IT Strategy

CIO Strategy / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
08
Jul 16

CIO Dashboard – A CIO’s Guide for Engaging the Board

Guest post by Paula Loop, Leader of PwC’s Governance Insights Center

New technologies from artificial intelligence and drones to 3-D printing, predictive analytics, and driverless cars are disrupting how companies compete and create value. US CEOs believe investing in technology is the most direct path to meaningful innovation and operational efficiency, but these new technologies are generating risks that Boards are scrambling to contain.

The average age of a director at a public company is 63 years old. The majority of public company directors aren’t sitting executives who work through technological advancements in their day jobs. Given the pace of technological change, how can boards really be on top of their game?

Directors recognize their dilemma. Nearly one-third of directors polled in our 2015 Annual Corporate Directors Survey say their board isn’t sufficiently or at all engaged in overseeing/understanding the company’s annual IT budget. Similarly, 33% say the company’s approach to IT strategy and risk mitigation doesn’t anticipate potential advantages from emerging technologies.

What’s the solution? Should we swap all sitting directors with millennials and the technologically savvy? Or should we push companies to prioritize IT awareness and devote elements of board meetings to IT education? The answer lies somewhere in between.

More of the CIO Dashboard article from Chris Curran

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Cloud infrastructure / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
06
Jul 16

CIOInsight – The Heavy Cost of System Downtime

IT system outages have emerged as fairly routine issues for companies today—and the resulting downtime amounts to a five-figure financial hit every day, according to recent research from CloudEndure. The resulting “2016 Disaster Recovery Survey” report reveals that while the majority of IT professionals say they’ve set service availability goals of 99.9% (a.k.a., the industry standard “three nines” mark), far fewer say they’re capable of achieving this “most of the time.” As for the culprits? Either human error or network failures are usually to blame, not to mention app bugs, storage failures and (of course) the ever-troublesome hacker. Disaster recovery solutions would help. However, only a minority of businesses use disaster recovery for the majority of their servers.

More of the CIO Insight slideshow from Dennis McCafferty

CIO Strategy / IT Strategy — Comments Off
05
Jul 16

SearchDataCenter – IT lifecycle management drives smarter refresh decisions

Here’s a nice look at the PC refresh model from a business perspective.

IT teams need to strike a balance between keeping up with the latest technology and being cost-effective. Proper IT lifecycle management techniques can help.

IT is a highly dynamic environment, with new products constantly coming to market. For organizations that want to have the best of everything, they must chase the market and accept the high cost of continuously replacing or updating their IT systems. Having the most up-to-date platform all the time doesn’t always work from a cost-benefit standpoint.

The majority of organizations follow one of two IT lifecycle management models for equipment refreshes. In the first model, organizations view equipment as having a nominal lifespan, and then replace it. If the piece of equipment fails during its lifespan, they either replace it with a similar specification to avoid retro-testing existing workloads against a new infrastructure or with a newer, more powerful and energy-efficient system.

More of the SearchDataCenter article from Clive Longbottom

CIO Strategy / Digital Transformation / IT Strategy — Comments Off
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

CIO Strategy / Data Center / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
21
Jun 16

Data Center Knowledge – FedRAMP’s Lack of Transparency Irks Government IT Decision Makers

Four out of five federal cloud decision makers are frustrated with FedRAMP, according to a new report from government IT public-private partnership MeriTalk. Federal IT professionals said they are frustrated with a lack of transparency into the process.

MeriTalk surveyed 150 Federal IT decision makers in April for the FedRAMP Fault Lines report, and found that 65 percent of respondents at defense agencies, and 55 percent overall, do not believe that FedRAMP has increased security. Perhaps even worse, 41 percent are unfamiliar with the General Service Administration’s (GSA) plans to fix FedRAMP. The GSA announced FedRAMP Accelerated in March.

“Despite efforts to improve, FedRAMP remains cracked at the foundation,” said MeriTalk founder Steve O’Keeffe. “We need a FedRAMP fix – the PMO must improve guidance, simplify the process, and increase transparency.”

More of the Data Center Knowledge article from Chris Burt

CIO Strategy / IT Strategy / Uncategorized — Comments Off
17
Jun 16

IT Business Edge – Leadership Lessons for IT Professionals from an Iraq War Hero

A lot of IT professionals find themselves in positions they never really envisioned themselves being in: leadership positions. They had always felt fulfilled career-wise by meeting technology challenges, and never really aspired to be leaders of anyone. And yet here they are, with responsibilities involving the professional well-being of other people. To whom should they turn for advice?

I’d start with Justin Constantine. He knows what it’s like to be in a position he didn’t expect to be in.

