In the first of a two-part series, I take a look at the hype surrounding the consumerization of IT, why I believe that the enterprise is taking on more than it expects and how to prepare for, and hopefully prevent, a potential backlash. 

IT consumerization has generated it's unfair share of hype. The simple appeal of putting the cost burden for device purchase and care on the shoulders (and wallets) of end-users appears to be an elegant solution to what has been a thorny problem. I believe consumerization is more than getting to choose your own device. Failing to anticipate and prepare for the changing rules of IT risks a cost and compliance blowout and an IT backlash as I highlighted in my Top 12 IT Management Trends for 2012 series. 

Establishing a consumerization culture with 6 critical capabilties

Despite nearly 20 years having passed, I still vividly remember the first time I installed and configured a network management solution at a major enterprise. Everyone was excited at the prospect of seeing (for the first time) an accurate topological map of their network, of being able to monitor, graph and analyze key network performance trends and to be able to display the entire result in a custom built NOC. 

In my last post, IT is like salad dressing, sometimes you need to shake it up,  I talked about how IT leaders need to consider shaking up the status quo within their teams if they're hoping to deliver applications to market faster, while keeping production defect counts low.