Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.

By Peter Sondergaard, Gartner, Inc.

The next era of enterprise IT is upon us, but many CIOs are not prepared to manage the demands that come in this new era. We refer to this next era as the digitalization of IT, and it’s the beginning of the digital industrial economy.

According to Gartner’s annual CIO Agenda survey, the CIOs responded to say that they often feel overwhelmed by the prospect of building digital leadership while, at the same time, renovating the core of IT infrastructure and capability for the digital future. The survey found that 51 percent of CIOs are concerned that this change is coming faster than they can cope and 42 percent don’t feel that they have the talent needed to face this future.

The survey, which was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2013, represents the views of more than 2,300 CIOs in 77 countries. The survey highlights the need for CIOs to respond to the dual goals of effectiveness and digitalization.

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Summary: Survey finds traditional CIOs worry more about IT operations, versus digital CIOs, who work closely with top management. But corporate culture may be more a factor than individual styles.

There’s a lot of talk these days about “digital” initiatives, which tend to be treated separately from plain-old information technology work. But are the two really so different?

Yes, says CIO’s Maryfran Johnson, who just presented the results of CIO magazine’s “13th annual State of the CIO” study, which reveals “stark contrasts between traditional CIOs who focus more on internal operations and digital CIOs who expand IT’s influence externally to work directly with customers and business colleagues.”
Data Center at CERN 2 -photo courtesy of CERN Press OfficePhoto: CERN Press Office

In other words, “traditional” CIOs — who worry about the uptime of the mainframe — are different from “digital” CIOs, who are spending time on strategic business growth. (Not to be confused with the emerging title of “chief digital officer,” who focuses on social initiatives, or the existing role of chief technology officer, who is concerned with selling technology solutions.

More of the ZDNet article by Joe McKendrick

You can’t stop people from bringing their mobile devices into a company network. Period.

Seven out of ten companies today are facing the reality of having to define policies and employees rules for personal devices interacting digitally with the company network, states itpro.co.uk. If a company can find a way to keep personal mobile devices relatively safe for the company network, their use can be advantageous, especially in reduced equipment costs for a business and increased productivity.

Luckily there are a variety of Mobile Device Management and Mobile Application Management solutions that enable them to do so. But even with these solutions, it’s important for companies to spell out clear policies.

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It would be an understatement to say that mobility is changing the enterprise. The reality is that this technology is redefining business and IT in profound and permanent ways. But it isn’t only smartphones and tablets that are driving all the disruption. An array of technologies and systems—ranging from the industrial Internet (Internet of things) to the “appification” of everything—are creating remarkable challenges and opportunities. Moreover, the intersection of cloud computing, big data and social media is pushing mobility in new directions and affecting employees and customers in profound ways.

More of the Baseline article by Samuel Greengard