FEATURE: STATE OF THE CIO
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Neil Barton, CTO at WhereScape
Paul Parker
that can manage an organisation’ s entire IT resilience operation – cloud mobility, backup and disaster recovery – from a single viewpoint.
“ With IT acting as the driving force for business transformation, the modern CIO needs to be at the forefront of creating a converged technology strategy that enables, protects and supports the business roadmap – and combined IT resilience is key to this.”
The value of data and new CIO concerns
In essence, the role of the CIO has vastly transformed over the years to take on a more consultative and strategic approach. However, with data and information arguably as valuable as any other currency, it brings with it security concerns. Garry McCracken, VP of Technology Partnerships at WinMagic, thinks this is a problem for the
CIO:“ Data‘ in use’ is the next big problem for CIOs to solve over the coming years. Data is more in motion now than ever before – travelling around on the Internet, eventually coming to rest on laptops, phones, servers or in the cloud. Protecting data as it travels around – as well as protecting it at rest – is becoming increasingly complex.
With many applications moving to the cloud, data is often processed on other people’ s computers or servers. From the military and national security to everyday use in social media, encryption is now an everyday feature of our digital lives.
“ Encryption has gone from the original Advanced Encryption Standard( AES) – which couldn’ t keep up with the changing complexities of encryption and data needs – to FDE( Full Disk Encryption), which now protects the majority of data‘ at rest’. But the story is far from over.”
Gary Watson, CTO and Founder at Nexsan, said:“ Data is the lifeblood of many organisations and being able to store, access and protect it is vital to success. We have moved beyond floppy discs and USB drives to more integrated, secure and flexible storage systems.
“ As the market adapts and changes so do the regulations, thus creating new challenges for privacy and secure data requirements. As a result, we have seen the market adapt as there is a demand for new storage solutions. In the past 50 years we innovated and developed to create a life that is driven by data and its value. Having the ability to support and underpin this is fundamentally essential in today’ s datadriven age.”
The role of the CIO has undoubtedly shifted to take on a wider range of responsibilities, driven by innovation.
WITH TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT SHOWING NO SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN, CIOS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE MARKET, MAKE INFORMED STRATEGIC DECISIONS AND LOOK AT HOW BEST TO DRIVE BUSINESS VALUE.
With technology advancement showing no sign of slowing down, CIOs need to understand the market, make informed strategic decisions and look at how best to drive business value.
Additionally, as technology becomes more fundamental in day-to-day operations, we are seeing the CIO become a more integral part of the business, not just in terms of IT but also when it comes to boardroom decisions. However, where the CIO will be in the next 30 years is still up for debate. •
50 INTELLIGENTCIO www. intelligentcio. com