Part of the CIO's role is to help the business become more agile and improve its responsiveness to customer and market shifts. As such, it's hardly surprising that improved business agility is a major driver for companies shifting their applications and infrastructure to the cloud.
Companies are utilizing cloud services for multiple reasons. In some cases, cloud services are more cost-effective than the cost of providing comparable services in-house using premise-based software. In other instances, cloud services are allowing companies to obtain greater agility for scaling resources, accelerating time to market, and in other ways.
There's been a lot written in the past three months about moving big data analytics and applications into the cloud. The basic concept makes sense for two key reasons.
Cloud computing is a broad term that covers a range of services. As CIOs and IT professionals are aware, there are public, private, and hybrid clouds. While many technology professionals understand the differences and benefits of various cloud types, most business executives and board members aren't even aware that there are different cloud models to choose from.
One of the greatest things about cloud computing is the scalability and flexibility it offers to businesses. Whether it's the ability to receive automated software updates (and freeing IT staff from system maintenance) to increased collaboration opportunities with far-flung company teams and business partners, the cloud offers companies incredible opportunities to share information and transform the business while reducing hardware, software, and support requirements.
No matter how you slice it, the cloud has engendered enormous changes in business. It has enabled companies in all stages of maturity the ability to scale operations, provided the flexibility to rollout of new products and services, and has offered new (and better) ways to support internal functions such as HR, sales, and marketing.
My second book, On Top of the Cloud, was published in 2012. So much has changed. Today, we take social media seriously. We're all trying to figure out how to leverage advanced analytics and extract value from big data.
Instead of representing "the end of IT as we know it," the cloud is playing an essential role for CIOs in the enterprise technology portfolio. In some cases, the cloud is enabling the IT organization to provide the business with needed agility in rolling out a new application without incurring delays in the IT/business project pipeline.
It wasn't all that long ago when one of the key drivers behind cloud adoption was cost savings. But nowadays, the ability to obtain business agility and to reduce complexity has taken center stage.
One of the great benefits that cloud computing offers to CIOs and to enterprises are opportunities to dramatically simplify IT architectures. By doing so, this can enable business units and the enterprise as a whole to become more agile, to drive higher levels of productivity, and to enable greater collaboration between employees and work teams.
The CIO plays an integral role in providing business leaders and employees access to the information and systems that are essential to helping them get their jobs done. And as technology continues to change, the CIO role will also continue to evolve.
Amid the expansion of the consumerization of IT, including the spread of mobile devices and Internet-enabled applications and services, the CIOs role is becoming more dynamic and unclear.
Not long ago when people talked about the cloud, they were referring to some type of public cloud service. Today, the cloud can be represented in different ways public, private, and even hybrid clouds. Because the cloud can take on various forms, the type of cloud selected by a business for a particular use carries different tactical and strategic implications for CIOs.
Frank Slootman, the CEO of ServiceNow, emphasizes that CIOs can play key roles in improving and elevating the work environment at their companies. Frank sees a giant opportunity for IT to deliver real value to the enterprise.
Today’s technology executive plays a pivotal role in helping his or her organization respond to these forces of change. In essence, they serve as conductors to orchestrate the three pillars of organizational success – people, processes, and technology – and to draw upon their unique view of the enterprise to bring these elements into harmony.
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