A forum post on LinkedIn asked us what will IT be like in 2011? I checked the police website and found the IT Swami was last seen in Hokitika, poaching paua (abalone) for the Chinese market. After a close shave while diving under the influence he appears to have seen the light on stripping our birthright to supply Asian greed through Kiwi greed. I finally found him building a gypsy house-truck that included a local area network, UPS and satellite link. I got up early enough in the morning to catch him sober (as he wasn't awake yet) and quickly recorded his predictions while he fumbled for his cigarettes:

Newsflash for internet writers: The recession isn't over. It hasn't even really got going yet. Stop trying to talk the market back up. It doesn't work for real estate agents and it doesn't work for IT. Get real.

The IT SwamiLate last night as I worked at my computer, I looked up at a sound in the normally quiet cul de sac that houses Two Hills World Headquarters Tower. From the back door of a police car tumbled the IT Swami, closely followed by his swag, which appeared to have been hurled rather than just fell. The police car then drove off while he picked himself up and examined himself for broken bones, or perhaps it was just some exotic late-night yoga - he does subscribe to strange practices.

In a familiar routine, I raced downstairs to hide the good whisky and cognac before he got to the doorbell. I slipped the smaller ornaments into a cupboard and put the kettle on. I knew he would need a coffee to sober him up.

Several readers of The IT Skeptic have asked where is the IT Swami and in particular where were his New Year's predictions for 2008? Now we can reveal all.

Now, the final of the IT Swami's mid-year Visions of the Future of ITIL. Previously we had six other visions starting with the First.

Here is the ultimate seventh Vision:

The IT Swami gives us his mid-year Visions of the Future of ITIL. Previously we had the First Vision and Second Vision. This is the Third:

The IT Swami gives us his mid-year Visions of the Future of ITIL. Yesterday we had the First Vision. This is his Second Vision:

On a freezing Southern midwinter solstice night last month, beside a driftwood bonfire on wild Pukerua Bay beach, New Zealand, the IT Swami gazed into the future to give us his “Southern New Year” predictions for the IT Infrastructure Library. I was shivering as I wrote so some of my notes are a little illegible but here is the first of his visions that I recorded:

The IT Skeptic takes the day off, doing what skeptics do for fun (don’t ask). In his place we have his alter-ego the IT Swami kicking off the New Year with some predictions for IT in the coming twelve months.

In Service Management:

The itSMF, EXIN and ASEB – all snubbed by OGC - will drive the new ISO20000 industry.

The ITIL 3 books will be good. Sales will be brisk. They will be greeted with acclaim in most quarters and criticism in a few (including this site, you can bet). One country in Europe will be less enthusiastic.