CIO

10 IT certs paying the highest premiums today

sarah_white@idg.com — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 02:00:00 -0400

T certifications can boost your career, but it’s not always easy to tell which certifications hold the most value for your resume. Moreover, the pay associated any given certification can fluctuate based on business interest in the credential and the supply of IT pros who hold it. To help gauge certification values...

Winter 2019: State of the CIO

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 04:00:00 -0500

Welcome to the Winter 2019 digital issue of CIO featuring our annual State of the CIO research. In these pages...

10 Must-Have Skills For ITSM Pros

sarah_white@idg.com — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 15:20:00 -0500

New technologies like machine learning, cloud computing and IoT are changing how businesses serve clients and customers. Deploying these technologies in an IT service management (ITSM) environment can help businesses offer...

8 CIO Archetypes: What Kind Of IT Leader Are You?

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 12:28:00 -0400

Global business disruption is quickening the evolutionary timeline of the CIO role. Market dynamics are forcing IT leaders to extend beyond taking orders and delivering sustainable IT systems to massaging digital strategies and driving business outcomes. At least, that's the level many CIOs are aspiring to reach. The reality is that...

For CIOs, It's Nature V. Nurture Revisited

Wed, 24 May 2017 09:32:42 -0400

Funny thing about that CIO sitting next to you at Interop ITX this week or at some other conference. You have a lot in common with each other, more than you might think. The commonalities aren't just about how you started your careers as developers or admins, or about your mid-career MBA. According to Khalid Kark,...

IT Leaders Need To Be Business Leaders First, CIO Says

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 11:02:28 -0500

According to a high-profile IT executive in the health care sector, the key to making an impact as an IT leader is to come to the table as a business leader who happens to be running the technology team, rather than purely as a technologist waiting to receive requirements to fulfill. That IT executive is Steve Betts, senior vice president and...

30 Tech Skills That Will Get You A $110,000-plus Salary

Fri, 27 Mar 2015 08:04:53 -0400

Being a tech professional is a good career with plenty of high-paying jobs. But it's an ever-changing job market. One day a skill is hot and the next it's not. Job site Dice.com recently published its 2015 Salary Survey, which named the highest-paying tech skills. Dice, a tech-job-hunting site, surveyed 23,470 IT professionals in the fall of 2014 to come up with this list...

The Power Of Two: When CIOs And CMOs Work Together

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:19:36 -0500

When CIOs and CMOs share a unified digital vision, IT and marketing have the ability to create the best-possible digital experience for their customers. The sometimes-difficult working relationship between CIOs and CMOs has received a useful infusion of advice and recommendations from Avanade, a business technology solutions company, which is promoting a new view of the traditional CIO-CMO relationship. Avanade has merged the CIO and CMO titles to create a new one-Chief Information Marketing Officer-which is intended not to create a new position in the C-suite, but to suggest a way that CIOs and CMOs can develop and share "a unified digital vision," one that combines the knowledge and skills of IT and marketing to create the best-possible digital experience for their customers. In its new report,...

Big Data Storage Doesn't Have to Break the Bank

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 16:22:32 -0500

The era of big data requires new storage strategies. And with faster and smarter technology, these approaches don't have to break the bank.Big data is nothing new to Quicken Loans. The nation's largest online retail mortgage lender is accustomed to storing and analyzing data from more than 1.5 million clients and home loans valued at $70 billion in 2012. But the big data landscape got a little more interesting for the Detroit-based company about three years ago.

6 Tips to Help CIOs Manage Shadow IT

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:48:33 -0500

IT, mobile and security experts offer advice on how to minimize the risks associated with third-party apps and services as well as with employees using their mobile devices in the workplace.ï؟½With the increase in cloud computing and BYOD in the workplace, it's become increasingly difficult for IT departments to keep track of and manage software and hardware -- and maintain a secure environment. So what can CIOs and other IT leaders do to identify and manage Shadow IT -- software and hardware not directly under the control of IT -- and mitigate the potential risks?

Mobilizing Your C–Suite for Big–Data Analytics

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 16:48:18 -0500

Over the past 30 years, most companies have added new C-level roles in response to changing business environments. The chief financial officer (CFO) role, which didn't exist at a majority of companies in the mid-1980s, rose to prominence as pressures for value management and more transparent investor relations gained traction.1 Adding a chief marketing officer (CMO) became crucial as new channels and media raised the complexity of brand building and customer engagement. Chief strategy officers (CSOs) joined top teams to help companies address increasingly complex and fast-changing global markets. Today, the power of data and analytics is profoundly altering the business landscape, and once again...

