Digital Transformation

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IT Governance / IT Security / IT Strategy / Shadow IT — Comments Off on ZDNet – Half of all cloud services outside of IT departments, but IT is getting wiser
10
Aug 16

ZDNet – Half of all cloud services outside of IT departments, but IT is getting wiser

A new study from the esteemed Ponemon Institute says we still aren’t doing nearly enough to protect enterprises in the cloud.

For starters, the survey of 3,476 IT and IT security practitioners, commissioned by Gemalto, a digital security vendor, finds that half of all cloud services and corporate data stored in cloud are not controlled by IT departments. So, there’s a lot of cloud activity among business units that’s potentially not vetted or governed.

However, IT departments are getting a better handle on things, the survey also shows. Fifty-four percent of respondents are “confident” that the IT organization knows all cloud computing applications, platform or infrastructure services in use – a nine percent increase from a similar survey from 2014.

The survey doesn’t spell out how and why IT is getting a better grip on shadow cloud adoption. It may be assumed that there are more policies in place and greater communication and collaboration on best practices. IT may be getting more active in its evolving role as cloud broker or service provider to the enterprise, providing catalogs or directories of vetted services available to business users.

More of the ZDNet post from Joe McKendrick

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off on IT Business Edge – Tread Carefully into the Mission-Critical Cloud
08
Aug 16

IT Business Edge – Tread Carefully into the Mission-Critical Cloud

The initial phase of the cloud transition is nearly done, with more than three-quarters of enterprises pushing at least a portion of their workload to public infrastructure.

As expected, however, most of this is non-critical data and applications and is largely limited to storage and backup services rather than production workloads. So it stands to reason that the next leg of the cloud journey will involve mission-critical workloads – the stuff that sets the corporate suite’s hair on fire if it should cease to function for any reason.

This is why the growth of cloud computing is likely to slow down some as we approach the next decade. It’s not that the enterprise is growing tired of the cloud or is starting to see more of its flaws (yes, the cloud does have flaws), but that future deployments will have to be handled with more care as the stakes get higher. Not only will cloud services have to be more resilient going forward, but they will be increasingly optimized from the ground up to suit highly targeted processes, which takes time and coordination between users and providers.

More of the IT Business Edge post from Arthur Cole

CIO Strategy / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IT Security / IT Strategy / Uncategorized — Comments Off on CIO Dashboard – CIOs Wanted for Innovation Expansion
29
Jul 16

CIO Dashboard – CIOs Wanted for Innovation Expansion

Do CIOs have a role in product development? Some say no. Call on the CTO or CDO or CMO. But those who wish to banish CIOs to the backend of the enterprise for eternity haven’t taken a close look at what’s needed in the enterprise as innovation shifts from products to software and service solutions.

We’re in the midst of an innovation boom. Traditional, standalone products are no longer enough to wow and woo customers. Enterprises are setting up innovation outposts in Silicon Valley to tap into the culture and brainpower of startups to develop sticky products that customers can’t live without. Call it digital or the new way of doing business, but savvy companies are converging technology, data and product design to expand innovation. Think of software and service solutions this way…

Are you selling a fitness wearable or giving consumers the thrill of learning what they’re physically capable of and sharing the experience with family and friends?
Are you providing a refrigerator or empowering people with a remote access view of their food so they can spend more time at home breaking bread with family versus shopping?
Are you offering a ride from here to there or the freedom for people to move fast and fluidly with on-demand availability to cars and data that enable them to make decisions about how they spend their time?
This trend is crossing industries, but consider the automotive sector as one example

More of the CIO Dashboard article from Chris Curran

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IT Strategy — Comments Off on Baseline – Cloud-First—Except When Performance Matters
19
Jul 16

Baseline – Cloud-First—Except When Performance Matters

Many companies have a cloud-first policy that hosts as many applications as possible in the cloud, but apps that are latency-sensitive are staying on premise.

