We all use them, they are a part of lives and as important as the knife and fork, and yet we don’t understand them, nor know how to use them properly. Here in lies a problem. We… Don’t know how to use them properly.collectively.

As the head of an IT department, it amazes me the things that I can achieve with technology, and yet – I could do so much more… However I am concerned that technologists nowadays – aren’t really technologists. When I started in IT, I was taught hardware level repairs, not replacing a hard drive – but board and component. If I could get my eyes to focus, I might still be able to do it today.. But I think I have lost the knowledge… Now, the focus is on software, we truly aren’t IT Departments any more, we aren’t ICT either, we are definitively IS Departments, where systems are enhanced and managed on top of IT. And technologists develop applications that people may or may not want, but most likely are not concerned about the hardware to an extent that it will run on. It amuses me when a company that develops software, but has never worked or been a part of that industry, tries to sell you a product that they have developed, for an industry they have never been in.

So an IT Department, is really a handholder, we are like the drawer that holds the knife and fork. And the dishwasher that cleans them. And sometimes, we either buy new knives and forks, replace them, scrape the rust off them, modify them to do things they shouldn’t be doing, sharpen them, and even show new people how to use them. Quite often we get bigger ones, smaller ones, and even different coloured ones. And at the end of the day, if you lose your knife and fork – you either eat with your hands, or get a new set.