IT: Don't Let the CEO Wonder What You Do All Day

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 16:13:58 -0500

If there's no crisis or big project to work on, CEOs may wonder what IT does all day. Here's how to make sure your contributions aren't undervalued.ï؟½Robert Handler, an analyst at Gartner, will never forget one of his earliest consulting jobs. "I was asked to gather enough data on a CIO to fire him," he recalls. Handler dutifully began researching the CIO's current and past activities but could find no obvious missteps. In fact, the man in question was the best CIO he'd ever met. Eventually, he returned to the CFO who had given him the assignment to ask why the CIO was to be fired. The CFO answered, "'He's spending a lot of money, and everything seems to be working just fine,'"...

Best Practices for Safely Moving Data in and Out of the Cloud

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 15:26:54 -0500

As everyone knows, cloud provider Nirvanix recently fell apart, declaring bankruptcy and leaving its customers in the lurch. Nirvanix gave enterprises less than a month to move their data to a new home. To avoid the fate of those customers, follow these best practices for safely moving data in and out of the cloud. Due diligence: financials first The Cloud Security Alliance's February 2013 report, "The Notorious Nine: Cloud Computing Top Threats in 2013" has identified a lack of...

Slideshow: IT Budgets, Salaries & Priorities: 2013 SIM IT Trends Study

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 15:18:12 -0500

Highlights from annual Society for Information Management survey of senior IT leaders.

Top Networking Trends of 2013: The Good, the Bad

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 15:10:20 -0500

A discussion with 451 Research's Daniel Kennedy about this year's key networking trends, including bigger budgets, wireless rollouts and security woes. The top networking trends of 2013 include larger budgets, the continued rollout and expansion of wireless networks, and the return of security as the top pain point for network managers, according to the new TheInfoPro's Networking Study. Other hot topics include...

What every [Executive] should know about encryption

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 05:00:29 -0400

if you've been following the news lately, you've heard the buzz about the NSA's PRISM data surveillance programs. Cloud service providers, or CSPs, like Amazon, Microsoft and Google allegedly installed equipment to capture data, in some cases, even bypassing their own encryption. If your organization leverages the public cloud, which is very likely, you need to have a basic understanding of how encryption works, and more specifically, key management. Security technology and process doesn't work the same once you...

The Powerful Trait Shared By Gates, Jobs, Buffett, Zuckerberg...

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:18:14 -0400

Great leaders have to find their own way, but to get the masses moving together they all need to master this trait. Recently I conversed with a friend who runs a large company. He was struggling with communications challenges typical for groups of 200 or larger. He was trying to figure out how to get his people to make decisions the same way and to say consistent messages regarding the company both internally and externally. Knowing he liked my writing...

Integrating Clouds Into [Your] IT Infrastructure

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:09:24 -0400

Firms that successfully integrate clouds and existing IT infrastructure can achieve agility, flexibility and transformation that was unimaginable a few years ago. Over the last few years, IT and business executives have witnessed a profound shift in enterprise computing. While organizations continue to rely on internal data centers to manage an array of tasks, clouds have drifted into...

The Business Impact Of Failed IT Projects

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:08:46 -0400

It's hard to think of a single significant business process these days that is not dependent on IT. As a result, any time there is a problem with IT, the cascading effects on the business can be catastrophic. A recent global survey of 304 executives conducted by Intellitrends on behalf of Compuware finds that the average cost of an IT failure from a business perspective is $10.8 million, which doesn't include longer term effects that could include loss of market share and damaged brand equity. Most telling of all...

CIOs Share How They Made The Leap To CEO

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:02:02 -0400

CIOs who won the CEO job talk candidly about the relentless pressure for profits, the ultimate accountability and what they wish they'd known as CIO. Kevin Horner was a damn good CIO. At the helm of IT at Alcoa for three years--and as CIO of various divisions for 11 years before that--Horner led the $23.7 billion company to numerous honors, including two CIO 100 Awards. He ran IT like a business, showing the cost of the technology and services each internal group consumed. He met with key...

