In Defense of the Monolith: How Standards are Good News for Innovation

Abstract

“Standardization: IT's lazy way to reduce costs and make IT's job easier, from the people who have no idea what I need to do my job.” That's the perception many of IT's customers have, at least, about standards. And there's the popular but misplaced idea that best practices hinder innovation. IT customers of a large organization are by nature consumers of IT, and consumers have a difficult time understanding what commodity technology is and why it's important to use the standards. Even IT workers are sometimes unaware of the value proposition and institutional strategy around commodity IT. Standardization, associated with commodity computing, is often seen as the antithesis of flexibility and innovation, but this is an inaccurate view. Standardization fosters rather than stifles innovation; and best practices enable flexibility in an organization to become “smart practices.” The purpose of this talk is to enable you to quickly and succinctly speak to your customers and colleagues about the benefits of standardization.