Organizations that do not communicate are silos. If they did communicate, they would be a matrix-like organization. But this gets to what I've said for years about the Balkanization and Gerrymandering of UNIX (i.e. Silos). Balkanization is the essence of not communicating (and being belligerent to each other). Gerrymandering is the degree each silo has political clout. A certain IT silo could have leading-edge technology and great best practices - and yet some other silo becomes prevalent because of politics.
B & G is the reason WHY silos are bad - and they are human constructs (i.e. they have nothing to do specifically with tech). If humans could stop the B & G attitudes, then silos might be a good idea (NOT).
“Silos, for lack of a better word, are good.”
That’s not the Gordon Gekko of IT speaking, it’s Hank Marquis, railing against the conventional wisdom that has been shaping service-oriented thinking for the past decade. 
He makes an interesting point:
“Silos are the only way to manage increasingly complex concepts. Medicine, education, government and business all rely upon silos… It makes sense to develop staff, management and other systems based on the unique requirements of each….They usually have different systems, staff and needs. They are silos too. Yes, silos are everywhere, but you seldom hear experts complaining about ‘evil’ sales silos or intransigent transportation silos. Why the attack on IT organizations?”
We actually need IT silos, Hank believes. Many pundits and analysts and IT professionals have been denouncing IT silos for the wrong reason, he says. “The issue isn’t the presence or absence of silos. The issue is the lack of communication and coordination between them…. the real issue is lack of management.”
Hank hits upon something intriguing here. Silos have kept systems and processes within a manageable scale. And we’ve been trying to make services and data visible and usable to other parts of the enterprise. The challenge isn’t to tear down the silos, but rather to make them open and accessible to one another, through common standards and governance within your organization. And that takes a lot more time and good management, versus simply bulldozing them down.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
