“We’re putting everything into the Cloud” – Has any phrase in recent years been so universally adopted to serve as the summation point for corporate IT strategy than this one? From one perspective, this is a perfectly logical assertion since you won’t find many naysayers in, or outside, of the organization that will argue that this is some form of heresy in relation to current IT Metamorphosis. On the other hand what does this really mean when we scratch below the surface? Do they really mean everything? Does this mean they are pre-disposed to outsourcing large swaths of business critical applications? Do they have a network architecture to support their plan? All are valid considerations as they reflect a changing dynamic in the operational environment of the IT organization and their role in servicing the myriad requirements of the enterprise.
The Traditional Role – While every department in any company feels besieged from time to time, in many respects, corporate IT departments seem to have been invented to serve as the organization’s universal “whipping boy”. IT governance sometimes creates the thought that that department is “where bold initiatives go to die”. In many instances these perceptions are fed by parochial views within the company as to the role of the “Information Technology” department. Under this paradigm, the IT department acts as a vigilant gatekeeper focused on maintaining control over IT cost and security. This reflects the historical role of IT as a reactive, task-oriented organization and the data center as the repository for the company’s applications’ supporting hardware. IT can, and must, change this perception.