In the name of achieving increased IT agility, many organizations have implemented a cloud-first policy that requires as many application workloads as possible to be hosted in the cloud. The thinking is that it will be faster to deploy and provision IT resources in the cloud.

While that’s true for most classes of workloads, those applications that are latency-sensitive are staying home to run on premise.

Speaking at a recent Hybrid Cloud Summit in New York, Tom Koukourdelis, senior director for cloud architecture at Nasdaq, said there are still whole classes of high-performance applications that need to run in real time. Trying to access those applications across a wide area network (WAN) simply isn’t feasible. The fact of the matter, he added, is that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all cloud computing environment.

More of the Baseline article from Mike Vizard

CIO Strategy / Digital Transformation / IT Strategy — Comments Off on IT Business Edge – Confused by Digital Transformation? Welcome to the Club
18
Jul 16

IT Business Edge – Confused by Digital Transformation? Welcome to the Club

If you feel that you’re falling behind in the race to digital transformation, take heart – you’re not alone. It turns out that a good chunk of enterprise leaders believe they are either coming up short in building the next-generation data environment or are unsure where they stand because the definition of success is too vague.

This should not come as a huge surprise, of course, since digital transformation is unlike technology developments of the past, primarily because it involves much more than technology. This time, the change reaches way beyond the data center and into the very heart of the business model, and the business culture, itself.

More of the IT Business Edge article from Arthur Cole

Bi-Modal IT / CIO Strategy / Data Center / Digital Transformation / IT Security / Uncategorized — Comments Off on CloudExpo Journal – The End Goal of Digital Transformation
11
Jul 16

CloudExpo Journal – The End Goal of Digital Transformation

Although we often write about and discuss digital transformation, we often fail to identify the end goal we are really trying to achieve. We talk at great length about data, analytics, speed, information logistics systems and personalized user experiences, but none of these are the end goal. Ultimately we must digitally transform so we can remove the “fog of war,” and have clear visibility and insights into our businesses and the needs of our customers. The end goal of digital transformation, however, is the ability to rapidly act and react to changing data, competitive conditions and strategies fast enough to succeed.

Knowledge is nothing, if not tied to action. In a recent survey of 500 managers, they reported the number one mistake companies are making in digital transformation is moving too slow. They may have all the necessary information and strategies, but if they are incapable of acting or reacting fast enough to matter, then it is wasted. True digital transformation includes the information logistics systems capable of collecting, analyzing and reporting data fast enough to be useful, plus the ability to act and react in response.

More of the CloudExpo Journal from Kevin Benedict

CIO Strategy / Digital Transformation / IT Strategy — Comments Off on HBR – How to Navigate a Digital Transformation
29
Jun 16

HBR – How to Navigate a Digital Transformation

Here’s a simple approach from the Harvard Business Review to get started on improving your organization via digital.

An organization is essentially the sum total of its physical, financial, human, intellectual, and relationship capital. Different industries and different business models have always maintained different percentages of these asset types. Manufacturers invest most of their capital into physical assets, while high-tech firms invest in R&D to create new intellectual capital. But all assets are not created equal, especially as the technological landscape changes.

In today’s market, tech platforms enable IP and relationships to scale rapidly, and at near-zero cost. This is the phenomenon that has led to exciting platform businesses like Facebook, LinkedIn, Match.com, Uber, and Airbnb. Even when these firms rely on physical assets, like cars for Uber, they own the technology, not the physical asset. Meanwhile, the laggards continue to spend their time and money on assets that do not scale so easily — physical goods (such as manufacturing plants or inventory) and human capital (such as highly trained employees that deliver services). Digital transformation requires that companies reallocate their asset portfolio to support new, digitally enabled business models.

There’s no question why legacy organizations are tackling digital transformation now. Digital native upstarts are gutting traditional industries one at a time, leveraging scalable technology and participative networks. But shifting a firm’s asset portfolio is a lengthy process and is fraught with uncertainty for leaders comfortable with older asset types.

More of the Harvard Business Review article from By Yoram (Jerry) Wind, Barry Libert, and Megan Beck

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