What will the cloud mean for the IT department? Will it mean the end of traditional IT organisation or will it create new time and space for technology executives to think in a strategic manner?
An interesting article by Martino Corbelli covers the issues, concenrating at first on the age-old problem for IT professionals; most IT workers are primarily occupied with maintaining and updating existing systems.
The cloud, he proposes, will see business leaders pushing their IT departments down the on-demand technology route. The result will be that the CIO, rather than becoming redundant, will become a strategic chief innovation officer:
“The role of the CIO is now becoming one of managing relationships rather than managing technology and getting lost in the detail. This is an exciting proposition as cloud computing is freeing up IT professionals to think more strategically and offload the donkey work to someone who can do it better, faster and cheaper, allowing them to focus on the key aspects that differentiate the business from its competitors.”
That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose – another school of thought suggests such on-demand transformations will mean the CIO’s career is over within 10 years. The IT department will be managed by line-of-business specialists who understand technology and can purchase IT like a utility to meet specific executive requirements.
What do you think, do you think the cloud will lead to the emergence of a new breed of IT leaders who have enough time to concentrate on strategy and are taken seriously be the business? Or will the CIO role simply disappear and be consumed by line-of-business procurement experts?
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Perhaps we should accept that the Internal IT department is dead and consider what should be in its place by 2020.
Would rather go with it than feel like King Canute.
I wonder if the future is with line of business, Linda? Someone responsible for purchasing IT in each department, perhaps?