Mr. Carr believes that IT is a perfect example of an infrastructural technology. Like other
infrastructural technologies (such as railroads), IT is a transport mechanism that carries digital information. Again, just like railroads, it is “far more valuable when shared than when used in isolation.” Many IT functions are highly scalable and, when combined with technical standards, become highly replicable. For these reasons, IT prices are subject to rapid deflation. “The cost of processing power has dropped…from $480 per million instructions per second (MIPS) in 1978 to $50 per MIPS in 1985 to $4 per MIPS in 1995.” IT’s evolution has mirrored that of early infrastructural technologies.
As with other infrastructural technologies, “IT provided forward-looking companies advantage early in its build-out, when it could still be owned like a proprietary technology.”