aged , so it ’ s not surprising that such systems rarely employ standardized technology , often lack security , and governance ( such as cost monitoring and control ) is typically sketchy , at best .
The Fall of Shadow IT -- Good News , Bad News
The good news is that centralized control means fewer issues with the operations of IT solutions , and thus more value is brought back to the business . Moreover , there ’ s the opportunity to provide better governance and cost management , with the ability to monitor all IT assets , including traditional systems , as well as private , public and hybrid clouds that are under IT ’ s direct control .
The bad news is that IT must understand what the new responsibilities mean in terms of management approaches . Having more systems to manage increases complexity and creates the need for automated tools and processes to provide the right level of monitoring and management . This means overseeing operations to maximize uptime and costs , and even keeping an eye on the value that core IT systems return to the business .
Despite the fact that there is more work to do , this is an opportunity for IT to establish best practices , including the use of emerging automated tools for monitoring resource usage and costs . Using this cost data in the context of advanced analytics can determine clear trends , allowing IT leadership to correct negative trends before there is a real business impact , as well as to understand the true value of IT as a tactical and strategic business asset .
A 2014 survey by Gigaom discovered that governance and financial control of cloud usage is on the radar of IT leaders ( see Figure 2 below ). This was barely a blip on their priority screens just a few years ago .
Figure 2 : What are your biggest concerns when deploying public cloud environments ?
SUMMER 2016 | THE DOPPLER | 9