The Cisco EMEAR president Chris Dedicoat has claimed that chief information officers (CIOs) are ‘losing control’ of their IT infrastructure.
Speaking at Cisco Live in Milan, the executive warned of the dangers of shadow IT being commissioned and used by departments without the knowledge of the CIO, potentially exposing company data and intellectual property vital to the firm’s future.
"I think the challenge for the CIO is that they’re losing control – most importantly over management and security," Dedicoat said.
"In the research we’ve done enterprises are using about seven cloud based services [on average] that the CIO doesn’t know about."
He added that it used to be the case that the business strategy would direct the IT department, but that this situation had changed in recent years.
Zeus Kerravala, an independent analyst, said that CIOs were under pressure to "predict what the business leaders want", which was challenging for them as technologists continue to innovate.
"Three years and five years strategies just don’t work any more," Dedicoat said. "[CIOs] are all looking for that flexibility and agility, and that’s why cloud is so appealing to them."
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He noted that fragmentation in security was of particular risk to organisations, which meant that the drive towards integration and consolidation is now key for many businesses.
"The industry has to go through a consolidation it has to work better together in terms of how you cooperate across IT and how you deliver solutions," he said.
"The network is the only thing that can see everything. If you can see everything you have a chance of securing it."
