How Cloud, Security and Big Data Are Forcing CIOs to Evolve

The role of the chief information officer is changing dramatically. A decade ago, CIOs were charged with managing and protecting an organization’s network perimeter, intellectual property and IT assets. Often viewed as a compulsory cost center, a traditional CIO’s work was generally preventative and reactive. Since then, major industry trends have altered conventional technology leadership roles. At the enterprise level, many responsibilities that would typically fall within a CIO’s purview have been absorbed by other executive roles.
Today, just 58% of CIOs sit on the board compared to 71% just two years ago, and nearly two-thirds of organizations allow a business-managed IT spend. Midmarket CIOs in particular might be left wondering, “With all this change, am I on my way out?” Let’s explore the three major industry disruptions that have reshaped the role of the enterprise CIO Cloud. Cloud computing changed the technology landscape forever. Topics like hybrid and multi-cloud, microservices and containers dominate headlines and conferences. But what’s really impacting our world is the underlying DevOps movement the shift toward combining and streamlining software development and IT operations. Now that infrastructure and applications are no longer separate, businesses don’t need the CIO to manage server setup, code deployment or other previously manual IT tasks; or implement technologies like Kubernetes or new SaaS solutions. This is one of the reasons many traditionally CIO-level responsibilities have been redistributed to CTOs who own the resources and cloud infrastructure that runs their applications directly.