On October 18, 2006, Constantine, a U.S. Marine Corps officer deployed to Iraq, was on patrol when a shot rang out from an enemy sniper. In that split second, Constantine’s life changed forever. The bullet entered his head behind his left ear, and exploded out of his mouth. That he survived is attributable to the miraculous efforts of a brave Navy corpsman on the scene. Today, he can’t see out of his left eye, and part of his tongue is missing. But he can speak, following multiple surgeries to rebuild his jaw with bones from other parts of his body. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress and a traumatic brain injury.

More of the IT Business Edge article from Don Tennant

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Get Better / IT Strategy — Comments Off
16
Jun 16

CIOInsight – Why IT Must Pursue an Information Governance Plan

Most organizations can benefit from outside help on governance. Call me if you’re looking for resources.

The majority of IT executives said their organization is either implementing a formal information governance (IG) program or is planning to do so, according to a recent survey from Veritas. The resulting “State of Information Governance” report defines IG as “the activities and technologies that organizations employ to maximize the value of their information while minimizing associated risks and costs.” To support this, the research reveals that most companies are issuing formal data use policies and requiring employees to identify data that is confidential. They’re also training staffers on data storage and archiving. In addition, findings break down organizations into those which are “high performing” on IG, and those which are not. While overall adoption rates among both are strong, high performers are more likely to deploy email and file archiving, while issuing formal use policies. “Information is both the lifeblood and the bane of any business, no matter its size, industry or location,” according to the report. “Enterprises collect and analyze data from a myriad of internal and external sources to improve business efficiencies and decision-making processes.

More of the CIOInsight slideshow from Dennis McCafferty

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Get Better / IT Strategy — Comments Off
15
Jun 16

HBR – The Dirty Little Secret About Digitally Transforming Operations

Earlier this year, we walked the halls of the Hannover Messe, one of Europe’s largest events for industrial manufacturers. The newest robots, 3-D printing systems, and data-mining hardware and services were all there along with a host of people hyping Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT), Digital Manufacturing, and big data and advanced analytics. It seemed as though everybody from the best-known software giants to basic industrial parts providers was marketing a “latest technological breakthrough” — even if it amounted to little more than a new sensor attached to an old piece of equipment.

Amazing dreams were being sold: A black box that could be installed in your plant and would improve your competitiveness — all by itself; big data servers and algorithms that would tell you how to improve your process — with no additional engineering investment; virtual-reality glasses that would make your workforce more productive — just by putting them on.

It was all reminiscent of 19th century advertisements for cure-all patent medicines.

More of the Harvard Business Review article from Markus Hammer, Malte Hippe, Christoph Schmitz, Richard Sellschop and Ken Somers

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13
May 16

CIO Insight – How Security Laws Inhibit Information Sharing

Third-party vendors could provide compliance services to companies and ISAOs, a likely market solution given that they already have expertise and can spread the cost among many clients.

A new report finds that although there is a need for actionable threat intelligence and information-sharing worldwide, significant obstacles exist because of data privacy and protection and national security laws. The result is a chilling effect on cross-border cooperation that must be addressed. In that spirit, the report, “Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations: Putting Theory into Practice,” by Price Waterhouse Cooper, analyzes global legal hurdles to information-sharing and offers potential solutions.

More of the CIO Insight article from Karen Frenkel

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / IT Security / IT Strategy — Comments Off
12
May 16

HBR – https://hbr.org/2016/05/the-impact-of-the-blockchain-goes-beyond-financial-services

The technology most likely to change the next decade of business is not the social web, big data, the cloud, robotics, or even artificial intelligence. It’s the blockchain, the technology behind digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Blockchain technology is complex, but the idea is simple. At its most basic, blockchain is a vast, global distributed ledger or database running on millions of devices and open to anyone, where not just information but anything of value – money, titles, deeds, music, art, scientific discoveries, intellectual property, and even votes – can be moved and stored securely and privately. On the blockchain, trust is established, not by powerful intermediaries like banks, governments and technology companies, but through mass collaboration and clever code. Blockchains ensure integrity and trust between strangers. They make it difficult to cheat.

In other words, it’s the first native digital medium for value, just as the internet was the first native digital medium for information. And this has big implications for business and the corporation.

Much of the hype around blockchains has focused on their potential to fundamentally change the financial services industry – by dropping the cost and complexity of financial transactions, making the world’s unbanked a viable new market, and improving transparency and regulation. Indeed, it is already having a big impact on that sector. However, our two-year research project, involving hundreds of interviews with blockchain experts, provides strong evidence that the blockchain could transform business, government, and society in perhaps even more profound ways.

More of the Harvard Business Review article from Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott

Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.