Can We Ever Win the War Against Complexity?

Welcome to the 6th Annual Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference! One of the topics on my (simple?) mind is simplicity, or the battle against IT complexity. It seems to me that complexity is a disease that robs an organization of its energy and agility -- plus, it costs a lot and is hard to manage. Apparently, simplicity is on your minds, too. In a pre-conference poll, Computerworld asked Premier 100 attendees: "Is your organization actively working to simplify your IT environment?" The answer from 92% of the 200 respondents was a resounding "yes."

So... how are you going about this battle? The most frequently mentioned strategies in the poll:
1. Pruning unneeded software and applications
2. Enforcing strict technology standards
3. Reducing the number of vendors we use
4. Standardizing on only a few, big vendors

The analysts at Gartner Inc. are catching on, too. In a recent bulletin they said: "Complexity is fast becoming the chief enemy of effective IT management. It inhibits cost management, transparency and adaptability."

OK, so we all agree. But now the question is whether we can ever win the war against the incoming waves of IT complexity, or whether the best we can do is to win small, heroic battles but ultimately lose the war. As my colleague Rob Mitchell once put it: It's like poking a water balloon. You can push out complexity in one place, but it just moves to another part of the IT architecture.

What do you think?