infrachat

Is it really just one way –there are comfort zone issues. IT leaders viewed the business as slow and siloed, LOB felt IT was to rigid and slow. Cloud changed the game for both – more than ever the right infra matters

Collaboration has yet to be engrained in IT’s culture. And the right collaboration methods are not easy to implement – plus it’s time-consuming

For many, it's hard to do. Takes a culture shift to be more open

IT and business teams come from different backgrounds with very different skill-sets, interests and objectives... and have a heritage of decades working independently.

@SurjitChana Great point with culture - really needs to be led from the top-down

We have seen clients like the London Stock Exchange (see study) attack this issue and start making progress

@nathan_dyer yes culture is key...can not force everything via process and mgt system. Culture will drive it naturally

It's clear that automation will solve this problem; IT and business collaboration is hard, people intensive, and time consuming; automation makes it simplier

@furrier agreed do you have examples you cam share where and how this was done ?

@IBMSmrtrCmptngFailing to meet customer expectations is not an option. Companies that protect customer data, yet make it rapidly available to provide a better customer experience win. If your IT environment is not agile, secure and scalable you loose

Setting an infra strategy is critical for orgs trying to keep pace with increasing demands from the latest technology. Orgs with leading IT infra practices (one of which was setting IT infra strategy) were dramatically more prepared with their existing...

lose ( ha )

.....infrastructure for the era of cloud, mobile, social, and analytics.

Setting the strategic direction, learning what works and what doesn't, sharing scarce resources and measuring the results. Basic mgmt but not always seen implemented end to end in the "business of IT"

Without a strategy, how else can you prioritize your infra investments to make the business happy?

Living in "react mode" no longer cuts it

@SurjitChana Cloud is a good example, IT Connectors were over 400% "more prepared" than others

@pcarvao good point. those days are long gone...given the speed at which business need to move

Communicating your roadmap and plans to biz stakeholders is another key benefit of setting strategy. