CIO Talk Radio Blog

We've all heard discussions on "IT Agility" and how firms who have it are able to engage with their customers, beat their competition, achieve higher ROI, and execute their strategic plans.  Today's silver bullet for IT agility is supposedly cloud computing.  As in the past, the press and pundits are so gaga over this new concept that it's often portrayed as the panacea for IT agility, but we have heard similar panacea concepts before in our IT careers.  Examples include; client-server computing, object oriented programming, business liaison roles, service oriented architectures and many other hot-topic IT concepts.  None of these IT concepts ever achieved IT agility.  However, I believe we are closer to being able to achieve IT agility than ever before.  The difficult part is in defining what an agile IT organization looks like.  The dictionary defines agility as the power of moving quickly and easily, with nimbleness.  So, in the spirit of opinionated blogs, which is probably redundant and maybe an oxymoron, here's my top three enablers of IT agility.

3 Ways of Rethinking IT to deliver more choice, faster, on a bigger scale

In conversation, Jim Fortner (VP of IT Development & Operations, Global Business Services, P&G), Gregory Simpson (CTO, GE), and John Dick (CIO, Western Union) all make it clear, IT is no longer an enabler, but a true business partner at their enterprises.  (See:  Rethinking IT to deliver Choice, Speed, and Scale)

"There is a new paradigm of leadership ... a real strong business orientation in IT staff folks with strong executive management skills, business skills, understand the process, so it is retooling the organization to readily step up to the challenge. ...business telling us we have such a tremendous opportunity to take on more scope and more work. They are looking for us to come back with more choices and strategies. (Jim Fortner, P&G)

Cloud computing is HOT! First, get IT plugged into the right cloud service providers who do IT cheaper but better than in-house. Then IT can sit down in its rightful seat at the management table and get down to business with the other big guys. Sounds sort of like the ultimate corporate plug ‘n play. If only things were that easy.

Cloud Computing Benefits are obvious.  Cloud computing companies can provide flexible, scalable infrastructure resources on demand, without the need for additional investment. This levels the playing field for mid and smaller companies, so they can be as dynamic as a Fortune 500 company.  A recent Info-Tech survey suggests that three quarters of IT leaders are first considering a private cloud, with one third already set on a private cloud.  Cloud computing leaders are currently debating whether public or private cloud will dominate the future.

"The new normal has become the now normal." The historical review of yearlong metrics and benchmarks is dying. The new metrics are about "What do we need to do about that ...blinking red light right now." (Michel Janssen, CRO, the Hackett Group) "The idea of the new is really important. Things are happening so fast that relying on year old numbers is not doing it. The more you can get ... these things in real time, even if not a perfect real time, the better you are, and "whether or not you have the perfect bench mark if you have a metric that works, you can trend that over time and looking at the trends can be very valuable. ...If it is a metric that works for you and you are measuring yourself against yourself that is a believable trend."  (George Westerman, Research Scientist at the CISR, MIT, SLOAN School)