Penicillin, laparoscopic surgery, and stents are all amazing health innovations that have changed the way we live. Just as these medical innovations altered the way medicine is practiced, Everything as a Service (XaaS, pronounced ZaaS) can change the way IT services are delivered, how business value is provided and the role CIOs and IT play in the organization.
In the new edition of Smart Enterprise magazine the cover story, "Everything as a Service," explores how CIOs need to select the right cloud services, evaluate suppliers, ensure security, and evolve their roles and skill sets. XaaS, as the next wave of the cloud revolution, features ACS, a Xerox Corp., Qualcomm and Mycroft Inc. discussing the ways XaaS is providing business benefits.
In the Up Close case study InterContinental Hotels Group CIO Tom Conophy shows how mobile technology, virtualization and the cloud can enable big gains in productivity - and in business results.
The Smart Partnering article "SaaS-ify!" takes a look at how software providers are moving to the cloud to help CIOs reduce costs and improve agility. One of the main drivers for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to ‘SaaS-ify' is consumerization of IT. The users and customers of IT want to receive their service where and when they want it, on any device they choose by delivering their software as a service.
In this issue's Leadership Perspectives column, Peter Griffiths, EVP and Group Executive at CA Technologies, provides insight on Driving Innovation and how cloud based services create new opportunities for CIOs. But to benefit, IT leaders will need to play new roles in their organizations. "To succeed with cloud-based services, CIOs must become business managers, brokers of a supply chain of business-supporting services," says Griffiths. The One True Thing column features George Fischer offering his perspective on the New Business Order: Service, and how smart CIOs are watching the connected generation.
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