In his recent blog (Unleash the Promise of Cloud), Enrico Fuiano reports how a Cisco Intel study clearly indicates that Line of Business (LoB) leaders have been playing a more important role in driving requirements for IT solutions and services. Amongst the reasons driving this shift, Enrico pointed to the “shadow IT” initiatives.
Robert Dimicco, Cisco Senior Director , Global leader and founder of Cisco’s Cloud Consumption and Broker Services Practice tells a similar story , as he recalls a recent conversation with a CIO “My CFO and CEO just asked me if I knew how many of our users were accessing cloud services. They asked me if I knew how much we were spending or if there were any risks.” He said, “Bob I don’t know the answers, and I don’t have a plan.”
In his blog, “Beyond Data Security ..Five Biggest Risks of Shadow Cloud IT Services “ Bob shares that “In working with our customers, we have found that there are typically 5-10 times more cloud services being used than are known by IT.” This challenging trend, called Shadow-IT is not without any risk . In fact , Bob describes the 5 major risks of Shadow IT which are
- Data Security Risks
- Brand Risks
- Compliance Risks
- Business Continuity Risks
- Financial Risks
So how to identify these risks and deal with them ? Bob explores the benefits and services offered by the Cisco Data Center Assessment for Cloud Consumption.
- Identify unauthorized cloud services and gain greater visibility into your cloud usage in order to reduce
security and financial exposure - Mitigate risks by proactively identifying risk and compliance issues associated with cloud usage
- Reduce costs through recommendations to consolidate and/or eliminate cloud services
◦ Obtain early warning of overage and related charges
◦ Identify duplicate services and identify potential candidate cloud services for consolidation
◦ Highlight over- and underutilized services
◦ Estimate potential cost savings through a customized financial model - Enable greater business agility through cloud governance, which can help IT and LOBs
efficiently select and deploy cloud services to rapidly meet organizational needs - Enable greater business agility through cloud governance, which can help IT and LOBs
efficiently select and deploy cloud services to rapidly meet organizational needs
To learn more, and start now to build a plan, check Bob’s blog here
Savvy LOB leaders would likely counter that you’re missing a key point in your assessment of this issue — what happens if you *don’t* have a grassroots shadow IT movement at your company? Can you afford to wait indefinitely for the business technology that your peer group takes for granted?
My point: realize that when LOB executives endorse bypassing the traditional IT organization it’s an reactive act of desperation, not an proactive act of rebellion. If legacy IT organizations could better meet the business agility and competitiveness needs of their internal stakeholders, then this work-around would be a moot point.