Defining Modern IT - eBook über Modern IT

Defining Modern IT Table of Contents Modern IT is Here to Stay – Embrace It or Be Left Behind ......................................................... 3 IT gains a broader perspective ...........................................................................................................................................................3 The shape-shifting infrastructure .....................................................................................................................................................3 Consistency amidst diversity ..............................................................................................................................................................4 Today’s CIOs are Getting Down to Business ................................................................................. 4 Failure Is Not an Option: Managing IT Risk in the Modern Organization ................................ 6 A New Mindset—and Skill Set— for Mitigating Risk ................................................................................................................................................................................ 7 The Risk Mitigation Benefits of the New World Order .................................................................................................................. 7 Managing Modern IT Failure: Enabling Versus Naysaying .......................................................... 8 Taking a Full Measure of the Future ................................................................................................ 8 Shifting Boundaries .......................................................................................................................... 10 Social Engineering............................................................................................................................ 12 Doing More with Less ...................................................................................................................... 14 Everything’s Interconnected .......................................................................................................... 16 Bill Bulkeley ........................................................................................................................................................................................18 Tom Grubb ...........................................................................................................................................................................................18 Robert Mullins ....................................................................................................................................................................................18 Stephanie Overby ...............................................................................................................................................................................18 Julia Pitta..............................................................................................................................................................................................19 Janet Rae-Dupree ..............................................................................................................................................................................19 John Verity ...........................................................................................................................................................................................19 Steve Wildstrom ..................................................................................................................................................................................19 2 | Defining Modern IT are also business people, and they expect the same type of Modern IT is Here to Stay – customer experience at work. Embrace It or Be Left Behind by Tom Grubb IT gains a broader perspective IT for the 2010s is not your father’s IT. Modern IT is the cloud, This change has implications for IT, bringing it closer to other virtualization, and software-as-a-service (SaaS). IT users are aspects of the organization. Once, if a company merged tech-savvy consumers who expect more from IT. They expect with another company or had a new initiative, the thought instant gratification delivered from a browser or their mobile of approaching IT to integrate the new company or initiative device app with a simple swipe of a finger. Now even small into operations could drive a wedge between IT and business organizations can quickly turn on sophisticated IT capabilities leaders . No more. Today there can be a more positive through service providers, SaaS or both. But just what is relationship between business leaders and IT because IT now modern IT? What makes it modern? And what does modern has more options for meeting the business’s needs more IT mean within the business? quickly and efficiently. The roots of modern IT go back to the internet, which Modern IT is no longer just about technology for technology’s introduced a new paradigm of how information and sake— it’s about the business. IT now has the technology consumer-oriented applications could be made accessible means at its disposal to pursue business objectives . This to ordinary users, and of how computing resources could be makes it possible for IT organization to be measured based distributed. The rate at which enterprises can take advantage on the business objectives—something that was very hard to of this paradigm change has been accelerating for years; do in the absence of modern IT capabilities. This is now the until today the view of what IT is and where it is located is stake in the ground: the modern IT organization is grafted into completely different. Gone are the days when IT meant the business. a central, locked-down mainframe supporting distributed Today, IT can deliver services that have a direct business terminals and PCs, and new technologies were evaluated impact in ways never before possible. SaaS, the cloud, and primarily as technologies, not in terms of how they supported virtualization are moving from “They’re interesting, let’s larger business objectives. pilot them,” to “What’s next? We see a lot of possibilities,” Computing resources can be anywhere now, and they are to products. Today, users expect applications to be easy not necessarily owned by the business. What does this to implement and use, flexible, broadly accessible, and mean? For one thing, it means organizations are not limited interconnected with other applications. SaaS is perhaps the by fixed IT budgets the way they once were. Now companies most advanced of these technologies, and it is a particularly large and small can draw upon resources from third-parties powerful model for smaller businesses. With access to without making a large capital investment. IT “supply” can the same applications and services, small companies now be sourced from any part of the world today and somewhere have the opportunity to not only compete with much else tomorrow. Companies can draw what they need up larger companies, but also outflank them with their nimble or down from whatever source best satisfies their business moves—think of David slaying Goliath. Enterprises that requirements – almost like electricity.. Modern IT is no longer do not embrace SaaS and the other technologies that a fixed portfolio of hardware and software; it is fluid and constitute modern IT may find themselves left behind, unable adapts to changes in the business environment. It is also far to compete with those that take full advantage of new more efficient, able to draw upon resources when and where developments. they are needed. Another force driving modern IT is the fact that today’s mobile The shape-shifting infrastructure and social users are smarter about technology and more These developments are exciting, and deliver more power demanding than ever before. They have an expectation of and flexibility to end users than ever before, but they are in what technology should provide and demand the same of IT. some ways a cause for concern. The idea of the corporate Consumers are accustomed to Facebook and other websites data center is rapidly giving way to new paradigms. The and apps that satisfy them as users; they are used to buying infrastructure is no longer only the physical resources and the latest technologies at local stores. These consumers applications owned by, residing in and controlled by the 3 | Defining Modern IT corporation. The infrastructure may or may not be on- premise; IT may rent resources from a remote data center or Today’s CIOs are Getting connect to applications in the cloud. Not only can resources be located anywhere, but they can also be added to, shifted Down to Business and dropped as needed. The whole idea of what the IT By Bill Bulkeley infrastructure is has changed and is still changing.