As I was walking through the streets of Hong Kong last month between my hotel and my meeting, I couldn't help but notice the number of people walking and surfing, texting, Facebooking and twittering. I noticed mainly because I was run into at least five times by people who were distracted by doing such surfing, texting, Facebooking, and twittering.

As I traveled on the train to a meeting I continued to notice the trend that was accelerated with a large number of tablets being used. This experience reinforced my global observations over the last month that the adoption of mobility from the tablet to the smartphone is rapidly accelerating. Further evidence to me was my observation on planes and meetings where I see the environment rapidly becoming a "tablet-only zone."

Not surprisingly, the consumers and various departments have driven the move to tablets, further leveraging mobility. Do you remember the IBM PC (millennials reading this are excused as you were not born yet)? It replicated across the business while IT was predominantly the office of "No" rather than the office of "Know." With the IBM PC introduction, the changing business practices were disruptive and mandated a change to then-traditional IT delivery. Interestingly, IT organizations are now dealing with a similar scenario.

Rather than simply saying "NO" (which doesn't work), IT must provide guidance and solve a number of fundamental issues with accessing corporate networks is secure manner, ensuring data and information is effectively managed and so on. These are the basics. An additionally important issue is that the form factor leveraged for CDIT accelerates the velocity of change. By that I mean CDIT rapidly and continually delivers small, bite-sized pieces of increased capabilities that require minimal or no education, and are quickly adopted. This requires business to shift just as rapidly.

For instance, a major bank in Europe is rapidly moving its customer interaction with the business to Tablet or iPhone-based applications and defocusing investment in backend traditional banking applications. This is being driven by the velocity of change and the consumers' expectation and demand for additional capability.

To meet business expectations and ensure nimbleness, IT organizations must change to meet the evolving demands. For some of you this change maybe happening and you haven't noticed. Where are you? Are you the IT office of "NO" or the IT office of "KNOW"?

Sidewalk photo used under Creative Commons License courtesy of aliciagriffin.