"IT" is Dead
Now it's mostly Security
It is now possible to build a company without an IT team.
Anyone under 40 can set up a laptop on their own, set up SaaS apps on their, collaborate with other team members online without any need for an IT team to support.
What do you need an IT team for in 2025?
But let’s rewind before we answer that question. In the beginning—fiat lux—there was IT, and IT was good. Technology was hard, and it was bare metal, and all electronic things that were not paper were the domain of the wizards on the IT team.
Then something happened. A lot of things, actually. Computers got easier to use. Software got easier to use. And a new generation grew up that didn’t need handholding on “how to use the mousey thing”.
You can build a business without any IT team at all in 2025. That is, until one of two pain points pop up.
Either security risk is eventually going to appear, or you’re going to realize you are wildly overspending on SaaS apps.
Then you’re going to need to implement IT as a form of top-down governance.
IT then stops being a business enabler—unless you are operating in some niche vertical that involves unique hardware or software (like robots on a factory floor, or legacy SCADA systems)—and becomes instead a means of managing risk and corralling spend.
Much ink has been spilled on whether “Security should report to IT” or “IT should report to Security” but I think the answer in 2025 is unambiguous. IT as we know it is dead. The only reason for the IT job function to exist is as an extension of centralized, top-down security risk management and cost optimization.
This changes and should change how you think strategically about building out the IT job function. What is it for?
Times change, business changes, technology changes, and we must re-evaluate staffing strategy as a result.
For most companies, the time to hire an IT team comes when you face either strategic security risk that needs to be managed or you’ve grown to such a size that there is wasteful and competitive software spend that requires centralized planning and tracking.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but in 2025, what else is IT for?