CIOs are feeling unprepared by the latest digital initiatives mounting up on other traditional duties as IT budgets remain flat, according to the latest research.
The survey of 2,399 CIOs in 77 countries found 51% of CIOs are feeling swamped by cloud, mobile and Internet of Things coming in faster than they can cope, while 42% don’t feel that they have the skills and capabilities to face this future.
Dave Aron, VP and Gartner Fellow, said: "CIOs are facing all the challenges they have for many years, plus a flood of digital opportunities and threats. Digitalisation raises questions about strategy, leadership, structure, talent, financing and almost everything else.
"All industries in all geographies are undergoing digital disruption. This is both a CIO’s dream come true and a career-changing leadership challenge."
The survey found that CIOs expect their IT budgets to remain essentially flat – only increasing 0.2% on average in 2014.
"IT spending, portfolio balance and the choice of technologies, talent, sourcing options, leadership, structure and governance must all be designed to make the business win. However, despite the need to grow, there is pressure on IT budgets," said Mr Aron.
A quarter of IT spending is expected to happen outside the IT budget, although the figure may be higher as this only takes into account the spending that CIOs know about.
The research also revealed that more than half of CIOs said at least 50% of their businesses will be running the public cloud by 2020, while 25% said a substantial part of their businesses have already embraced it.
