Elizabeth Leigh
Enterprise information technology leaders are looking at a time where all aspects of IT service delivery is becoming dependent on consumption, a major shift Jason Ferrara of IO Data Centers believes is a result of a confluence of mobile, cloud and other factors.
“The business—the end user of IT services—demands value and it will go around IT if that’s what it takes,†Ferrara, vice president for digital marketing at IO, wrote on the IO blog Feb. 7.
“IT can no longer succeed by operating behind the scenes; IT must be a—if not the—key strategic driver of the business,†he added.
He noted that the trend could force chief information officers to change how they see the enterprise both from a strategic and security point of view.
“Democratization of IT means business users demand that their technology deliver its promised functionality irrespective of the underlying infrastructure,†Ferrara said.
“From that perspective, everything IT does should be value-add for the business,†he added.
One way to stay relevant and viable is to offer “everything IT as a service,†he says.
“That doesn’t mean infrastructure is unnecessary… but it is now the software that defines how the enterprise consumes resources and how those resources should be configured,†Ferrara said.
“Everything, even the data center, can be consumed as a service, and resources must be provisioned and managed accordingly, he concluded.
