2011: The Cassidy review

If I'm going to pick a single theme for IT folk to ponder on from 2011, it has to be the portfolio of attitudes and decisions that have come up, from the grass roots, under the general heading of the consumerisation of IT and bring your own computer/device (BYOC/BYOD).

As with other recent trends, it's an attractive concept in a particular set of circumstances that has spread its wings farther than the bailiwick it should rightly occupy.

This is their opportunity to get a flag, wrap themselves in it, and preferably not go quite so far as to have their glamorous death recorded on YouTube.

That's the polite way to put it. Mostly, when the beer has let the sense of exasperation out in the IT crews I hang around with, the stories which feature BYOC tend to boil down to the same punchline. Regardless of the starting point, it's the same old story: "So she said to me, I can go down to PC World and buy a router for 60 quid, and you've brought me a Wi-Fi proposal for eight thousand pounds!"

Clearly, for the other person in these conversations, this is pretty akin to their "Arab Spring" moment. They are quite sure that you are in the role of the sneering despot, and this is their opportunity to get a flag, wrap themselves in it, and preferably not go quite so far as to have their glamorous death recorded on YouTube.

They have the inside track, and you are the barrier to progress to an ill defined, but undoubtedly better and healthier nirvana.