CIO OPINION demands surge to an all-time high. However, a study conducted by IDC shows that 20-30 % of corporate cloud spend is wasted. Cloud resources are many times overprovisioned, while systematic infrastructure planning and vendor negotiations can achieve significant cost advantages.
Early involvement of the CIO will shape the dialogue with business units to truly determine short- and medium-term infrastructure needs. A holistic hybrid infrastructure planning approach is needed to unleash the power of demand-based cloud deployment.
And this is where the CIO already needs to be involved. Systematically jointly plan capacity needs and align infrastructure demand and supply across all business divisions.
CIOs must take an early lead role in strategic negotiations with hyperscalers and other infrastructure providers. It requires a unified vendor negotiation approach which must be led by technology and IT with close business alignment.
In parallel, consolidating licensing, reducing maintenance fees, and simplifying support is imminent and will position the CIO not just as a provisioner of infrastructure and technology but rather as a highly cost-efficient and effective strategic business enabler.
Taking a proactive approach of ensuring cyber resilience and effectiveness is not just a matter of early CIO involvement, it must be a top 3 priority on the CIO agenda. CIOs must shift their cybersecurity approaches from incident response to threat anticipation by designing zero-trust architectures and creating a deeply rooted culture of security awareness.
Insights from IBM indicate that the average cost of data breaches amounts to US $ 4.45 million, while organisations with mature cyber security capabilities can save up to US $ 1.76 million. The CIO’ s impact on your organisation’ s cyber resilience must be quantified to highlight the true value of next-generation cybersecurity measures.
The strategic dialogue between business and technology decision makers needs to be strengthened and facilitated.
Not just early CIO involvement is the key to effective and efficient decision making, but rather a common stage where the CIO and business peers are jointly planning, evaluating, and reviewing strategic decisions, especially with a focus on technology and IT staffing, technology and infrastructure needs, and cyber security matters.
Establish a joint biztech strategic decision board to ensure proactive alignment, rapid decision making, and a common strategic direction on technology matters across the CxO suite.
Early CIO involvement is not just a matter of technology readiness and resilience, it multiplies efficiency. It rewires decision-making around long-term value, not short-term. And in an era where investments and budgets are under scrutiny, that shift is critical and essential, and the time to act is now. p
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