This applies to full CIO, virtual ones, or even future ones, I believe.
Let start with a simple qualitative benchmark. What’s do some of the interest menu for CIO magazine’s website look like in May 2009:
The reason that CIO’s tend to click on these items a lot in May 2009 is that these items are on the pressing often on the top of their todo lists. The reason they pay attention to these items is likely to be found in this short list:
- What the other C-Level managers, including the CEO. expect the CIO to be doing so, with regard to strategy as well as ongoing operations
- What the CIO thinks they can lower costs in their business by doing so
- What the CIO thinks he can lower risk somewhere in the business by doing so
- then also…
- The CIO thinks he they can improve revenues by doing so
- The CIO thinks he improves scale by doing so
- The CIO thinks can he increase quality or customer satisfaction by doing so
Safe to say, most CIO’s earn they pay with the ones highest on the list, which have been the backbone of the IT value model since the inception of IT.
Let us look specifically at the ‘IT drilldown’ concerns of CIO’s. These are listed as:
- Data Center
- Mobile
- Network
- Security
- SOA
- Virtualization
There is an excellent chance that every professional CIO one meets today will know a great deal about each of these areas, and that they will be eager to learn more – these are not top of the click list for nothing. There is also a great chance that a CEO will expect his or her CIO (virtual or otherwise) to also know about these areas, although a given CEO may or may not be able to probe the terminology far enough to ask about each one.
So, whether you are talking to CIO’s, or even trying to be a CIO or a virtual CIO, it will make a world of sense to be literate on each of them, at least to a basic level.
But how about the dollars. Do the 2009 budget priorities in IT line up with these interest levels? Let’s see.
Here’s some budget priority analysis from InfoWorld that combines data from Gartner, Forrester, and IDC. See here for the “ Top IT Spending Priorities in an Economic Recession” for the full article.
1. Storage: Disks and management software (this is part of the data center message)
“There are some things that just won’t go back in the bottle,” says Mark Raskino, Gartner fellow and vice president of emerging trends and technologies. “Storage is one of those.”
Data keeps piling up and regulatory compliance mandates require that companies hold onto data longer than they’ve ever had to. To that end, IDC continues to estimate that spending on disk storage will double every two years, at least through 2012
2. Business intelligence: Niche analytics (not on the IT short list, but a perfect Qlikview fit)
As data continues to accrue, the need to glean insights from it grows, agree analysts from Forrester, Gartner, and IDC.
CIOs will keep spending on general business intelligence, but more resources will go toward very focused analytics, explains Andrew Bartels, principal analyst at Forrester. The “analytics that help companies identify and retain their most-profitable customers will be key,” he says.
3. Virtualization: Optimizing resources
Virtualization is the datacenter version of getting the most out of what you already have. Up-front investment in virtualization tends to be fairly low, but can deliver quick and substantial returns. “Virtualization will continue to be popular because it allows companies to defer other costs— in this case, that’s mostly hardware,” IDC’s Gens says.
Specsavers began tapping virtualization before the downturn. “Virtualization is a key tactic we’ve been doing for some time to minimize hardware acquisition costs,” Khan says, “and that will continue.”
Virtualization has advantages beyond hardware cost reduction. “Everybody’s moving to virtualization,” Forrester’s Reichman says. “You’re likely to be more efficient with server and storage resources in the long run, and if you have expertise, that return is likely to come fast. A down economy might be the right time to throw down and do it, especially if you can time it with hardware refreshes.”
4. Security: Data and end points
No surprises here. IDC’s Gens, in fact, says that security is “always the No. 1 concern of IT. As you see more resources out there on the Internet, there’s concern that they’re secure.”
Companies will have a particular focus on securing network end points, devices, and those applications that serve them, according to IDC’s Minton. “Whether you’re in a recession or not, no company wants to be on the front page of the Wall Street Journal because their data was breached,” he adds.
Threadgill lists security as the second of Morgan Keegan’s top two spending priorities, behind only storage. And Specsavers’ Khan adds that his budget will include security technologies, namely firewalls, tools for securing end points, and data encryption for mobile devices and remote PCs. “There’s no reduction in security expenses,” Khan says. “If anything we’re increasing our security spending.”
5. Cloud computing: Business solutions (this combines virtualization technologies with SOA and Networking technologies)
Analysts from Forrester, Gartner, and IDC say that certain pieces of cloud computing will continue to expand—and perhaps even accelerate due to the downturn.
IDC predicts that cloud computing will account for 9 or 10 percent of IT spending by 2012, up from the 4 percent allocated in 2008. “That’s a conservative forecast made before the Dow tanked,” Gens adds. “So that’s going to accelerate cloud offerings from the big vendors.”
Tags: cio, market, security, strategy, virtualization
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Mobility is one of ways to enjoy the power of cloud, anywhere. For those who believe competition and technology openness are vital to advancing our industry, the reign of Apple as the sole provider of viable cutting edge tablets has been a tense time. Perhaps we are seeing some open and competitive light at the end of long night. Finally.
