CIO Strategy

The Register – The joy and pain of buying IT

Study You, dear readers, continually tell us in surveys how hard it is to get the investment needed to help you do your jobs effectively. Regardless of the topic – core infrastructure, middleware, management tools, etc – it’s common to hear stories of execs not “getting it”, while expecting IT to muddle through as more pressure is piled onto already stretched teams.

But it has been a while since we have run a survey specifically focused on the pain and practicality of IT-related procurement, so let’s put this right.

Our latest study includes questions like:

“How often do procurement or finance get involved, then skew decisions towards cost, regardless of value?”

There’s then the old chestnut:

“How often are you forced to buy from an incumbent supplier, regardless of whether it’s the right choice?”

Of course the level of pain or pleasure often depends on the environment you work in and how well business and IT people communicate and understand each other, so we touch on that too, including the problem of senior management often having inflated or unrealistic expectations.

More of The Register article and survey link from Dale Vile

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / DevOps / IaaS / IT Governance / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
05
Jun 17

The Register – So your client’s under-spent on IT for decades and lives in fear of an audit

Infrastructure as code is a buzzword frequently thrown out alongside DevOps and continuous integration as being the modern way of doing things. Proponents cite benefits ranging from an amorphous “agility” to reducing the time to deploy new workloads. I have an argument for infrastructure as code that boils down to “cover your ass”, and have discovered it’s not quite so difficult as we might think.

Recently, a client of mine went through an ownership change. The new owners, appalled at how much was being spent on IT, decided that the best path forward was an external audit. The client in question, of course, is an SMB who had been massively under-spending on IT for 15 years, and there no way they were ready for – or would pass – an audit.

Trying to cram eight months’ worth of migrations, consolidations, R&D, application replacement and so forth into four frantic, sleepless nights of panic ended how you might imagine it ending. The techies focused on making sure their asses were covered when the audit landed. Overall network performance slowed to a crawl and everyone went home angry.

More of The Register article from Trevor Pott

Business continuity / CIO Strategy / Data Center / Disaster Recovery / IT Governance / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
02
Jun 17

Continuity Central – Revamping the business continuity profession: a response

Recently, Continuity Central published ‘Revamping the business continuity profession’; an article in which Charlie Maclean-Bristol looked at challenges faced by business continuity professionals and offered his suggestions for revamping the discipline. Here, David Lindstedt and Mark Armour, developers of the Adaptive Business Continuity methodology, offer their response to the article:

David Lindstedt: Naturally, most folks starting to embrace Adaptive Business Continuity will agree that traditional business continuity methods are not working and it’s time for a change. I totally agree that ‘resilience’ will not be the ‘savior’ of business continuity. As Charlie correctly points out, resilience is an inter-discipline, not a discipline on its own. A business continuity practitioner could run it, but so could anyone from any of the inter-disciplines like ERM, EM, IT DR, etc. The chief concern with resilience will always be: what are the boundaries to what gets included (individual personal psychology to environmental sustainability to the entire content of a MBA program?) and how do you measure its effectiveness?

TechTarget – Enlightened shadow IT policy collaborates with users

A cloud-era shadow IT policy still needs to manage risk, but the era of “no way” is giving way to allow users quick access to the productivity apps they need.

Most IT departments have spent time rooting out the shadow, or non-IT-sanctioned, applications and systems in use within their organizations. Today, users find that cloud-based services not necessarily approved by IT enable them to quickly subscribe to applications and platforms that improve their collaboration and productivity. That advantage is prompting IT organizations to rethink how to work with users rather than have a shadow IT policy that is in full-out combat against apps that haven’t been fully blessed by the enterprise and could introduce security risks.

More of the TechTarget article from Sandra Gittlen

Business continuity / CIO Strategy / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
15
May 17

CIO insight – Why So Much of a CIO’s Day Is Devoted to Security

65% of network and systems admins struggle to determine whether app issues are caused by the network, systems or apps, while 53% run into difficulties measuring latency and delay problems when troubleshooting apps.

A growing number of CIOs, other technology leaders and IT professionals are spending a considerable amount of their time troubleshooting security-related issues, according to a recent survey from Viavi Solutions. The resulting report, “State of the Network Study,” reveals that a significant number of survey respondents are spending a quarter of a standard work week on the detection and mitigation of threats. One of the trend-drivers is that email and browser-based malware has increased over the past 12 months, as has the overall sophistication of attack methods. “Enterprise network teams are [devoting] more time and resources than ever before to battle security threats,” said Douglas Roberts, vice president and general manager of the enterprise and cloud business unit for Viavi Solutions. “Not only are they faced with a growing number of attacks, but hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their methods and malware. Dealing with these types of advanced persistent security threats requires planning, resourcefulness and greater visibility throughout the network to ensure that threat intelligence information is always at hand.

