In a recent Computerworld column responding to my ideas, Michael Hugos offers some trenchant thoughts about what he calls “the great divide in the IT business.” Hugos, the CIO of an Illinois distribution company named Network Services, notes that IT professionals have historically followed one of two career paths. Some specialized in a particular technology, identifying themselves “by the programming language, operating system or hardware they knew.” Others learned “to apply a set of techniques that could be employed in a range of business situations regardless of the specific technology being used.”

Today, as more and more corporate IT systems become standardized and lose their strategic importance, “the installation and operation of these systems by a few large service providers – utilities – is rapidly becoming a very cost-effective way to go,” writes Hugos. As a result, “organizations are reaching a point where they no longer need to have people skilled in operating such systems on their own payrolls. IT practitioners whose skills are largely based on detailed knowledge of a certain software package, programming language or operating system are heading for a future in an outsourced utility. Practitioners who apply a set of core techniques to design and build systems enabling organizations to accomplish their unique goals are the ones who will define the future of the IT profession.”

Professionals with specialized technical skills, in other words, will continue to move from the user side to the supplier side, as vendors take control of more of the core hardware and software assets of corporate computing. Those remaining within corporate IT departments will tend to be the generalists who understand the business as well as they understand the technology.