It is happening. IT is being delivered to and consumed within the enterprise without IT's knowledge. The cycle started with outsourcing and has rapidly accelerated with the advent of cloud computing.

When speaking to an employee at a large financial organization last year, he told me that part of the business was no longer relying on an internal IT to provision and deliver technology. In many organizations, technologies like social, mobile, cloud, direct outsourcing contracts and video are being leveraged to bypass the IT function. Consumers of technology today are extremely "tech-savvy" and expect information in real time, personalized user experiences and access to mobile applications.

Data center functions are being outsourced for cost efficiencies and to enhance time to value.

Is this the end for the CIO, and Information Technology, or simply another page in the evolution of IT enabled business service? I spoke to the CIO of another organization in the finance industry recently and his reaction to these industry changes has been to leverage the potential risks and compliance requirements to "shut the door" to all uses of cloud and outsourcing. Ultimately he found out it is happening behind their backs.

The "cloud computing revolution" is a continuation of the evolution of computing.  The reality is that the CIO and IT will need to make the concession that total control, perceived or real, will be lost and their role will transform.

Forward thinking organizations and CIO's have leveraged this transformation to commence a transformation of their own as they look to become part of the innovation process and accept the role of the aggregator of services - aka a service broker. This involves the acceptance of the disruptive technologies that fuel the business, partnering closely with the business to drive growth and customer engagement and implementing a new management paradigm.

The changing management paradigm IT will provide value through effective management of the portfolio, sound financial management and effective sourcing and management of the vendors delivering the capabilities all with the view of not only sustaining, but also delivering rapid innovation.

As technology sourcing and consumption moves beyond the CIO, the role of effective management must be the primary way in which the CIO will provide the appropriate level of centralized coordination. That said, the CIO will remain responsible for the orchestrating technology sourcing and managing the supply but at the same time facilitating the delivery of innovation.  To do this the CIO's focus will shift to empowering employee's and customers to solve problems and IT will need to focus on relationships with the business and function as a trusted advisor to assist them in solving business problems. In short, IT will need to ensure that employee's become one of the primary sources of innovation and blockbuster ideas to gain competitive advantage.

It is clear that IT is at the beginning of a major transition and change is inevitable, how will your organization deal with this?