During an interesting conversation yesterday, Jim Metzler made a very clear and insightful comment. There are [or should be] two distinct roles in IT: application development and application delivery. Pure and simple. In challenging times (or any time, really...), this clarity could be a powerful rallying point as well as a basis for collaboration and focus on results. Good advice. His recently released 2008 Handbook of Application Delivery also offers some excellent advice.

[Update: Kiwi Paul was kind enough to remind me that the handbook link above requires a free registration here. Thanks mate!]