CIOs seeking to move their organizations from traditional technology-based to digital business service-based operations must break down an “iron triangle” consisting of entrenched IT administrative functions, legacy vendors and technology-specific automation, writes Wikibon Chief Research Officer Peter Burris. This core of resistance to change has left most IT organizations with a growing collection of public cloud platforms and internal silos of technology-specific automation run by entrenched IT administrative functions. This leads to the growth of shadow IT as business and application development decision-makers accelerate adoption of external cloud services to avoid working with IT organizations.

Employing public cloud services often is the right strategy, but it is best done when IT organizations reorganize and modernize to break this iron triangle, writes Wikibon Chief Research Officer Peter Burris. To do that they need to:

• Move from a technology to a service administration model;
• Adopt true private cloud to enhance automation; and
• Embrace vendors that do not force false “platform” decisions designed to perpetuate obsolescent hardware.

Moving from the old technology-focused model of IT to a digital platform starts with a change in mindset. IT organizations have to move from the traditional technology-focused approach entrenched in the storage/server/network stovepipes to a service focus in which infrastructure comes in hyper-converged server SAN blocks with highly automated management and the organization is focused on business service delivery.

This, writes Burris, is not an easy change. It involves reorganizing and retraining of much of the IT staff as well as changing the attitude of the administration. It also often requires a change of vendors away from those pushing their legacy products under new names to those providing the new, more agile technologies required to compete with external cloud services. Resistance, both from vendors and internal groups who see their jobs threatened, must be anticipated and overcome.

In the full Professional Alert Burris discusses the challenges in detail. His conclusion is that “Digital businesses need modern IT to succeed.” CIOs can start by leaning on technology suppliers to break the iron triangle. Wikibon Premium subscribers can reads the full Professional Alert here. To learn about subscribing, look here.

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