Tag Archives: CIO

Adapting to Data as a CIO

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The data revolution has put companies in an interesting position—swamped with information, it is now their responsibility to ascertain actionable insights as fast as possible to avoid falling behind. It’s a challenge to keep up—while there are plenty of tools for collecting big data, and plenty to analyze it as well, the sheer variety can overwhelm a CIO not prepared for the influx.

Because of this, data agility is king. Anyone can collect large amounts of data, but it takes a skill to translate this data into something that companies can take advantage of. Cloud platforms and databases such as Hadoop can help this effort in many ways, but it still falls to the CIO to track recent innovations and keep current. This in of itself requires a strong knowledge of data best practices; no company can adopt every new innovation, but picking and choosing the right scalable data infrastructure can ease the burden of adapting as time goes on.

A big part of a CIO’s responsibility to agile data is choosing a cloud platform that’s right for their business. Different individuals and stakeholders may have a diverse array of opinions on which is best. For instance, Google Cloud Platform may be preferred by a company’s data scientists for its machine learning capabilities, whereas the integration capability offered by Azure may be a good choice for developers. In cases like these, where a company will have to serve a variety of cloud users, it may be smart to consider a multicloud infrastructure to accommodate for as many needs as possible. This approach, though potentially more costly, can ensure that companies are able to harness the developments of each of these platforms in the future.

Beyond infrastructure, other tools exist to help a company maximize its data agility. Apache Drill is one such tool that circumvents the need for IT assistance to query data. It’s an SQL query engine that avoids the problems associated with schema creation while being ANSI SQL:2003 compliant. This and other tools like it are the key to gaining data insight as quickly as possible by cutting down on cycle time.

And concerns about data processing have changed over time. Before, hand coding data architecture was more common, and though it may still be serviceable for small, specialized projects, it is the antithesis to data agility in that it is time consuming to develop and always created for a specific platform. A better alternative for the modern business is data integration software, which takes the burden off of the business and supports new innovations and all types of cloud data.

That said, it takes a bit of vetting to choose the right integration software. The ideal software should be scalable, cross-platform, and allow for real-time data processing. It’s called an agile data fabric, and it’s meant to synthesize all types of data a company will need to work with. Platform agnosticism is important for the same reasons why a multicloud infrastructure is valuable; it allows the company to take advantage of new innovations and specific capabilities.

Organizations should also strive to be self-sufficient with their data. A controlled move to properly distributed data can greatly enhance insight. However, this requires a number of different participants within a company, including IT staff and dedicated data analysts, all with their own needs. A savvy CIO can craft an infrastructure that meets everyone’s needs and allows for scaling as innovation continues its mad rush forward.

Adopting the Cloud in 2017

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With a new year comes resolutions—personal objectives for an individual to complete. Too often, the grand dream of exercising more often does not come to fruition, leading to empty gyms and admissions that the whole effort was “good enough.”

On a greater level, the new year gives businesses a chance to rethink how they run themselves—particularly when it comes to things like cloud systems.

It has been mentioned a few times on this very blog that cloud systems are revolutionizing enterprise data management. The cloud computing industry grew by 25% in 2016 and is expected to continue that sort of progress in the near future. Perhaps more telling is the rapid growth of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) by 53%, indicating a rise in interest in public cloud services.

So, in 2017, let’s have a look at some of the more viable cloud strategies that enterprises can adopt as their own new year’s resolutions. Hey, at least it’s not a gym membership.

The Public Option

Of course, the truth of the matter is that businesses that take advantage of cloud opportunities will fare better in the future that those that don’t. This has caused some degree of controversy, especially among small businesses that may not have the time or resources to kickstart their own cloud network.

That said, even these businesses can harness cloud services through the ever-popular public cloud. If they lack a CIO, which they likely will, they may not be able to enjoy the full benefits of whatever platform they decide to use, but still stand to benefit in the form of better storage, backup, and information sharing.

