Changing Role of IT in Business

Summary

In this insightful discussion at HP Discover, Jake Addington and Paul Mueller explore the evolving role of the CIO from a 'plumber' to a 'producer.' As technology becomes more accessible and user-friendly, the emphasis shifts from deep technical knowledge to orchestrating talent and simplifying IT processes. They touch on the impact of cloud, consumerization, and mobility, and how these have democratized technology, empowering non-technical users. The conversation also delves into the DevOps philosophy, emphasizing its focus on accelerating ideas to implementation through automation and governance. The future of the CIO role is predicted to center on extracting value from information and leading organizational change amidst rapid technological advancements.

Takeaways

• 👔 The role of the CIO and IT professionals is evolving from being experts in underlying technology to becoming great producers who can orchestrate talent and understand the bigger picture.
• 🌐 The advent of cloud computing and consumerization has made business more IT-savvy, altering the balance of power and required skill sets within IT.
• 📱 Consumerization, internet technologies, and mobility form a 'holy trinity' that has fundamentally changed how technology is viewed and utilized in organizations.
• 👩‍💻 The shift towards simplicity in technology allows less tech-savvy individuals to perform powerful tasks, changing the landscape of IT from complex to accessible.
• 🛠️ The importance of simplifying IT processes, such as service consumption and infrastructure management, is highlighted as a key to modern IT operations.
• 🔄 DevOps is not just about technology but is fundamentally about accelerating the process of turning ideas into implementations through automation and governance.
• 🎻 The role of the CIO is transitioning towards a 'producer' role, focusing on creating infrastructure as code and managing rich APIs for service orchestration.
• 🔮 The future of the CIO role involves extracting value from information, leading organizational change, and dealing with the accelerated pace of technological innovation.
• 🛡️ Resiliency in IT services is becoming crucial, with concepts like 'chaos monkey' testing the robustness of systems and infrastructure against failures.
• 🌡️ The analogy of a living, breathing network infrastructure that can withstand and recover from attacks or failures, similar to an immune system, is proposed for building resilient systems.

Q & A

What is the main discussion point between Jake and Paul regarding the role of a CIO?

The main discussion point is whether the role of a CIO is evolving from being a 'plumber', someone who understands the deep technical aspects, to a 'producer', someone who orchestrates talent and understands how to leverage technology for business value.

How does Paul Mueller perceive the impact of cloud technology on the IT profession?

Paul Mueller sees cloud technology as a significant factor that has shifted the balance of power within IT and between IT and the business, requiring a shift in skills from deep technical knowledge to a more producer-like role.

What is the significance of consumerization in the context of IT discussed by Paul?

Consumerization is seen as a key factor that has made non-technical people more capable with technology, thus changing the way technology is viewed and utilized within organizations.

How does the ease of technology consumption, as mentioned by Paul, affect the IT industry?

The ease of technology consumption has democratized access to powerful tools, requiring less technical expertise and allowing for more focus on innovation and value extraction.

What does Paul suggest as the fundamental change in the IT industry over the past 20 years?

Paul suggests that the fundamental change is the simplification of technology, making it accessible to non-technical users and shifting the focus from managing complexity to enabling business innovation.

What is the role of the producer in the DevOps context according to the discussion?

In the DevOps context, the role of the producer is to ensure the right services are available, to build infrastructure as code, and to have rich APIs and control surfaces to act more like an orchestrator.

How does Paul envision the future role of the CIO in relation to IT and business innovation?

Paul envisions the future CIO's role as being primarily about extracting value from information, leading organizational change, and helping the business deal with the accelerated pace of technological change.

What is the 'chaos monkey' concept mentioned by Paul, and how does it relate to IT resilience?

The 'chaos monkey' concept involves deliberately introducing failures into an IT environment to identify points of weakness and build resilience. It's a strategy to ensure systems can handle and recover from disruptions.

How does Paul relate the concept of IT resilience to biological immunity?

Paul relates IT resilience to biological immunity by suggesting that systems should be designed to withstand and recover from failures, much like the human body develops antibodies to fight infections.

What does Paul mean by 'infrastructure as a service' and its impact on the CIO role?

Paul refers to 'infrastructure as a service' as a commodity that allows CIOs to focus more on extracting value from information and leading business innovation rather than managing physical infrastructure.