CIO OPINION
By showcasing how it helps the business be more flexible and agile , lure top tech talent to drive competitive advantage , and retain control over corporate assets . All in the name of achieving the best business outcomes , of course .
Tip # 1 : Stress the importance of control to satisfy compliance and security mandates
It wasn ’ t long ago when CEOs professed to their C-suites and boards of directors that they needed to move to the cloud . CEOs believed the public cloud , with all its attendant multi-tenancy , would make them more nimble and agile . The cloud would help them roll out new digital services for customers and employees with little fuss .
It made for a great story . Fearing business disruption amid a punishing pandemic , brands leaned heavily into multiple cloud applications and cloud infrastructure platforms to run everything from video collaboration to curb side delivery and new-fangled mobile applications .
Seventy-eight percent of organisations globally are leveraging multiple cloud providers , according to a 2021 survey by The Enterprise Strategy Group commissioned by Dell Technologies .
Yet , as much as the public cloud carries the narrative in the digital world , most CIOs know migrating to the public cloud is challenging and courts significant risk . Some proprietary applications are too expensive to refactor for the public cloud and the return on investment ( ROI ) for doing so isn ’ t there . Still other applications must remain on-premises to honour cybersecurity and compliance rules . Wherever an application resides , CEOs want peace of mind that CIOs will be trusted custodians of corporate data . The control , compliance and governance traits of As-a- Service IT can shape the perfect pitch for CIOs .
As CIO you ’ ll convey that As-a-Service IT affords the tech departments control over all data , applications and middleware . The control quotient is critical , especially as data volumes continue to soar .
Consider that a CIO seeking to build , test and run a homegrown analytics application housing sensitive data may wish to keep it close to the vest . The right Asa-Service solution includes the option to run this onpremises in a private cloud , or even managed offsite in a co-location facility .
Observability is also critical . A consistent As-a-Service solution includes a unified view of every asset from a single dashboard . With this approach , CIOs can assure the CEO that they can be good corporate stewards , monitoring critical computing assets while maintaining flexibility and agility .
Tip # 2 : Focus on the advantages of flexibility sans lock-in
IT leaders must also articulate the value of these new As-a-Service IT models which incorporate the flexibility of hosting infrastructure on-premises or in co-location facilities , with the option to connect to a variety
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