For my final post I am going to throw a grenade into the mix and see what happens. This isn’t a tactic of being challenging for the sake of stirring things up but an attempt to get people to step outside conventional thought patterns and look at things from a different perspective. I don’t see this as mind mapping, brainstorming or whatever the latest trend is; maybe it’s just me being devil’s advocate or just sheer bloody minded (where’s that smiley emoticon when you need it?

Here it comes  … Does a CIO have to be a “techie?”

Did you duck?

There’s an old saying that a recession is the best time to start a new business. Business sages dispense this Zen type wisdom in the belief that hard times breed a new type of approach with innovation coming to the fore. Similarly I guess that when IT is facing major challenges from all sides the truly innovative CIO comes into their own. 

So, a simple question for you. Given that beaten paths are for beaten men when was the last time you took a real flyer of a decision that was so off the wall it deserved to fall flat on its face but succeeded?

In writing these posts I sometimes search the net for “alternative sites”,  places where you find the most unlikely sources of information that offer a fresh look at the CIO environment, uncluttered by the Wood For The Trees Syndrome. The Accidental Successful CIO is one such site which is run by Dr Jim Anderson, a 20+ year veteran in IT consulting.

Some time back I wrote about the life expectancy of CIOs and recently I was having a beer with an IT pro who expressed concern that his job was life limited with the anticipated adoption of cloud computing and outsourcing through PAAS outlets.  As with so many things when people feel threatened, especially in this delicate economic climate, they have a knee jerk reaction so I started rooting around and the picture isn’t as grim as my friend fea

As a disclaimer to this post I’d like to point out that I don’t feel that IT departments are the Anti Christ. Most companies have limited financial and human resources for a lot of the technical back office support and I don’t think there is an IT department in the world that isn’t under strain because of the restraints imposed upon it by senior management. Having said that, the way you manage that strain says a lot about the calibre of IT management and the staff within the structure. Now I have got that out of the way, let’s go for the jugular!

If your CEO is showing signs of wanting to adopt cloud computing technologies than a quick flick through a new report semi-commissioned by the Federal Chief Information Officer and the U.S. Department of Commerce will provide some invaluable information. The Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD2), is a collection of 71 - I know, why 71! - industry executives which has had its nose to the grindstone for some months and has published its list of recommendations for the adoption of cloud based technologies.