Consumer Driven IT in Review – 9th edition

Jackie Kahle — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:06:00 GMT

Now What? Consumer Driven IT encompasses a variety of technologies and the issues are varied and daunting - supporting many different devices, securing data and access across private and public clouds, ensuring 24/7 service delivery, developing mobile-friendly apps and shortening application lifecycles to meet increasing demands.

It is no surprise that our customers often ask "What do I do next?" "How should I get started?" There are two takes on this that are worth highlighting. The IDC whitepaper IT Consumers Transform the Enterprise: Are You Ready? has four recommendations for IT:

1. Embrace the cloud and leverage it to focus on strategic initiatives.

2. Embrace endpoint diversity.

3. Accelerate automation of management and control functionality.

4. Focus on security, particularly new challenges associated with supporting diverse endpoint devices and protecting critical confidential data stored in the cloud.

We also heard pragmatic advice in a recent meeting we had with industry guru @BrianMadden (http://www.consumerizeit.com/). Here's a summary - for more details, see Brian's blog HERE

Take an inventory and find out what your users are actually doing and what tools they find useful to get their jobs done. I would add that this must be approached carefully to ensure you get honest responses - reassure your employees that you are not out to penalize them or take action to prevent their using these tools moving forward.
You will need a broad array of input across the company and from many different functions, so establish a committee to focus on developing an integrated plan for IT consumerization. Marketing and Sales are likely to have very different perspectives on what is needed than Finance or HR.

Sound advice all around, and things to consider as organizations move from being overwhelmed with IT consumerization to being confident with a plan to leverage it.

Here's what else was in the IT consumerization news the last few weeks:

February 2: PwC: Most enterprises still catching up to consumerization of IT via PWC. 4^th annual Digital IQ survey highlights how top-performing US organizations show greater mastery in how they leverage digital technologies by offering mobile tools for customers, measuring data through social media, mobilizing applications to the public cloud and the innovative use of business intelligence.

February 1: IT Salaries: growth reflects positive changes in the IT job market via Meridith Levinson, CIO-Asia. Demands of IT consumerization are causing higher salaries for some IT professionals in Asia.

Healthcare in your pocket: the unstoppable rise of mHealth by Scott Bauman via Greenough. Just a fancy word for the consumerization of healthcare IT, and it is inevitable.

January 30: Cloud and mobile blurs into other people's IT by Dion Hinchcliffe via Enterprise Irregulars. As much of 30% of IT spending may already be outside IT's control and budget. This is a transformational moment for IT to move to become "information enablers".

January 28: Three trends that change business: mobile, social and cloud by Maribel Lopez via Forbes. Consumer driven IT is so much more than just BYOD or IT consumerization.

January 27: Gamification: the buzzword that can ruin your apps and business by Galen Gruman via InfoWorld. The concept of taking consumer-oriented gaming interfaces and applying them to business apps enters the IT consumerization ecosystem.

January 25: Dispelling Six Myths of Consumerization of IT, new research study from Avanade. There is less resistance to embracing IT consumerization than you might think.

The Consumerization of IT helps level the SMB playing field across the world from IDC. New research shows IT consumerization paying dividends for SMB, particularly in developing countries.

Use your smartphone for business presentations by Joseph Fieber via CIO.com. It is always with you, so why not use it?

January 24: Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise survey results from IDG Enterprise. Survey of 1,900 IT and security decision-makers shows growing adoption but lingering security concerns.

Content management and collaboration grapple with consumerization of IT by Adam Riglian via TechTarget. Consumer tools versus enterprise collaboration tools are not that different, but there is a real risk of silos.

January 23: Game On: the Consumerization of IT - new InfoWorld Channel by Eric Knorr via InfoWorld. InfoWorld has joined the IT Consumerization party by launching a new channel devoted to it.

Hey, IT: stop trying to catch up to consumerization and start trying to stay ahead by Colin Steele via ConsumerizeIT. IT might want to start to think about adding a consumer advocate to their staff.

January 20: What MegaUpload's demise teaches about cloud storage by Ian Paul via CIO. Forewarned is forearmed - you must be careful where you trust your data.

Consumerization: the view from IT you may not like but need to hear by Galen Gruman via InfoWorld. What Sean P. Silverman, CTO of Bartlett Tech thinks of IT Consumerization and why IT is not all wrong.

NEW from CA Technologies This Week:

Check out our new Solution Brief "Consumer Driven IT: Thriving in the New Normal" to learn more about this trend and how CA Technologies can help.
Act now: Exec Event on February 9th-"Consumer Driven IT: Thriving in the New Normal" event on February 9^th, happening across 25 cities in the US and Canada. To register go to www.ca.com/consumerdrivenit
Service Assurance blog post from Denise Dubie (@DDubie) explores how IT can get control over mobile apps.

CA Technologies Corporate Blog: Perspectives : enterprise apps, consumer device

Consumer Driven IT in Review – 9th edition