shadow IT - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

  • CIOs Want to Be Allies, Not Adversaries, With Business Users

    For years, CIOs raged against stealth technology that could put their company's security - and maybe their authority - at risk. Today, though, IT executives see the world differently and are quick to explain that they should be ambassadors between tech vendors and business users.

    Written by Tom Kaneshige21 Oct. 13 22:47
  • Getting on board

    Only 16 percent of board directors have any IT experience, according to the National Association of Corporate Directors in the US. This is where the CIO must step in to help.

    Written by Linda Price23 Aug. 13 07:05
  • The CIO’s first order of business

    Before you can be influential you need to be seen as fundamentally competent, writes Owen McCall. You have to be strategically relevant, that is, you have to understand your business and the issues your peers are dealing with on a daily basis. You have to be influential with your peers so that when you talk knowledgeably about how IT can deliver value to the business or how IT was altering the competitive landscape, they listen.

    Written by Owen McCall21 Aug. 13 06:10
  • Why does IT exist?

    The fundamental information within an organisation is way more important than any of the technology used to manage that information. This is what the ‘I’ in CIO represents, writes Geoff Lazberger. So how do you impress upon the executive team the real value of information?

    Written by Geoff Lazberger15 Aug. 13 06:58
  • Spotlight on 'Rogue IT'

    A discussion on ‘raising the strategic profile of IT’ at the CIO Summit morphed into a treatise on how CIOs are managing the multiple layers of an in-house/cloud/mobile/BYOD environment. The backdrop to what is variously called “shadow”, “stealth”, or “rogue” IT; the term refers to technology used by employees without clearance or even knowledge by the IT team.

    Written by Stephen Bell and Divina Paredes14 Aug. 13 06:26
  • How Gen Ys turn CIOs into IT watchdogs

    Toothless enforcement of IT usage policies leave CIOs two choices: Prepare for Gen Y to ignore the rules or show them some tough love, according to a report from IT World Canada and Harris/Decima.
    The fallout from ignoring the CIO isn't great, according to Freedom to Compute: The Empowerment of Generation Y, which says 90 per cent of Gen Y workers have suffered any consequences for bypassing policies. None of them have been fired for it. Seven per cent said they didn't know if repercussions even exist. "

    Written by Shane Schick and Jennifer Kavur21 Jan. 09 22:00
  • Consumer technology

    The nutty pace of technology change is old news, but now a whole new stream of change is aimed at the CIO: The consumer technologies that increasingly are being used by both employees and customers.
    "In a few years, 100 per cent of people in the most attractive demographic-18- to 35-year-olds-will be digital natives, and their expectations are being set in that environment," says Mark McDonald, group VP for executive programs at Gartner. That means MySpace, Facebook, iPods, iPhones, Google Maps, instant messaging, blogs. And the list goes on.

    Written by Galen Gruman01 Dec. 07 22:00
  • Prepare for the ‘perfect storm’

    CIOs and IT leaders approaching their next PC technology refresh had better do some serious preparation. Technology refreshes—when enterprises replace one-third to one-quarter of their PC fleets each year on a rolling basis—have become pretty routine in recent years. But several factors are coming together right now to make refresh decisions more complicated and more fraught with risk, says Bruce Michelson, Hewlett-Packard’s national lifecycle manager. “This refresh is kind of a perfect storm,” says Michelson, who travels to HP’s Fortune 500 customers to study and share best practices regarding PC lifecycles.
    Think of the factors affecting your next refresh as simultaneous storm fronts bearing names like Consumer IT and Virtualisation. (It almost goes without saying that Microsoft Vista upgrade plans, if you have them, will factor into this refresh cycle.)

    Written by Laurianne McLaughlin04 Sept. 07 22:00
  • Portable threats

    Fabiana Gower considered some unconventional methods to prevent data losses when portable storage devices began appearing in her company's IT environment about three years ago.
    "I stopped just short of Super Glue," said Gower, vice president of information systems at Martin, Fletcher, an Irving, Texas-based medical staffing firm.

    Written by Brian Fonseca04 Sept. 07 22:00
  • ‘Invisible IT’ gets ugly

    Forrester says ‘invisible IT’ comes in two forms – shadow IT systems implemented in business units outside of IT’s sight; and the unplanned, untracked and unmanaged requests of IT.
    Invisible IT results from a lack of process and discipline by both IT and end users when it comes to requesting and providing IT resources, notes analyst Craig Symons in a recent Forrester report. By extending IT governance beyond strategic requests to tactical requests, through service portfolio management and a service catalogue, IT can ensure all its efforts are tracked and managed, bringing a clear picture of IT demand.

    Written by Divina Paredes09 Aug. 07 22:00