The Hybrid Option

Everything about the cloud is set to herald in a new era of IT-driven success in business. As a professional in the field, I’m ecstatic to see cloud computing given so much attention in the technology sector.

Despite my earlier mentions of public cloud systems, I believe that a hybrid cloud approach is best for businesses capable of running the private components on their own. Of course, infrastructure is necessary for a private cloud to work, but the speed of having on-site data access as opposed to relying on public Internet is very often an advantage.

Beyond that, one of the great aspects of the hybrid cloud is the ability to “pay as you go” for public services, giving businesses flexibility when more computing power than usual is needed.

Rise of Bimodal IT

Now, more than ever, this is the time to adopt cloud services, particularly for businesses that possess a robust IT department. A 2014 CIO Agenda report by Gartner details the ways that a hybrid cloud model can bring further opportunities to enterprises through what it calls “bimodal IT.”

Bimodal IT, referred to as one of the large components of digital transformation, is the practice of managing two work styles, one rooted in established practices and another focused on exploratory tactics. The hybrid cloud enables this progressive practice by allowing easy “overlay” across existing platforms, whereas companies operating primarily from physical servers may face problems with their hardware becoming outdated.

This is perhaps the biggest challenge that big businesses will face in the coming years. While small businesses may not have an existing IT support structure, they can also adopt cloud services without worrying too much about how it interacts with existing infrastructure.

Here’s to a New Year!

As we continue to move into 2017, it is important to remember that the IT industry is constantly in a state of flux. Businesses can’t anticipate every development that will be made, but adopting a cloud-based infrastructure gives them unprecedented flexibility to adapt to computing demand.

The New CIO

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The New CIO by Scott Maurice

The Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey is the largest IT leadership survey in the world. Now in its 18th year, this year’s survey includes the perspectives of 3,352 CIOs and technology leaders across 82 countries.

The 2016 survey results have a lot to say on the evolving role of today’s CIO. Most importantly, we see a number of statistics supporting a trend many have identified in tech for the past several years: CIO’s are increasingly expected to play a bigger role in the overall digital strategy and profitability of the company, not just in “keeping the lights on.”

As CIO’s are becoming more strategically, rather than operationally minded, how they work, who they collaborate with, and what skills are most important to the role also begin to change. Here are some of the key findings from the report.

CIO’s priorities are shifting from saving money to making money.

Survey results found that the CEO is now the most likely role within a company to “own” digital, at 21 percent. With the majority of CEO’s (63 percent) also now believe that IT projects should focus on making money, rather than the traditional role of saving money (37 percent), it makes sense that more CIO’s (34 percent, a 10 percent increase over last year) are now reporting directly into the CEO. Rather than having IT function within its own bubble, prioritizing operational efficiency over anything else, the CEO and CIO are increasingly expected to work side by side in making core business decisions about the digital landscape of the company.

According to those surveyed, the importance of increasing operational efficiencies has dropped noticeably over the last four years (by 16 percent) including an astounding 27 percent drop in the importance of delivering stable IT performance (once the foundation of a CIO’s role.)

Moreover, CIO’s are actually pretty happy with this shift, with 87 percent of CIOs working under a CEO (rather than COO or CTO) reporting job fulfillment (the highest of any group.)

CIO’s are working more cross-functionally.

The time a CIO is spending internally focused on managing IT specific goals is reducing while the time they spend working with colleagues from different departments and even customers are increasing. 40 percent of CIOs surveyed said they spend at least one day a week working outside IT.

This trend is even more apparent in smaller businesses, where CIO’s are more than five times as likely to spend the majority of their time working on external-facing projects such as developing stakeholder relationships and growth strategies, instead of traditional IT functions like systems and infrastructure.

As KPMG International global CIO Advisory Service Network Lead Lisa Heneghan explains, this data “supports the view that the role of the CIO is becoming more strategic – there is a need for CIOs to talk business strategy and provide a platform to enable this.”