More of the CIO Insight slideshow from Dennis McCafferty

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05
May 17

Greylock – The New Moats

Why Systems of Intelligence are the Next Defensible Business Model

To build a sustainable and profitable business, you need strong defensive moats around your company. This rings especially true today as we undergo one of the largest platform shifts in a generation as applications move to the cloud, are consumed on iPhones, Echoes, and Teslas, are built on open source, and are fueled by AI and data. These dramatic shifts are rendering some existing moats useless and leaving CEOs feeling like it’s almost impossible to build a defensible business.

In this post, I’ll review some of the traditional economic moats that technology companies typically leverage and how they are being disrupted. I believe that startups today need to build systems of intelligence — AI powered applications — “the new moats.”

More of the Greylock article from Jerry Chen

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IT Governance / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
01
May 17

Arthur Cole – The Reality of an Intelligent IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) may be barely off the ground, but developers are already looking for ways to imbue the technology with high degrees of intelligence.

On one level, an intelligent IoT is a reason unto itself given that the scale and complexity of the data environment is beyond the capabilities of today’s management tools. But ultimately, the expectation is that much of the IoT will govern itself, and that includes the basic interactions between systems and users.

Zebra Technologies’ Tom Bianculli gave eWeek a good overview of all the ways in which intelligence is likely to affect the IoT. From the intelligent enterprise itself, capable of dynamic data streaming, real-time analytics and self-managing applications, to advances in health care, transportation, retail and virtual every other industry, the intelligent IoT has the potential to revolutionize the way we live, work and play.

More of the IT Business Edge article from Arthur Cole

CIO Strategy / Data center compliance / Disaster Recovery / IT Governance / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
28
Apr 17

IT Business Edge – Perception or Reality: Your Security System Is Probably Weaker Than You Think

How confident are you about your cybersecurity operations? If you are like the vast majority of respondents in Arctic Wolf Networks’ recent survey, you are highly confident in your cybersecurity defenses.

However, the perception of cybersecurity operations doesn’t match the reality for these mid-market companies. While 95 percent of the respondents think their security posture is well above average and 89 percent think their security systems are combatting attacks, large majorities also admit that they aren’t able to stop certain types of threats and they are so overwhelmed with the breadth of overall IT that security isn’t given the attention it deserves. In a formal statement, Brian NeSmith, CEO of Arctic Wolf Networks, said:

Most mid-market enterprises believe they are safe because they have the traditional perimeter defenses in place. This falls far short of what’s needed for rigorous security in today’s complex threat environment. The challenge smaller enterprises face is that they have all the same security issues as large enterprises with only a fraction of the budget and less specialized personnel.

More of the IT Business Edge post from Sue Marquette Poremba

CIO Strategy / IT Staff Retention — Comments Off
27
Apr 17

Harvard Business Review – What to Do About Mediocrity on Your Team

What are you doing to stop the diligent pursuit of mediocrity in your business?

The toughest test of a manager is not how they deal with poor performance — it’s how they address mediocrity.

I’ve been struck over the years watching executives opine in public about the need for “accountability” and “high performance,” then complain helplessly in private about one or two middling members of their own team. You have no moral authority to ask other managers to hold people accountable if you’re not doing so yourself. Are you sure you’re doing enough to push for high performance? What do you do when someone’s work is good but not great? How many employees do you have whose performance isn’t bad enough for termination, but whom you’d pass on if you could get a do-over on hiring them?

Unfortunately, if you’re hoping for a silver bullet to address a mediocre performer, I have little to offer. Chronic mediocrity is a symptom of ineffective leadership, not anemic personnel.

More of the Harvard Business Review post from Joseph Grenny

CIO Strategy / Data Center / Get Better / IT Staff Retention / IT Strategy — Comments Off
26
Apr 17

Data Center Knowledge – Busy in the Data Center? Here’s How to Make Time for Learning

Continuing education should be a top priority for anyone involved with data centers or the entire IT field for that matter. It’s especially important in industries such as healthcare for example. While new technologies and approaches don’t always save lives, they can certainly alter the landscape of the market. Times change, and so should you. While we may agree that continuing education is fundamental to both organizational success and the development of one’s career, it’s not always easy to fit it into a busy schedule.

Keep in mind, continuing education does not have to mean an additional university degree or even a new certification. Your CE approach can take a number of different forms.

More of the Data Center Knowledge article from Karen Riccio

Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.