Everyone, even CIOs, have their least favorite issues to deal with... those nagging issues that never seem to go away. Here's a list from Michael Fimin, Chief Executive Officer for Netwrix Corporation. Michael has worked with and currently talks with CIOs on a daily basis. His list includes five issues he hears about from CIOs regularly.
- Security is always the top priority, this includes antivirus, prevention of phishing attacks, vulnerability assessment, access control, and identity management. The reason it can't be solved? Security threats are evolving and the need for security technologies and new ways to handle risks will always be there.
- Compliance comes in second especially in regards to regulated industries such as healthcare, government and banking. Ongoing auditing and preparation is needed for audits to avoid costly fines and loss of reputation. The reason why this can't be solved? Compliance regulations evolve and tighten, CIOs need to stay on top.
- BYOD (Bring your own device) pertains to the thousands of new "unmanageable" post-PC era devices that are not regularly updated or don't comply to corporate policies. All pose a great security risk and unpredictability. The reason this can't be solved is because there are too many device types, CIOs need a universal solution from mobile industry players.
- Migration to the cloud is another biggie. In order to stay competitive, CIOs need to implement new technologies rapidly and decrease costs. Cloud systems are relatively new and many migration solutions are not fully developed yet.
- And lastly, getting rid of existing legacy infrastructure and introducing new technologies continue to rear it's ugly head. Maintaining the balance between existing legacy infrastructure vs implementing new technologies is never easy. CIO's will need to refresh their management skills and carefully align their resource allocation, this cannot be solved by technology.
Fimin's list matches my own observations pretty closely, but I'm sure there are others that come up based on specific industries or other circumstances. As CIO, what are your top five nagging issues?
For more information about issues that CIOs face, read an interview with Albert Mavashev, CTO of Nastel about how all of CIOs issues are business issues.