New Data Challenges Drive Need For Updated Integration Strategy

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:00:52 -0400

In recent years, more IT organizations have shifted away from hand-coding integration to using a data integration tool. In theory, that should eliminate some of the spaghetti code going forward. The problem, though, is that times have changed and the data integration tools of yesterday may no longer be enough, contends integration and data consultant David Linthicum. In particular, Big Data and cloud computing are creating new challenges that may...

What CIOs Should Be Thinking About But Aren't

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:00:16 -0400

A vice president of datacenter initiatives and digital infrastructure with the analyst firm 451 Research, Michelle Bailey recently spoke with CIO Insight about IT investments, the current lack of innovation, business metrics and what many CIOs should be thinking about but aren't. Here is a condensed version of Bailey's remarks. It's time for companies to invest in IT. "The economy is improving, and we're seeing jobs growth and improvement in the housing market, especially in the U.S., but what we aren't seeing a return to IT spending. We haven't seen...

Chief Digital Officer: Hot New Tech Title Or Flash In The Pan?

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 07:54:27 -0400

There's a new C-level executive -- the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) -- in the boardroom, charged with ensuring that companies' massive stores of digital content are being used effectively to connect with customers and drive revenue growth. At first blush, an executive title that includes the word "digital" would seem to encroach on IT's territory. Not so, observers say -- but that doesn't mean tech leaders don't need to be prepared to...

6 Highest/Lowest Paid IT Jobs

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:20:49 -0400

C-level titles top the list of highest paid IT jobs, and technical support positions dominate the low end of the pay scale, according to new salary data from technology staffing firm Mondo. Starting salaries for tech pros in the U.S. are on the rise, says Michael Kirven, founder and CEO of Mondo. "The trends that I'm seeing today are very, very optimistic," Kirven says. Midway through 2013, "the rate of IT hiring and the rate of IT salaries is accelerating" compared to the first half of the year, he says...

Does BYOD Increase Information Risk?

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:16:37 -0400

We're living in an always-on, always-connected society, where our mobile phones have gone from being simply portable telephones to serving as all-powerful communications devices. Unfortunately, many of today's most popular devices weren't designed for business purposes and therefore don't offer the level of security provided with desktop and laptop computers. Furthermore, the way our mobile devices are being used blurs the line...

What To Look For When Hiring An IT Consultant

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:14:01 -0400

Just because someone has the words "IT consultant" printed on a business card doesn't mean he can solve your particular technology challenge or will work well with your IT or management team. So how do you find the right IT consultant, someone who understands your business and can address your specific IT need(s)? So before you even think about giving a third party access to your critical or sensitive information systems or software...

The Role Of The CIO: Evolving Or Evaporating?

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:11:47 -0400

We've written about the changing role of the chief information officer, but the latest news out of IBM (IBM) doesn't appear to be very encouraging if you happen to be among those to reach that pinnacle in your career. IBM, one of the biggest champions of CIOs, plans to sell its cloud software directly to the executives who run various corporate operations, including marketing, supply chain, human resources, etc. IBM isn't abandoning the CIO, but...

Securing the Cloud, Your Virtual Storage Shed

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:11:04 -0400

Cloud computing is quickly growing in popularity. The idea of a virtual storage shed to house all your data and documents is turning into one of the best resources for companies because it provides efficiency and economy of scale. One of the biggest concerns is...

Is Microsoft The Answer To [Your] Cloud Quandary?

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:10:20 -0400

First, some background: I have often been a very vocal basher of Microsoft. As of a few years ago, I now run Apple stuff because I got sick of Windows quality issues causing me endless pain. I have mocked Microsoft's failed attempts at being a legitimate data protection player and storage player over the years. I watched it bomb following Apple, with Zune, a phone OS and a tablet. As a follower, it's been poor. As a leader, however, it's been unequaled. A year ago I felt like the company might...

Preparing For Your Next Budget

Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:08:28 -0400

Budgeting can be a harrowing experience or an opportunity to show that you are a business leader who can help your company accomplish its overall goals. As a big fan of Looney Tunes I lovingly recall Elmer Fudd, shotgun in hand, watching Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny get into a spirited debate as to whether it was duck season or "wabbit" season. This comes to mind as many of us start to prepare for budget season or, as I lovingly call it, begging for dollars! The idea of having to justify a budget strikes fear into the hearts of many CIOs. While for some this may feel like the IT version of...