3 ways cloud environments are changing the CIO role
Cloud environments are making big changes in CIO responsibilities and working styles. Overall, the focus is moving from managing equipment to managing processes. This change is allowing CIOs to be creative in their approaches to finding solutions because they are able to leverage managed resources to execute digital transformation without building out internal infrastructures.
Specifically, the availability of advanced and cloud-based infrastructure and management services brings the following three new opportunities to affect their businesses:
1. Closer connection to LOB managers and C-level executives
IT has always played a supporting role to enterprise initiatives and goals. However, advanced integrations enabled by hybrid clouds and intelligent APIs have extended what CIOs can offer to their peers to further their business agendas. CIOs are spending more of their time on strategic activities — an increase of 4 percent to 31 percent from just a year ago, according to IDG's "State of the CIO 2017" report.
Business managers have traditionally been responsible for developing ideas to make their efforts more productive, and then tasking IT with developing the requisite applications. However, CIOs who take advantage of automation and the standardization of cloud-based platforms have two advantages they can now bring to the table. They have more time to devote to working directly with line-of-business (LOB) managers to better understand the business needs and collaborate on ideas for new efforts. They also have extensive sets of technologies to draw upon that can connect data from previously unconnected sources and apply powerful AI APIs to quickly make their ideas a reality.
2. Cloud-based security with automation
The increase in cyberattacks and ransomware is driving the market for services, pushing the value of the cloud-based security market to more than $8.9 billion by 2020, according to Gartner. And though threat vectors can appear from multiple sources, Bitdefender reports 61 percent of people believe threats originate from competitors. Vendors of automated cloud-based services are stepping up to provide solutions that save CIOs time and effort in protecting their enterprises. This enables CIOs to shift their attention to strategic initiatives, while delivering superior protection through their outsourced partners.
3. Outsourced infrastructure maintenance and operations
Once a negative concept, outsourcing has become a viable and even preferred option as CIOs turn to external providers for commodity services, including infrastructure maintenance. According to IT Governance Journal, "65 percent of companies are outsourcing a large portion of their in-house IT functions to lower costs and make use of SaaS applications." That shift contributes further to reducing the CIO's direct involvement in routine oversight duties. IT can instantly generate pre-established computing configurations to create test platforms on which they can experiment with new applications without the need to install new servers and associated software. This flexibility allows IT to try new ideas in response to LOB needs at a minimal cost and disruption of standard operations.
The advances in cloud-based systems are bringing new opportunities to CIOs who embrace standardization, automation and the help of external resources to lighten their loads. It's up to them to translate their time and concentration savings into enterprise advantages.