Cloud: CEO Fairytale or CIO Nightmare

The internet is strewn with stories of botched cloud migrations and projects.  The sort of stuff that sends a CIO quivering under the bedcovers, curled up in the foetal position, emitting strange whimpering noises.  The stuff of nightmares.

CEOs today are up with the latest news on Google. They want cloud. It’s going to bring them the untold riches and rewards of booming profit statements, reduced costs, increased scale and growth. They are the hero – or heroine – heralding in the “happily ever after”.

CIOs are also up on their Google news, which is probably why a good number of them might be found hiding under the covers with the nightlight on.

But fairy-tales and horror stories aside, this is actually not to far from the truth.

CEOs are well aware of the benefits that cloud computing will bring them.

CEOs love numbers!  Cloud computing allows a more efficient experience and use of data analytics which can be accessed anywhere by those who require it in order to make decisions that add value to the business. Think social media analytics, product tracking, customer preferences.

Gartner estimates 85% of Fortune 500 companies do not reap the full benefit of their big data analytics because of lack of accessibility to data, causing them to miss potential opportunities to better connect with and meet clients’ needs.

CEOs love cost saving! Cloud computing can significantly reduce the costs of technology within the organisation.  In terms of physical technology needed and the management overhead.

CEOs love less risk! When it comes to disaster recovery, cloud provides a perfect solution, reducing the costs of having a Disaster Recovery strategy – especially for smaller organisations.  This greatly reduces the risk of a complete outage, which can devastate a company financially.

Of course, all of these benefits for the CEO can pose potential dramas for the CIO and their team.

For a CIO, access to data anywhere anytime leaves the door open for a potential security breach, data loss (an even more serious affair with the implementation of the GDPR).

Changing how, and which technology is used, and potentially outsourcing some, or all or the management of the IT systems, might mean a reduction in costs of technology infrastructure. But what about the cost of retraining staff?  How does IT stay on top of it’s outsourced partners and still maintain control and visibility across the environment?

It’s up to the CIO to deliver the fairy-tale story the CEO want’s, while avoiding the potential pit-falls of a miss-step.

Questions for the CIO

While this may seem a tall ask, it doesn’t have to be. Here are some of the questions you need to be able to answer.

Firstly, you need to be informed.

• If you are new to cloud, how do you know which cloud?
• How do you know which technology?
• How do you set your strategy?
• Do you want to manage it in house?
• Do you want to outsource to a partner?
• How do you keep visibility of what your partner is doing?

Secondly, you need to address skills and staffing.

• Do your staff have the skills?
• What’s the cost of upskilling?
• Should you hire in experts or develop in-house skills?
• How do you keep skills in-house and stop them walking out the door?
• How do you build redundancy into your skill set?
• How do you increase the speed at which skills are learned and then able to be applied?

Thirdly, you need to cover off risk.

• Can you build a solution that reduces the risk of errors and is easy to manage?
• Do you have a set of processes and procedures that are well documented?
• Is you design secure?
• Will your data and your customer data be secure?

A lot to think about – but if approached the right way, it is not necessarily as daunting as it might seem.  In the next few posts we will delve deeper into each of these areas to look at how you can start to answer these questions – and get that fairy-tale ending!

About Qirx in a Box

We have a simple approach to cloud solutions – we build cloud experts.

Qirx in a Box is a game changing product that turns everyday IT people into cloud experts.  It’s a one-stop solution that allows us to transfer our expertise to you and your team. This means you are empowered with the knowledge, tools and know-how to accurately determine what your business requires. Then you are perfectly positioned to create a more efficient, secure hybrid cloud and maintain and scale your hybrid cloud environment as your needs grow.

• Increase your competitive edge;
• Access your own virtual consultancy;
• Reduce your risk; and
• Increase your skill set.