I am not one to comment on others' blogs, really at all. Heck - I am not even sure anyone reads this one - maybe I'm just writing to be therapeutic. Today, however, I was compelled to write a response to the Uncomfortable Truths writing. I did so on his blog, and I'll expand on it here. My point isn't to "blow up" my e-friend's premise, but I am quite afraid that the person I have come to trust, admire and read as often as he cares to post is quite wrong in his musing.
You see, my e-friend wrote about how he made a career change, and that his new company's offerings are so much better than the rest of the IT industry's. That's fine - it's good to be proud and feel like you made a good career move. However, the posting illustrated to me how out of touch with the real world he may actually be.
The posting stated that one particular segment of IT had a much greater advantage than all of the others, and this elevated that segment above all others in importance. The problem with that statement is it simply isn't true. Let me see if I can illustrate my point:
The application requires multiple layers of services, many of which can be contained within one delivery vehicle (server), many of which have multiple discrete layers of services. Of all of the different layers shown here, none really work without the other.
The author of the discussion topic that prompted my writing stated that his new company caters to one specific segment of this layered services model, and that made the people that ran the layer much more important and relevant.
My argument is this:
In this model, there are none more important in this equation then the picture at the top. That is the consumer of the services this entire service stack was created for.
In the model shown above, there is no data without data storage. There is no data organization without databases. There is no presentation of the data within the databases without application services. There is no data or application security without, well, security. And the data cannot move logically within this simple diagram, nor can the end user access it without networks.
The premise of the Uncomfortable Truth posting referenced above is that the database administrators are much more relevant, since they have an unfettered view of the data they are managing. In the real world, however, the database administrators had better NOT have a view into the data at all. They must understand how the data is organized and presented, for sure - but they have no business knowing what my personally identifiable information is (as an example).
Here's the uncomfortable truth: The model shown above is necessary. Whether it's all running on your laptop or running in a complicated multi tier infrastructure stack, every application you and I use works fundamentally the same way. Each part is interdependent on the other. The uncomfortable truth here is without the entire stack, the data is useless. The value chain associated with applications relies on all of the application components being there.
/finis
