised by different currents, voltages and wiring systems that created confusion and hampered progress. Early generators produced direct current, which could only serve a small area because of unacceptable power losses over long distances. So each town area, factory or department store had its own steam-powered electricity generator. Early electric motors were custom built, installed and then monitored for problems and, therefore, competent engineers who could install and maintain a whole system for lighting and power were the critical resource of these times.

Today, you only call an electrician when you have a problem. Electricity is now a commodity governed by a set of standards that enable easy distribution and interoperability between different lighting systems, motor-powered devices and other appliances.

The same evolution is happening with Information Technology (IT). Its main infrastructure - hardware and system software – is already a commodity. Major vendors use standard hardware and software components and test mutual interoperability, as well as compliance with official and de facto standards.

So, maybe it’s time to entrust outside specialists with the task of supporting your IT infrastructure and to focus your in-house IT staff on the applications that really differentiate your business from your competitors’. What do you think?

*** See “Electrifying America, Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940” – David E. Nye, The MIT Press, 1992. This book offers a fascinating description of how electricity revolutionised lighting, transportation and power in homes, streets, stores, factories and farms.