Top five challenges you'll face in 2011

BANGALORE, INDIA: We already gave our top ten tech predictions for the new year in our last issue, so it wouldn't make sense for me to re-iterate them here. What I'd like to focus on this time are the top challenges that most CIOs are likely to face in the coming year. A CIO's life is always full of challenges, but here's my list of the top 5 that would hog the maximum attention this year.

Also read: 10 Tech Predictions for 2011

Ensuring data security: This will perhaps be the number one concern for most CIOs.As more applications move to the cloud, more users become mobile and work from outsidethe office, and even more users use social networking, it will spell bigger headaches for CIOs.You'll have to find solutions to secure your data, and ensure that your business remains upand running irrespective of new security threats.

Social media management: Yes, while social media has its own benefits, it also has itschallenges. I remember having huge debates with CIOs on whether social networking sitesshould be banned from the corporate network or not, and most people voted in favor of al-lowing it. But, when employee productivity becomes heavily impacted, CIOs would be forcedto revisit this question.

Also read: Gartners top predictions for IT organizations

IT infrastructure re-design: Yes, while new technologies like virtualization, cloudcomputing, mobility are hot, they'll require more than installing a new hardware box or anapplication to your data center. They're causing a paradigm shift in how IT infrastructurewould be setup, so be prepared.

Inhouse apps or SaaS-based? Another question that will plague most CIOs in the newyear. As more SaaS based applications emerge and promise to replace in-house deployedones, you'll be forced to evaluate both. Each has its own distinct advantages and dis-advan-tages. Moreover, you might already have inhouse apps, which you wouldn't want to throwout the window just because there's a SaaS version of the same available.

Compliance: With so many security incidents happening, and a dramatic change hap-pening to the IT infrastructure, there's a strong need to ensure that you follow the right setof standards, and comply with all the norms. CIOs would therefore be looking for ways andmeans of ensuring that their IT infrastructure remains compliant in the new year.You might have noticed that the above challenges are all related to technologies that willbe hot this year, but usually, it's their benefits which hog all the limelight than the challengesthey pose. So I'd like to strike a balance. As the old saying by Sun Tzu in The Art of War goes:

'If you know both yourself and your enemy, you can win a hundred battles without asingle loss.'

Wishing you a great new year ahead!