The new Cloud CIO: Faster, More Efficient and Business Savvy
There have been many articles over the last few years about the role of IT workers in a Cloud-enabled world. We have already seen a few job losses to the Cloud, but the IT industry is strong and demand for qualified workers is still high. There are still more jobs than there are qualified people to fill them. That being said, enterprises are starting to look up the ladder to see if middle and upper management are necessary as the Cloud rolls in.
In most industries outside of Tech itself, IT has morphed from a sunk cost to a center for competitive advantage to a commodity. The Cloud is mainly responsible for that last part, as businesses can now procure SaaS, PaaS and IaaS solutions without having to hire an army of technical people to manage it. As an enterprise moves up that stack from IaaS to PaaS, that shift accelerates to the point where one can even question if a CIO is necessary. While this is a natural response to shifting toward a fully burdened OPEX driven model, I would say that the CIO gains value as the move to Cloud progresses. Why? It's simple really. While you will not need as many 'doers', you absolutely need the 'thinkers' to make the right decisions with respect to business goals, initiatives and technology.
When a company moves a project or application to the Cloud, the Cloud provider is now managing all of the 'low level' aspects of IT such as system administration, networking, storage, security and even development if it is a SaaS solution. If a company goes 'all in' with Cloud, there is no longer a need for most of the positions that once handled those 'low level' aspects. What will not change, however, is that business is constantly evolving and business initiatives evolve with the business. Companies need someone who can continually look at the business and see what technologies will enable success. These 'visionaries' will need to assess new initiatives and match solutions based on defined success criteria. This has always been the primary role of the CIO, but things are a little different now. Instead of planning everything from hardware acquisition to software support, the CIO needs to know what Cloud solutions fit the bill and how to get those solutions to the end users. It is more of a matter of aligning solutions with business goals and looking at OPEX impact for these solutions. I call it a different take on the same story. This is the 'new and improved' Cloud CIO.
The new Cloud CIO: Faster, More Efficient and Business Savvy. Perhaps I should have reversed the order on that list because the new Cloud CIO will find that his/her most important skill is now being business savvy. Being the visionary that can take the needs of the business and match them to Cloud services is the ticket to increasing a CIOs value to the company. Doing this in the most efficient way will come second as moving from a CAPEX driven model to an OPEX driven model already helps the bottom line. Lastly but definitely not least in terms of overall importance is speed. If the CEO approaches a CIO and declares a new business initiative, the new Cloud CIO needs to be able to respond quickly. Moving into a new market in a few days rather than a few months can mean the success or failure of an entire division, or even a company.
Of course, none of this takes into account that there will be many apps that are slow to move to the cloud or have suitable replacements over time. There will always be a need to oversee a local technology presence no matter how much we move to the Cloud. The new Cloud CIO carries immense value in being the visionary that understands technology and can lead the business through the migration to Cloud and beyond. Managing how the cloud will enable the business to grow and maintain competitive advantages is also of high importance. As anyone familiar with Cloud knows, the shift to Cloud is about so much more than Cloud itself. Interacting with partners and integrating systems and data with new Cloud services still needs to be planned and executed. Building the IT brand of the company as one that is forward thinking and adopting of new technologies is key to attracting and keeping younger talent who are all used to working in the Cloud with various mobile devices and Cloud based services. From these few examples you can see that the shift from the old CIO to the new Cloud CIO can actually be an expansion of influence rather than a diminishing one. It's time to make that shift. The Cloud is calling. Will you answer? If you don't, I assure you that someone else will.
IT losing control as end users head to the cloud.
I was reading a recent Information Week article that talks about how end users are moving to the cloud on their own. It was a cautionary article discussing the common concerns about security, where data is sitting and what privacy concerns there may be. While these are valid concerns, I think that this is a good thing overall as long as certain policies are put in place.
If you are not a stranger to enterprise IT, you know how much of a hassle it is to get resources provisioned when you need them. IT seems to have every excuse as to why it will take six weeks to provision a server for your new departmental project, and you have every reason why it needs to be done yesterday. Laziness aside, there are some very good reasons that the provisioning process takes a while. These reasons are all related to security, compliance and policy. What do you do if you need to deploy something fast, and you are able to take slightly more risk than an in-house solution? You turn to the cloud. That is exactly what many users are doing and it is driving IT mad.
Your IT department, and I say this to their chagrin, is there to support you. They are there to provide a service to you as a functional department within a business who drives revenue. Unless you are specifically a tech company, your IT department is not driving revenue. They are a sunk cost. It is a shame how many IT departments just don't get that today. With that being said, there are a myriad of highly skilled people working in IT who know all about system security, compliance and policy. It is their job to be sure that your systems operate within these guidelines.
