Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Blog: Blood and Code

People sometimes compare IT to the nervous system of the organization, but I found myself thinking the other day that it's more like the circulatory system. Sitting in an awkward position can make your leg go to sleep, but that's just a transitory numbness or tingle: move your leg, and it will come back to life after a minute or two of discomfort. Cutting off the blood supply to your leg will make it die, just as lack of key information can lead to a gangrenous loss of a key customer or partner: that's not something that will fix itself.

What triggered this grisly image was an article about new understanding of the limits of blood transfusion. "Everyone knows" that the function of blood is simple: deliver oxygen to body tissues, and remove waste products like carbon dioxide. What's now becoming clear, though, is that stored blood loses a key ingredient -- nitric oxide -- that has an important role in dilating arteries and capillaries so that blood cells can get to where the rest of their payload is needed.

Perhaps it's a sign that I've been in this business too long, but this seemed like a perfect metaphor of many poorly conceived IT initiatives. They're loaded with the "oxygen" of good data, but they're lacking in the nitric oxide of effective deployment and well-designed usability. You keep hanging bags of nice red cells on the rack, and sticking needles into every exposed point that you can find, but the patient dies anyway. In fact, the attention consumed by badly designed systems can make them worse than useless, just as the nitric oxide scavenging effects of old blood can make death rates with a blood transfusion actually higher than death rates without.

Without measured adoption, and rapid response to any areas where users appear to lack understanding, any software initiative is likely to yield a disappointing result. Of all the advantages of on-demand delivery, the ease of precisely measuring what people are using may be the most under-recognized. Plan to take advantage of these tools in your next on-demand deployment.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • The State of Privacy & Data Security Compliance
    With the plethora of new privacy and data security regulations, we believe it is time to ask whether regulations help or hinder an organization’s ability not only to protect sensitive and confidential information assets, but to be competitive in the global marketplace. Further, how difficult is it to be in compliance, who is the typical person or functional leader accountable for compliance? What is the value to the organization? Finally, what differences (if any) exist in security practices between compliant and non-compliant organizations?
    Learn more »
  • Shedding Light on Backup and Availability Challenges in Virtual Environments
    This IDG white paper explores specific backup and availability challenges organisations must surmount as they move to virtualise their business-critical applications. It then shows how attaining proper service levels for these applications requires a high degree of visibility into the VMware virtual environment.
    Learn more »
  • Case Study: Svenska Kraftnät safeguards web and ensures communication security with Clearswift
    Energy producers from surrounding countries load power onto the Swedish National Grid’s network, with energy suppliers then paying the Swedish National Grid to load onto their grids for them to sell-on to customers. Using Clearswift’s Email Appliance, and MIMEsweeper for SMTP means that the organisation has safe and resilient email helping them to meet their goal of providing a safe, robust, cost-effective and environmentally sound energy transmission system.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments