Just a short time back I had what amounts to a mini revilation or small epiphany, take your pick. Actually it was a realization what I had known for some time just never admitted to myself. Since when did we need so many non IT people running the IT infrastructure.

Two things happened. I spent a numbing 8 hour day in a training course for Configuration management, not the funky new Devops definatation of configuration management but the boar you to tears ITIL version, seriously do you really need 6 different slides and 15 minutes to explain release management as "do steps 1 through 7 in serial sequence completing 7 before starting on step 1 again for the next release". I get it that this is a generic course not aimed at the twenty year veterans , but a two year old could understand this.

The second thing was actually the first to happen but dovetails nicely with the product I had wasted an entire working day of my life on, that I'll never get back. A very talented college had spent not an inconsideration amount of time automating the provision of infrastructure reducing the time of standing up a usable OS instance from days to 20 minutes. His efforts in improved efficancy werer promptly thwarted by the IT administrivia introducing a new "process" that absorbs that saved and then some.

We have the business saying we are, too slow, too expensive, can't react to their needs, not agile enough. The reality is , we , the techs, are fast, agile, doing everything on the cheap and what we can to help you. Somewhere along the line between the business and the technical IT professionals we have acquired this layer of IT administration that sits around the middle like the pork belly ready for market. It's fat is juicey it's thick, it provides short term high like a Krissy Kreme donut, but later leaves you with a long term headache, acne, and some loves handle, that no matter how hard you try they just won't move.

I call them the great IT administartion. You know who they are, there is more of them than us, Governance, Change Management , Control, office of the CIO etc etc. Their the middle management, the layer between you with the bright idea and the real business folk. How did they get there?. Was it the business that brought them in? Was it this myth that we can't talk to techs and enginees, yes we are fathers, sons, mothers, daughters,real people the living and conversing in the real world, not some sort of underworld sub culture. I don't know how they got here but they need to go their killing us!

Viva la révolution!