Can Cloud Computing Get CIOs A Seat at the Table?
by Carl Weinschenk
At their most basic level, one of the main attractions of cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) is that they enable companies to assign tasks formerly done in-house to outside entities.
This is a huge shift. Organizations gain efficiencies, cut manpower and in most cases improve the quality of the services. In addition to the fee for the services, the cost to the organization is some control over its data and operations.
The job of the IT department is to make as sure as is humanly possible that C-level executives understand the ramifications of the decisions they are making. Of course, the bottom line savings will entice the CEO and CFO. But there are issues of security, regulatory compliance, extensibility (the ease or difficulty with which the platform will change and evolve) and other issues that, cumulatively, are more important than the initial capital investment and short term financial benefits.
This is an opportunity for the IT department on two levels.
From a management perspective, the CIO can raise his or her profile and get the IT department a more central seat at the corporate table. One of the assumptions upon which The IT-Finance Connection was founded is that technology decisions are moving from being more tactical to more strategic in nature. There is no better example than the move to cloud/SaaS.
Put more simply, executives must realize—and are, in many cases—that their companies' futures are determined, not just influenced, by the platforms they implement today. For instance, today's CIO may be called on to advise the CEO and CFO on the ramifications of ditching the age-old approach of sticking a full PC on every desk in favor of dumb terminals using a thin client approach. That's a far more vital issue than whether it is feasible to keep the current full-bells-and-whistle PCs an extra year before replacing them. The CIO gains in stature as the questions get more strategic.
The other advantage is far more practical: Outsourcing these tasks frees up the IT department to be more creative and less reactive. IT staff will be less preoccupied with putting out fires and more engaged in implementing the new strategies that, theoretically, they had a bigger hand in creating.
Carl Weinschenk is an IT and telecommunications journalist. He has been on staff at CableWorld, tele.com and Internet Week. He currently works close with Information Technology Business Edge and runs his own blog/site, The IT-Finance Connection.
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