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Brocade Global CIO Survey Turns Spotlight on IT Priorities and Cloud Concerns
Published May 18, 2015
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A new survey conducted by Brocade of 200 global CIOs has provided unique insights into various IT issues facing the CIO today, including the need to address ‘Shadow IT’, the need to create an agile and automated network in order to optimize applications, cloud control and connectivity concerns and reducing the risk of ‘restrictive IT’. All of these issues highlight a clear need for them to understand that legacy networking infrastructures need to evolve to the ‘New IP’ – an architecture reimagined for a modern world and designed to meet the needs of Cloud, Mobile, Social, and Big Data.
On the topic of cloud, the survey found that 90% of respondents have some form of cloud within their organization but control of cloud acquisition is proving to be a challenge. Shadow IT is a major concern to many CIOs and yet, despite the risks, it’s an approach to gaining access to resource by business that continues to grow. Over a third of CIOs confirm that cloud adoption without IT’s involvement isn’t allowed in their organization, but definitely or may happen without them knowing. And 83 percent of CIOs believe the trend of business units commissioning cloud without IT involvement will continue to increase. CIOs concerns about non-authorised cloud include its (negative) impact on owned infrastructure performance, inability to manage the network and IT disputes with cloud providers. These are more likely to be worries than security, compliance, poor SLAs, inability to access data or the cost to the business due to duplication of spending.
“The issue is not cloud but the business attitude and approach to its adoption. The ‘right’ cloud can greatly assist an organization or business unit achieve its goals. The ‘wrong’ cloud can accelerate and intensify the very issues its adoption was designed to address. CIOs need to address cloud demands with business unit leaders and become their ally in cloud. While over 80 percent of CIOs admit to having concerns over their job security due to unsanctioned cloud, in reality the CIOs role is even more critical if that adoption is to be successful and avoid pitfalls. Ensuring the organization can successfully connect to cloud is a key driver of success,” says Yarob Sakhnini, regional director, MEMA at Brocade.
“The only way to truly resolve non sanctioned IT adoption is to provide a better solution. Optimizing current network environment with transitional technologies built on open standards can reduce risk and support the organization’s longer term goals.”
The survey also brings into focus the need for ‘business led networking’ that is optimized for applications.
> Almost two thirds of CIOs rate providing fast deployment of new applications as an ‘extreme’ or ‘significant’ concern, while 65 percent say the same about delivering fast access to applications from multiple devices.
> Almost one in five CIOs say the need to deploy new operational application platforms (such as ERP) is their biggest technology issue today.
“The right applications can make the difference between increased margin or missed goals, increased efficiency or poor productivity. To derive maximum business value, they need to be highly responsive, accessible and available. The deployment of new applications on legacy systems can be a daunting and slow process. Agility and automation within the network can create the optimized, application centric, application aware environment required. It also ensures adaptability and scalability as your needs change. Applications can be deployed and prioritized quickly based on business need,” says Sakhnini.
Another key insight from the survey is concern over ‘Restrictive IT” - technology that strangles, disrupts, or acts as a barrier to achieving business objectives.
> Almost eight out of 10 CIOs worldwide cite their ability to “support business growth by delivery of new services to customers” as a top concern.
> Over half of CIOs lose approximately 1000 working hours every year reacting to IT issues and failures.
> 75 percent of CIOs worldwide admit that the network is an issue in achieving their organizations’ goals.
> 98 percent of CIOs admit they are worried about how they can enable their organization to remain or become more competitive.
> Two thirds are concerned about supporting organizational growth geographically or in employee numbers.
“Despite significant advances in networking technology, in most organizations the legacy systems they have in place cannot support the business need of today, let alone tomorrow. Costly, complex, but vital, old style network architectures have resisted attempts to improve their performance through the application of virtualization or the deployment of more network devices. Simply adding new solutions to an overburdened, under-utilized, and fundamentally flawed system won’t provide the organization with what it needs. A new approach to the old network is needed. One that encompasses financing and transitional technology, while reducing complexity and cost,” continues Sakhnini.
Other topline findings include:
> 37 percent of CIOs believe there is a perceived decline in the importance of the CIO role within their organization
> Ensuring security of intellectual property and commercially sensitive assets is a “significant” or “extreme” concern for over two thirds of CIOs globally.
> CIOs top concerns are security and fast deployment of and access to new applications and services, more than big data and analytics, communication and collaboration, or compliance with regulations.
> The top four technology issues CIOs need to address are: operational platforms (Oracle, SAP), data center upgrade/expansion, virtual, security, network upgrade/expansion.
> 40 percent of CIOs claim to be concerned about choosing the right vendors to deliver what the business is asking.
> 77 percent were concerned about delivering better analytics/data mining
> Reducing organizations operational expenses was a top concern for 65 percent of the respondents
Research Methodology
Vanson Bourne conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 200 CIOs globally in late 2014, to understand the challenges a modern CIO faces in today’s rapidly changing IT environments. All respondents work for organizations with more than 250 employees. 81 percent of respondents work for organizations that have between 500 and 5,000 employees. A broad range of vertical industries are represented.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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