FEATURE : CIO ’ S PRIORITY
With the role of the CIO seeing expanding responsibilities ,
Rana Gupta , Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales and Services , Thales Cloud Protection and Licensing , tells us : “ Far from being a redundant and dated position , an organization would better serve itself by taking time to redefine it .” with the Chief Technology Officer ( CTO ), typically by looking inward , aiming to improve processes within the company while the CTO looks outward , using technology to improve customer-facing actions . As such the position is moving quickly from being an administrator to becoming a trusted advisor to the rest of the company .
Meanwhile , liability for the outcomes of breaches and attacks is increasing among C-level positions , as evidenced by a September 2020 report from Gartner .
Up until the dawn of 2020 , the world was cruising along its timeline at a reasonably predictable pace . But the events that then unfolded substantially altered our perspectives on technology , work , life and society – much more quickly than we are used to .
As a result , Chief Information Officers ( CIOs ) have inherited an altered future with a role that has changed over the years and especially through the pandemic period and beyond .
In an era of constant , high-speed change , it can be difficult to determine , even within a clearly defined hierarchy , exactly who takes charge of and is responsible for an event such as a data breach or a ransomware attack . These are just two of the many activities that demand fast action to defend the organization , restore its functionality and reclaim ownership of the data .
The CIO still has a unique and highly valuable role to play , one that is evolving while remaining focused on clear goals . The CIO balances responsibilities
Prior to 2020 , many CIOs would have discussed Digital Transformation in terms of shifting work towards mobile , digital technologies , creating a world in which people could work from anywhere , using their laptops and coffee shop Wi-Fi through a VPN .
The pandemic-induced necessity for people to work remotely stopped these types of plans quite quickly and have since not only turned large organizations away from the idea of practice-specific regional campuses but are also posing even more pressing questions about floor space in general .
Many are now considering reducing their physical footprint , especially in high-rent areas , as the Digital Transformation focuses , internally at least , to a hybrid work environment in which hoteling and hot-desking replace dedicated cubicles .
There are other elements of Digital Transformation that get less airtime in discussions and planning sessions but carry significant weight regardless . One of these is data and specifically , its storage life . Cloud technology opened up a seemingly infinite capacity to store data of all types .
This expansion of data , connectivity , ‘ As-a- Service everything ’ and the resultant growth in
The CIO ’ s evolving role in an altered world
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