Advertisment

The Changing Role of the CIO

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

INDIA: The rise to prominence of the chief information officer (CIO) has been dramatic. Two decades ago, CIOs had the responsibility for ensuring that a company’s information technology and telecommunications infrastructure was running smoothly and securely under relatively light loads. Throughout the course of the 1990s, as IT and telecom merged to become the information and communications technology (ICT) sector of today, CIO’s watched more ICT workloads become mission-critical to the enterprise.

Advertisment

These days, the CIO position has become one that must be filled by a star performer, occupying the limelight with a much larger and critical role in the financial success of the company. Not only has the role changed, but the number of CIOs being listed among the senior-most roles in the executive suite has skyrocketed.

This evolution took place as corporations face dramatic challenges brought about by changes in markets and corporate organizations. Companies increasingly globalize, consolidate and grow through mergers and acquisitions. Many businesses are forced to invest heavily in re-engineering their organizations, with the CIO taking center stage with added strategic responsibility to suit the business.

Today, enterprises are allocating more financial resources to IT, and CIOs are becoming more accountable as key decision makers. Researching and selecting the partners and vendors that are right for their business is critical.

Advertisment

The CIO Agenda

A 2010 global CIO survey conducted by Gartner Executive Programs found that the top 10 technology priorities for CIOs in 2011 were:

- Cloud computing

- Virtualization

- Mobile technologies

- IT management

- Business intelligence

- Networking

- Voice and data communications

- Enterprise applications

- Collaboration technologies

- Infrastructure

Advertisment

The main drivers right now around cloud computing are the CIO’s desire to be more efficient and responsive to their corporate mission. Most CIOs today equate efficiency with effectiveness because they are almost always being asked to do more with the same level of resourcing. Outsourcing has become more popular as CIOs have become less preoccupied with keeping the technology nuts and bolts of a company tuned to perfection. In many cases, CIOs think of cloud services and outsourcing engagements in much the same way — both require the trust of an outside third party to deliver a reliable scope of service.

There are two key areas CIOs need to focus on as they work toward making cloud part of their enterprise structure. One is what they are basing their policy decisions on and the other is the classification of infrastructure and data.

Creative CIOs who think about how to leverage cloud are currently looking at how their cost, control and end-user experience metrics will benefit from various types of cloud offerings — often in combination with traditional managed services — and are starting to experiment with these options.

Advertisment

The Advent of Cloud and the CIO

CIOs are much like “symphony conductors” in the way they orchestrate diverse technologies to achieve a harmonious result. Often times, CIOs see that much of this harmony has already been achieved by the standardized, automated services offered up by cloud models. 

To ensure success, CIOs should work in harmony with business managers and the heads of internal departments so that everyone is on board when purchasing cloud-based solutions. We spend a great deal  time talking to CIOs and IT decision makers and most are seeking tips or advice on how they can drive performance using cloud service models.  There are several things I recommend they consider:

Advertisment

- Know thyself. List the infrastructure tasks (such as network management or automation) or application functions (like email or Web hosting) that can be improved or eliminated through the adoption of cloud services.

- Look for a partner. Think about and plan for the migration to cloud; include technological, commercial and process implications. Search for a partner that can help with planning, strategy and ongoing governance.

- Develop a broker strategy. An entirely new class of software services are emerging that can help bridge or broker connections from the enterprise IT domain into the cloud. Examples include Service Mesh, DynamicOps and CloudSwitch. Some cloud providers also offer private networking capabilities to securely accelerate your connectivity to the cloud. Spend time with your full ICT leadership team and establish some policy around connectivity to the cloud.

- Consider the service level agreements of potential vendors and how to integrate legacy solutions with the one you select.

- Push your vendors for standards adoption to address portability and migration risk. Our industry needs to do more to standardize, and hearing from clients around specific migration use-cases helps drive that evolution.

These days, most companies correlate well-aligned ICT strategy with business success and growth potential. Not all organizations are there yet in terms of CIOs being an intrinsic member of the business strategy team, but there is no doubt most companies embrace technology as the enabler of business adaptation. Most CIOs are smart enough to understand the nature of their role as orchestra conductor and look to service provider relationships, in various models, to achieve their goals with maximum efficiency.

(David Shacochis is Vice President, Global Public Sector, Savvis. The ideas and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of CyberMedia.)