FEATURE: CLOUD MANAGEMENT
across the organisation. While the CEO has
historically been in charge of implementing
change within the organisation, they’ve also
been tasked with maintaining investments,
ensuring cost efficiencies and improving
the bottom line. While that continues to
reign true, the CIO has absorbed some of
that responsibility. In addition to supporting
innovation, the modern day CIO must
manage the IT system, prove efficiencies
and show value to the CEO directly.
Unfortunately, a universal system for this
process is yet to be solidified. According
to InfoTech research, 67% of CEOs are
still unclear on the role IT plays within the
business and 74% of CEOs want their CIO to
do a better job of reporting the value that IT
brings to the business.
This disconnect has left many CIOs feeling
insecure, worrying about their position in
the C-Suite value chain and their ability
to execute and align delivery with overall
business objectives. Yet despite role-related
pressures, the majority of organisations
are still prioritising innovation and plan
to continue on the journey towards
digitalisation. IDC estimates Digital
Transformation spending will grow to
more than 53% of all information and
communications technology investment by
2023, up 36% from where it is today.
Challenges to tackle
This time of transformation is a great
opportunity for CIOs to showcase how IT
56
INTELLIGENTCIO
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Traditional silos and risk
To see success in the migration to a hybrid
multi-cloud environment, organisations must
tackle some of the major hurdles common
within the industry. Unfortunately, one of
the biggest complications comes from within
the organisation.
Alexander Wallner, Senior Vice President
and General Manager EMEA, NetApp
can not only create efficiencies but deliver
more value to the CEO’s goals. To do this, the
CIO must demonstrate what role IT plays in
the business, starting with the prioritisation
of hybrid multi-cloud data management.
Our recent research shows the majority
(60%) of UK IT leaders already have plans
to migrate their apps and data to the public
cloud, and 20% are looking to adopt more
on-premises and public cloud infrastructure
within the next year.
Currently, more than half (57%) of all
organisations can move workloads between
public cloud and on-premises environments,
and almost a quarter (23%) are able to
move between public cloud environments.
On the other hand, 13% of organisations
still don’t have the capabilities, financial
resources or technology to move and
manage data.
Through years of functioning as a traditional
entity, many organisations still operate
through traditional IT silos. This fragmented
approach creates major complications and
leaves a significant disconnect between the
internal function and access to IT. Luckily,
with the implementation of the hybrid cloud
model, an increasing number of IT leaders
are understanding the problem and are
putting the end-user in control. As a result,
many of these traditional silos are being
broken down, ultimately condensing and
democratising access to IT capabilities.
Another common challenge that many
C-Suite leaders face when considering the
move to a hybrid model is risk. This is not
only true in terms of the impact on the
technology, but also its influence on the
bottom line. The good news is that the
public cloud infrastructure is already known
to be secure and built to a high standard,
and some of the largest cloud vendors (AWS,
Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud) have
worked tirelessly to evolve their offerings to
alleviate concerns and ensure workloads are
secure and resilient against both internal
and external threats.
www.intelligentcio.com