'The book is easy to read, entertaining and informative. A useful, easy to read book, for people looking to move from working in the IT Services industry to working on the industry. As your role moves from providing the service to managing those that provide the service, this book challenges you think about where you want to guide those teams to' - Maria DiGregorio, General Manager, Telstra Corporation Limited 'The subject is very interesting and you use some great examples to illustrate your points' - Morgan Hurwitz, Global IT Manager, Shell International 'A one-of-a-kind book that demystifies a 'common' industry for just about anyone in, outside or influenced by IT. An IT encyclopedia that is a must-have at least for its sheer wealth of trivia. For those people that feel they have lost time by being away from the industry on a sabbatical of any sort, this book can be the key to making a strong and confident comeback' - Nivedita Chandrasekhar, Application and Architecture Developer, Credit Suisse Readership In just a few decades since its birth, the global IT industry has grown to a trillion dollars.It continues to transform society and business, as perhaps no other industry has, and yet remains one of the least understood industries in the world. Behind the facade of geekiness and technophobia lies a set of organisations that are routinely given the power to fundamentally reshape many facets of our lives, and in the process create lucrative sources of financial rewards for those investing in it. This book explains what consultants and IT Services firms do. It examines the industry's surprisingly captivating history, and in doing so, explains why the industry does things the way it does and what motivates the different players within it. The book tries to answer some basic questions like: - Why is it that those fundamentally affected by the industry have little idea about how this industry has managed to have such a hard-hitting impact globally? - How has this industry managed to reach the unique statues it enjoys around the world today, with literally millions from all corners of the world aspiring to enter it? - What is it about this industry that has caused it to evolve so differently as compared to other fields?- Perhaps most importantly, where could it, and the rest of us, go next? Drawing vivid comparisons from everyday life and other industries, this book makes complex concepts accessible to the general reader, giving them for the first time an in-depth insight into the IT industry, how it works, how it affects all of us, and where it is likely to catapult us in this century. Written in a lucid style by renowned IT professionals, this book is a must read not only for management and engineering students, IT professionals, managers and technocrats, but also for anyone keen to have the mysteries of the computer age unravelled.