Salesforce.com has published an infographic that charts the cost of computing power along with the history of the role of the CIO. Some interesting tidbits:

• The term “chief information officer” was coined in 1980.
• By 1988, only 10% of managers had access to computer work stations.
• But by that same year, IT spending had already reached $345 billion (per year, presumably).

View the full sized version here.

Services Angle

The role of the CIO continues to evolve. The CIO has traditionally managed complex projects, many of them implemented by service providers. One of the biggest changes for CIOs is the increased use of cloud services, which can move much of “heavy lifting” behind the scenes, even more so than many outsourced operations. I’ve written about Ray Wang’s ideas about the future role of the CIO for ReadWriteWeb.