This blog originally appeared here, and is reprinted here with permission.

After being a technology geek for the last thirty years, the one thing I know for certain is that the only constant is change! I love getting a new piece of technology and learning how it can make my life better. I am not alone in this; we are breeding a generation where geek is chic. It's a generation that doesn't think twice about adopting technology, whether it's at work or at play. They give little thought to Facebook or Twitter posts ranging from where they are - despite privacy concerns - to immediate feedback on a bad meal that they just had. Some describe this generation as "all about me," but I describe it more as "it's all about now!"

This generation and their virtual members (I count myself as one) have an amazing impact on the speed of change, and if those in traditional IT organizations are not ready, you'll be swept up in this rapid evolution. Or is it a revolution?

I recall when I started in IT, our IT organization would move slowly, carefully and in an extremely methodical manner. We delivered almost all aspects of the IT environment, from the mainframe to the cables that connected those consuming IT. We would carefully manage each complex change with checklists that were checked and double-checked; we would have meetings to discuss actions and would do dry runs of complex change to ensure that we wouldn't impact any aspect of a system's availability. Lead times for change would be weeks and months, and if you didn't like our standards, timeframes, or imposed requirements, too bad. You could scream all you liked; we simply went back into our data center behind our locked doors to the place you were not allowed access to. At this time, technology was a privilege.

But something has changed. I believe we are at the tipping point where technology is no long a privilege it's a right.

Yes, technology has changed - we have our PCs, the Internet, the BlackBerry, and, of course, my beloved (this week) iPad - but I think that fundamentally what has changed is the education system. We now have an emerging workforce of the "empowered" generation who are conscious of technology; all the while, we have educated the remainder to leverage it for value and good.

As I was filling my rental car this morning at the gas station, I witnessed a parent whose school-age children were playing with an iPad. As I commented to the parent at the pump, he told me they were doing their homework assignment. The children, I was told, were six and seven years old.

For those of you in IT, it's no longer about the delivery of magic behind closed doors. The focus for you is changing. You are moving truly into the service industry, delivering IT-enabled business value by focusing on the service and its delivery. This all is potentially delivered through a complex value chain of providers. You can no longer hide behind rules that say "no." You must alter your posture to say "yes," while focusing on the risks involved and effectively communicating and empowering the business to accept risk where appropriate and how to mitigate it where it's not.

Will IT go away? No. At least not in the short term! Will roles change? They have changed already. The challenge or question for individuals is, "to change or not to change?" If you don't, you may be left behind!