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What IT terminology are you swearing off in 2015?

Take a buzz saw to these buzzwords: In this #CIOChat recap, participants share the IT terminology they're looking to retire in 2015.

Brian Holak
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Published: 09 Jan 2015

TIME recently released its annual list of words it thinks should be banned in 2015, stocked almost entirely with pop culture jargon like "bae," "basic" and "turnt." While most CIOs don't talk about getting "turnt" or going out with "bae" on a regular basis -- or, in some cases, aren't even sure what those words mean -- there are bound to be a few IT terms that have similarly worn out their welcome in 2014.

In SearchCIO's latest #CIOChat, we asked participants to share their own list of hackneyed IT terminology that should be sworn off in 2015.

When asked the same question last year, SearchCIO's followers and editors hoped to reduce the use of such lingo as big data, customer-focused, the digital age and more for less -- many of which, for better or worse, are still being used extensively today. What terms will #CIOChat-ters renounce this year?

One bit of IT terminology that's garnered a lot of attention is disruption -- see also disruptor and disruptive -- which is used to describe new technologies and business models that displace established IT and shake up the industry. Disruption has become so widely used that it's included as one of TIME's words to ban in 2015, one of only two technology-related terms on the list.

Max Nisen of Business Insider described how disruption turned into an overused buzzword by stating, "The startup and tech worlds have taken a perfectly useful word and turned it into something devoid of meaning." SearchCIO Executive Editor Linda Tucci echoed Nisen's concern about the overuse and misuse of the word:

As the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," but if it is broke, should you fix it or just trade up? One #CIOChat-ter is sick of the break/fix IT terminology and suggests that it's sometimes best to start fresh once a problem is identified:

A solution is defined as a means of solving a problem, but participants agreed that the use of the word today seldom fulfills that pledge and has become a trite umbrella term for any new technology or methodology. #CIOChat-ters' solution to this problem? Drop the word in 2015:

Participants also hoped to purge the term shadow IT -- the hardware or software not supported by an organization's IT department -- from the CIO vocabulary this year. Shadow IT has been approached as "the enemy" for some time, but now more organizations are sidelining their battle against shadow users in order to better communicate with, integrate and educate employees on the matter.

Similarly, SearchCIO followers think shadow IT is a shady term and hope it will fade in 2015 as companies try to reconcile shadow practices with their overarching IT strategies:

A year has passed since our #CIOChat participants first wanted to do away with the term big data, but it's still alive and well -- and as prevalent as ever. Nonetheless, SearchCIO's Senior Managing Editor Rachel Lebeaux voiced her continued concern over the term's "big" implications:

Digital native, a term used to describe a person born or raised during the age of the digital technology boom and familiar with the Internet from an early age, also made the list of possible IT terminology to swear off:

Is there any IT terminology you wish would go away in 2015? Sound off in the comments section below.

Next Steps

For more from our end-of-year #CIOChat, read our followers' biggest IT regrets of 2014 and top enterprise IT predictions and IT resolutions for 2015. Then, check out their top 2015 industry regrets and resolutions of 2016. 

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What IT buzzwords make you cringe?
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There are many lists that have tried to predict the IT buzzwords of 2015. Here are the ones that I really hope don’t stick and why.
  • AMOLED because sometimes a real name is better than an acronym
  • Big.Little is not only confusing and unimaginative, it’s trying to hard.
  • IoT because we already have terms for this that don’t pile onto the acronym list
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Now that’s a can of worms. There are several buzzwords that make me cringe. I could start the list by saying any buzzwords that I see in a resume. But, more specifically, anything that comes out as “<something> as a Service.” I think it’s fine if you adopt an IT Service Management approach, but that doesn’t mean that everything needs to be offered as a service or called “<something> as a Service.
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The word that has been misused by everyone from Google to my fellow developers is cloud-based solutions. Even our website is now a cloud-based solution!!!
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