[My post in the Ipswitch File Transfer blog All Things Manged File Transfer, May 5, 2014]

I recently attended CIOboston, a CIOsynergy event headlined as “A New Dimension to Problem Solving Within the Office of the CIO”. We talked about paradigm shifts propelled by technologies like the cloud, the necessary new engagement models for business and IT and the changing world of expectations to name a few topics. But before getting to all this, our moderator Ty Harmon of 2THEEDGE posed the simple question to the attending 50 or so CIOs and senior IT heads: “What are your challenges?”

Here are the answers that I have assembled. I think there is value in seeing what was/is top of mind for IT leaders in raw form:

• How do we make the right choices between capital and expense?  Service offerings are growing and additive – the spend never ends.
• How do we integrate multiple cloud vendors to provide business value?
• User expectations are being set by the likes of Google and Amazon for great UX, 7X24 support, etc. – but it is my IT staff that is expected to deliver all that on our budget. The business does not want to see the price tag – but they want the same experience that is available at home from these giants.
• IT needs to run like a business but this takes a lot of doing. It matters how we talk and collaborate. We have to deliver business results that must be measurable.
• Adoption of the cloud is a challenge. How do we assess what is out there? It is not easy to do apples-to-apples comparisons and security is a big concern.
• How do we go from private to public cloud? Current skill sets are limited.
• We are constrained by vendors that are not keeping up with the new technologies! One piece of critical software may want an earlier version of Internet Explorer to run; another may use an obsolete version of SQL Server, etc. This clutter prevents IT departments from moving forward.
• Business complexity is a challenge. IT is asked to automate – but we must push back to first simplify business processes.
• “Shadow IT” is an issue. A part of the business goes for a “shiny object” rather than focusing on what is the problem that really needs to be solved. They do so without involving IT. Then IT is expected to step in and make it all work, integrate with other software and support it.
• Proving ROI is a challenge.
• Balancing performance, scalability and security is tough.
• How do you choose old vs. new, flexibility vs. security? It isn’t easy.
• How do we support more and more devices?
• How do you fill security holes that are in the cloud?
• How do you manage user expectations, find the balance for supporting them when you have limited resources.

Many heads nodded as these challenges were spoken of.  But all agreed that these are exciting times and IT will push forward through them and be recognized as the true business enabler that it is. What are your thoughts—were you nodding your head at these questions?