As the world economy keeps booming and is shifting gears toward a more open capitalistic society, CIOs are growing increasingly concerned about some of the changing dynamics in the IT industry that might lead to irreversible consequences. For example, with constant privacy breaches in the IT industry, CIOs are far more anxious than ever about protecting their AI-generated data.
Fittingly, they are more concerned with moving to cloud-based systems and how efficiently those systems can be protected over various cloud-based environments and noticeably less interested in the state of their budget. With that and more in mind, here are the seven things most frequently keeping CIOs up at night:
1. Data Protection – Most progressive firms are adamant about how they add privacy value to their products, and how those valued privacy services eventually meet the standardized GDPR rules and regulations. Google has repeatedly paid severe fines for not meeting the basic GDPR and CCPA guideline restrictions about customer data.
A recent survey by IAPP also concluded that more than fifty percent (50%) of the firms in the tech industry are in direct breach of the GDPR guidelines. “In the end, there has to be some sort of simple attuned guidelines for the global tech industry CIOs that affirm the very basics of customer privacy and protection,” says John Samuel, a leading cybersecurity specialist.
2. New Security Threats – Constant mechanical and organized breaches by black hat hackers around the world have sparked outrage and serious concerns over startling new security threats in the IT industry, which are clearly a major cause of stress for CIOs. The recent US government shutdown actually opened new backdoors for many dark web specialists to interfere with the critical infrastructure of the entire country.
At the time of shutdown, many cybersecurity experts were not present, which led to even more abuse of the gaps in the security systems. Additionally, firms will have to be open to AI-based security solutions to in case of even more violent Trojan horse or similar attacks from next -generation hackers.
3. Innovation and Digital Transformation – Gartner data indicates that about two-thirds of the leading firms believe that they have to be in constant upgrade mode to keep up with the digital marketing needs of their clients or else risk devaluation.
A large number of firms, however, don’t want to spend hefty sums on their digital marketing campaigns until they’re forced to look at their degrading market value in comparison to competitors.
Cloud computing services such as Platform as a service (PaaS), Software as a service (SaaS), and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) have become homogenous and technologically reliable services, yet a large portion of the tech market is not willing to engage with any Cloud Service Providers (CSP).
4. Outsourcing Risk – The first things that come to the mind of a CIO when he or she thinks about outsourcing are quality and the risk of security threats. The quality of work that is being outsourced is solely in the hands of the firm they’ve outsourced to and that firm could also be vulnerable to possible cybersecurity threats. Recently, a Whitehouse chief evangelist and MetricStream cybersecurity advisor noted, “The major threats for CIOs originate from inside and third-party contractors.” Adding further, “The more we’re reliant on passwords, and on our basic credentials our main threat will be no one, but us.”
5. Skills Gap – Most IT firms today are experiencing a major skills gap. That said, hiring a diverse group of employees to benefit from different race and gender background could be an available solution. The entire hiring process may shift in favor of more diversity.
With a broad spectrum of effectively diverse mindsets working together, productivity will increase considerably.
6. Tools for a Digital Native Workforce – These tools are the basis for the digital transformation model. These tools demand that CIOs keep up to date with industry related practices. For example, thanks to a decidedly technology-based existence, Gen Z will always expect to be in control of their technology and its productive output.
CIOs have to be on guard for consistent changes to the data-related Internet of Things (IoT) and work to come up with new analytical sensibilities that make sense to both businesses as well as customers.
7. Rebuilding Trust – Matters of privacy and security issues, and the extent to which users are addicted to digital products, have to be ethically addressed among leaders in the industry. Companies like Google and Facebook must be vigilant in how they access, use and share consumer data.
It is the utmost responsibility of the IT sector to operate on behalf of society as respectable corporate entities, applying more data-driven business models that lead to an increase in innovation.
