IT Leadership

InformationWeek- Debunking Three Common Cloud Misconceptions

Combatting the misconceptions surrounding cloud computing requires continuous exploration of new opportunities emerging today because of ongoing cloud technology innovations.

Each organization’s digital transformation is different, based on internal operational goals, desired business outcomes and unique customer needs. Despite specific requirements of individual businesses, there’s an important common denominator in our digital era: the need for increased agility. The speed at which organizations need to perform and transform continues to accelerate – the ability to adjust course in real-time to best serve internal and external audiences is paramount, and best enabled with open cloud platforms.

More of the InformationWeek post from Jeff Canter

CIO Strategy / IT Leadership / IT Strategy — Comments Off
03
Jan 19

CIO.com – 4 KPIs IT should ditch (and what to measure instead)

Everything about your job has changed. It’s time your metrics did too.

Craig Williams, CIO of telecommunications networking company Ciena, knows exactly how his IT team will be evaluated by the company’s leaders in 2019. They will look at a wide range of metrics that include things like talent management (days to fill open position, number of employees completing management development), profit participation (revenue per IT employee), and change management (rate of adoption for new social media, data, and collaboration tools).

More of the CIO.com article from Minda Zetlin

Business continuity / CIO Strategy / Disaster Recovery / IT Governance / IT Leadership / IT Strategy — Comments Off
01
Jan 19

Continuity Central – Business continuity trends and challenges 2019: interim survey results

For the past five years Continuity Central has conducted an online survey asking business continuity professionals about their expectations for the year ahead. We are repeating the survey again this year and the interim results are now available. They are as follows…

Initial demographics
So far, the majority of respondents (76.5 percent) are from business continuity professionals operating in large organizations. 9.5 percent are from medium sized and 14 percent are from small sized organizations. The top responding country so far is the United States, where 39 percent of respondents are located; followed by the UK (22.5 percent) and Australia (6 percent).

Interim results
The interim results from each question are as follows:

What level of changes do you expect to see in the way your organization manages business continuity during 2019?

WSJ – CIOs Share Their Favorite Books of 2018

We asked CIOs to nominate their favorite books of 2018 and what we discovered is that the work never stops. When chief information officers have time to crack open a book, they want answers. This year’s favorites include guides to building better teams, creating the right culture and survival tips for a post-apocalyptic earth.

The Four by Scott GallowayPicked by Mark Sims, CIO, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company”I’ve recommended The Four by Scott Galloway to at least a dozen people and bought multiple copies for colleagues. Galloway’s characterization of Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse is a really enjoyable read. I don’t buy all of his arguments, but he definitely takes positions that make you think – all in a writing style that is informal, humorous and engaging.”

InformationWeek – After 60 Years, IT’s Time for a Name Change

After 60 years, it’s time to reexamine how we label and think about information technology, and to give the profession a fresh start.

The term “information technology,” was coined 60 years ago in November 1958 by Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler in their Harvard Business Review article “Management in the 1980’s,” which speculated about what would happen to the American managerial structure with the coming wave of technology.

Not only did they name it, it stuck. Now, 60 years later, those of us with wide-ranging jobs in technology, from DevOps to network architect to chief innovation officer are referred to by the irksome catch-all: “IT”.

More of the InformationWeek article from Timonth Wenhold

IT Governance / IT Leadership / Risk Management — Comments Off
26
Dec 18

CIO.com – IT Risk Management Part 1: The Changing Technology Risk Landscape

The technology risk landscape for mobile, IoT and cloud is changing — fast. Companies are adjusting to keep up with the speed and velocity of change, including the adoption of emerging technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and blockchain. As a result, there is an increasingly direct connection between IT risk and enterprise risk—and, more broadly, enterprise strategy.

More of the CIO.com article from Sharon Goldman

Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / IaaS / IT Governance / IT Leadership — Comments Off
18
Dec 18

IT Business Edge – Hybrid Cloud Computing Emerges as Next Big IT Management Challenge

Going into 2019, it’s apparent that a major challenge facing IT leaders will be to bring the cost of cloud computing under control. While cloud computing in theory reduces the cost of IT, it turns out that the operational complexity of supporting multiple cloud computing platforms alongside existing on-premises IT environments has become quite expensive. IT leaders clearly need to bring some order to the cloud computing chaos.

A recent report from International Data Corp. (IDC) highlights the extent of the challenge. The survey finds that most customers (64 percent) are employing multiple clouds. But only 24 percent of IT organizations have a high degree of interoperability between their cloud environments, while another 40 percent say they have achieved low interoperability between their clouds. But only 7 percent say they have managed to build a true hybrid cloud through multiple IT environments that are managed via a single control plane. IT organizations that are trying to manage disparate IT environments in isolation from one another are going to incur higher operational costs.

More of the IT Business Edge article from Mike Vizard

CIO Strategy / IT Governance / IT Leadership / IT Security / IT Staff Retention / IT Strategy — Comments Off
14
Dec 18

Accidental Successful CIO – CIOs Are Discovering That Humans Are Important Too

As the person with the CIO job, you have a very important question that you have to find the answer to. What is more important to your IT department: people or technology. We spend a great deal of time thinking and learning about technology because we understand the importance of information technology. Our ability to use more and more technology to further automate how our company does business seems to be increasing every day. One way to look at the future is that ultimately machines will do all of the work and the IT department really won’t need people (except for you) any more. Can this be correct?

More of the Accidental Successful CIO post from Dr. Jim

CIO Strategy / IT Leadership / IT Staff Retention / IT Strategy — Comments Off
13
Dec 18

CIO.com – 10 signs top talent may soon leave

In a tight tech talent market, employee retention is key. These tell-tale signs that highly valued team members may be considering moving on will help you get in front of turnover before it’s too late.

Tech workers are changing jobs more frequently than ever. A 2018 report from LinkedIn found that amid all sectors surveyed, technology had the highest turnover rate. And a majority of workers from all industries increasingly see job hopping as a positive move with benefits that include higher salaries, reports a survey by staffing firm Robert Half. According to the report, about 64 percent of workers think changing careers every few years was beneficial, a spike of 22 percent over the last four years. And job-hopping especially appeals to younger younger workers, with about 75 percent seeing good reasons to change jobs frequently.

More of the CIO.com article from Paul Heltzel

CIO Strategy / IT Governance / IT Leadership / IT Security / IT Staff Retention / IT Strategy — Comments Off
12
Dec 18

CIO.com – The 9 new rules of IT leadership

Thanks to rapidly changing technology solutions and strategies, the old rules IT used to swear by are no longer relevant. Here’s what has replaced them.

Few things in the world have changed more dramatically over the past 10 years than technology. But many tech leaders are still playing by old, outdated rules.

Gone are the days when IT gave orders that everyone in the enterprise was compelled to follow. But equally absent are the days when IT itself was strictly an order taker, simply trying to fulfill the demands of business executives.

More of the CIO.com article from Dan Tynan

Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.