Here is an eye-opening concept: There are many more people out there, most with more skills than your internal IT department, who do the exact same thing. These individuals also work for large cloud computing providers like Amazon and Google. It is their daily job to make sure that the systems which they run (for their end users) are secure and compliant. They have designed large scale systems (in which you are a tenant within the cloud) which make things like security and compliance much easier. I would even go out on a limb and say that the security and compliance of the large cloud computing vendors is better than 90% of most organizations' own internal security and compliance.
I hope that gives a breath of fresh air to all of the users that are being panicked by the articles about going rogue on your IT department. Are there security concerns when it comes to cloud computing? Of course there are. Are there issues with compliance? Of course there are. Are these concerns being addressed in a solid manner? Of course they are. Most of the problems related to IT security and compliance are within the applications (and development) anyway, so if you are consuming a Platform as a Service (PaaS), that is your responsibility as the developer. If you are consuming a Software as a Service, that is the responsibility of the provider (such as Salesforce.com) and believe me they take that seriously. The repeated attempts at fear mongering about security and compliance within the cloud are usually from uninformed individuals or IT personnel who are concerned about job security.
I want to make this perfectly clear now: I am not saying that cloud computing is a panacea, nor am I saying that the people working for the large cloud computing providers are perfect. What I am saying is that much like flying is statistically safer than driving a car (and a better way to travel), the cloud computing vendors have better security and compliance than most businesses do, and they word hard every day to deliver top notch service to their end users. Can you say this about your internal IT team?
IT personnel need to realize that the cloud is not a threat to them and that they are still needed. Their function will shift over time to help users provision services in the cloud rapidly as well as ensure that the cloud computing vendor operates within security and compliance guidelines. They will monitor performance of the cloud platform and ensure that it delivers as expected. Think of it more as a technical management role than a typical administration role. On the flip side, do they really want to spend all day at a terminal administrating machines? Why not let a robust self-managing infrastructure handle all the boring work and focus on delivering value to the business? That is where the IT mindset needs to shift in this modern era.
So, to sum it all up, moving to the cloud is a great thing for end users and a good thing for IT staff as well. It is a win-win situation if everyone involved can clearly understand their role and the benefits gained from the move. It will also help for everyone to identify the risks and mitigate them as much as possible. The choice isn't whether or not to 'cede control' to the end users. The choice is to evolve with the industry or not. History as taught us that you either evolve or go extinct. The choice is yours.
Why becoming a cloud software developer can be a good idea.
Everyone knows that the longevity and ultimate success of a platform lies in the developers willing to create on that platform. Creating a healthy developer ecosystem in which both the developer and the platform vendor can grow and prosper is very important. No one knows this better than Microsoft. It has long been their mantra that "developers, developers, developers" are the key to success. With most of the new large scale websites and platforms being launched on open source platforms and now the cloud, this is becoming even more important.
If you just do some casual research, it is easy to see that the largest and most heavily trafficked sites on the web are written in languages such as PHP, Ruby on Rails or even Java, and these are all deployed on open source platforms. Which version of Unix or Linux they reside on isn't important. What is important is that developers are migrating in droves to these languages and frameworks, and new developers are learning these languages and frameworks instead of the typical Microsoft .NET stuff. So how does this relate to cloud computing?
Well, whether it was by virtue of luck or actual planning, most of the cloud computing vendors (if not all but Microsoft shops) chose to deploy their infrastructures on open source platforms. Google's App Engine, long the bastion of true could computing is mainly a Python development platform. The underpinnings are all open source, and Google does contribute significantly back to the cause. Amazon's Web Services are also built upon solid open source foundations, and the majority of platforms that can be deployed in EC2 instances are Linux distributions. These open source platforms were chosen when language/framework pairs were developed and launched, such as Ruby on Rails, Python on Django, and even Groovy on Grails. These frameworks have provided a solid base upon which to build cloud computing applications and services.
So why can it be a good idea to become a cloud software developer? I would say that there are several reasons to do so, not the least of which is marketability. The hype around cloud computing is at fever pitch, and there are many reasons for it. The root cause is the promise of increased efficiency at a lower price point. One often downplayed benefit that I feel is the most important benefit is flexibility. With cloud computing, the promise of true flexibility and scalability has finally been reached, and the multiple layers of abstraction from the hardware and operating system have granted developers the freedom to focus on their code, not the underlying stuff. By understanding the concepts of developing in the cloud, you have opened yourself up to a new market that is akin to a dam about to burst.
Businesses are moving to the cloud (whether private, public or hybrid) at a break-neck pace, and positioning yourself as a competent developer in this space can only pay off. It may even pay off huge. Just remember that tying yourself to a particular vendor or platform is not the best way to approach. You should focus on a language and framework that is common to most or all cloud infrastructures and leverage your knowledge of development as a whole to pitch your skills as wide as possible. Understanding the benefits and limitations of the cloud will allow you to avoid costly mistakes, and your superiors will see you as the 'go to person' for the next wave of IT.
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