Adam Woodhouse, Director of CIO Advisory at KPMG, argues that the rise of specialized digital roles such as the CDO (chief digital officer) and the CTO has given CIOs “a jolt to recognize that to be relevant and support growth they cannot focus on their own world in isolation.”

CIO’s must become agile.

Even though a CIO’s emphasis is shifting away from straightforward operational efficiency, this doesn’t mean CIO’s can skimp on their technical expertise. In fact, 39 percent of respondents believe there’s a huge skills shortage in big data and analytics functions, up from 36 percent the year before. And almost two-thirds (65 percent) of CIOs say they believe a lack of talent in these areas will prevent their organization from keeping up with the pace of change, a 10 percent increase in just 12 months.

“It is a given that the lights must be kept on, but we have seen from the survey an increasing emphasis on supporting business growth, and agility is fundamental to this,” Woodhouse explain.

The cloud is a ‘core element’ of driving an agile methodology (a principle based on failing fast and learning from every error.) 69 percent of large organizations surveyed reported expecting to make a ‘significant’ investment across infrastructure, platform, and software as a service in the next three years to increase agility.

“When we asked what steps CIOs are taking to make their business more agile, there was the obvious top answer of implementing agile methodologies, but a clear second place was given to implementing SaaS solutions.”

“The role of the CIO is becoming less defensive and more proactive in stimulating debate on what technology can bring to the organization and benefit its customers,” Heneghan claims. “Therefore I see the relationship becoming more balanced and the dialogue two way, rather than the CIO always responding to requests or issues.”

Albert Ellis, CEO, Harvey Nash Group says, “Whilst the Harvey Nash / KPMG CIO Survey reveals the CIO is enjoying unprecedented influence, it also shows the role is being stretched in many directions. From grappling with an increasing cyber security threat, to working with the board on innovation and digital transformation, CIOs in 2016 are dealing with a more varied range of challenges than ever before, many of which are far, far away from traditional IT. Adaptability, influencing skills and an ability to keep a clear head in uncertain times are becoming increasingly important business skills for today’s CIO.”

CIO’s are outsourcing more, and it’s not just to save money.

Typically, companies outsource to save a few bucks. This year’s survey supports a fundamental change in the reason companies, and especially IT, outsource: respondents claim their primary motivation is a demand for certain skills and flexibility.

Not only are their motivations changing, but so are their budgets. In fact, half of CIOs (50 percent) say they will increase their investment in outsourcing this year, up by four percent from 2015. And 10 percent of CIO’s at small organizations will rely on contingent staff for more than three quarters of their team (five times higher than the rate CIOs at large organizations.)

The influence of the CIO will continue to grow.

Some reading this report may initially wonder if the job role of the CIO is becoming redundant as more digital focused, C-suite executive roles (i.e. CDO) are created, but the report squashes this worry. The proportion of CIOs sitting on the executive board or senior leadership committee is actually at its highest level in 11 years, with more than two thirds (67 percent) of respondents expecting the strategic influence of the CIO to go up in 2016.

As for what 2017 will bring, Woodhouse sees no reason this trend should slow down. “I expect the strategic importance of the role to continue to increase, and as such we will see CIOs spending even greater amounts of their time outside of the traditional fortress [of] IT,” he claims.

“We know that cloud adoption will continue to develop and this needs to be integrated with business strategy to truly drive differentiation – I will be interested if skill shortages in this area hamper CIOs delivering,” he adds. “We also absolutely expect to see an increase in the adoption of digital labour strategies which may displace the broader ‘digital’ strategy question.”

In summary, Heneghan adds, “We are on the cusp of a significant development in the 4th Industrial Revolution. This is driving new demands on the CIO and we are seeing the evolution of a ‘Creative CIO’ who is both a technology and business strategist, and a business model innovator. This Creative CIO is moving away from ‘keeping the lights on’, to enabling the business to create value.”