The Cloud is a key element of the digital transformation in progress. According to a survey of 1,030 senior IT decision makers in eleven countries, CIOs are embracing the digital transformation to reinvent processes and the systems of their organizations. The digital impact is such that the importance of the CIO at board level continues to rise. 72 percent said that the CIO has become more central within the board over the past two years and 43% say they now devote more time to deal with corporate issues.
The research also shows that for CIOs is clear what the most disruptive trends related to technology: cloud, mobility and collaboration, data.
Significant is that according to the report, one fifth of global organizations is already fully cloud-centric and a further 46 per cent have more than half of their applications and infrastructure in the cloud.
Because of the cloud’s very nature as a shared resource, identity management, privacy and access control are of particular concern. Cloud computing security processes address the security controls to the cloud providers. They will incorporate to maintain the customer’s data security, privacy and compliance with necessary regulations. The processes will also likely include a business continuity and data backup plan in the case of a cloud security breach.
CIOs are going to invest their time more on business improvements and shared benefits than operational activities. The rethinking of the role of CIOs would lead to consider IT experts more business oriented IT professionals and could help the alignment between IT and business. CIOs will also have high skills in dealing with customers, external partners and suppliers. They will preside the entire business value chain, not just the IT.
