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This week I attended the Defrag Conference for the second time. A special thanks to Eric Nolin for inviting me again this year. The event is well attended and hosts an eclectic slice of the technology space that includes web 2.0 companies, traditional enterprise, start-ups and Internet based innovators. This years event focused on analytics and business intelligence, cloud computing, collaboration and other trending IT and business topics. While each session was unique a theme did evolve that was consistent throughout most.

There is a serious chasm between the entrepreneurs/start up and the current state of corporate IT. Most of the start up executives see IT as a hurdle or a hindrance to success. Their perspective of data and corporate IT infrastructure was almost naive, they want applications and solutions to be “iTunes store simple”. Just grab the icon, drag it to your desk top and BAM! you have an enterprise application. Several sessions highlighted solutions that addressed unique business challenges but were content light on how exactly a company could actually integrate them. There seems to be an assumption that the actual steps to integrate data are a plug and play scenario. These entrepreneurs are assuming that IT is already a utility. On the surface this disconnect may seem troubling but I saw it as a positive. Its clear that the new breed of executive has a different view of IT and as they come into powerful positions within large companies they will influence the evolution of the IT service model.

Cloud computing, SaaS and PaaS service models along with API’s were all popular topics this week. Its clear that these new start ups expect to deliver their applications just like their favorite Facebook applications.

Defrag is a great place to see the future of enterprise IT its refreshing to see the attitude of these innovative companies. Put Defrag on your conference calendar next year you will learn a lot.

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