Forbes: Rich Vs. Poor IT Organizations

What makes one CIO more successful than another is changing. In the past, deep knowledge of technology was critical. Now, a deep understanding of the business and how to move it forward has become the key metric.

That change is reflected not just in how much money the CIO’s organization receives, but also who the CIO reports to. To find out what’s driving these changes, Forbes caught up with Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research at Gartner Executive Programs.

Forbes: What’s changing across the CIO landscape?

Mark McDonald: The differences between rich and poor IT organizations are real and getting bigger.

How do you define rich and poor?

Richness is a level of IT performance as well as budget and standing in the enterprise. It’s not just who has the most money. It’s whether you’re a strategic player and effective at what you do. These CIOs do tend to get more money, but they have a higher propensity to spend it more strategically. The richer IT organizations have been more proactive about cutting waste out of IT and they also do things faster. The poor organizations are hedging their bets across the whole organization.

More of the Forbes article from Ed Sperling

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.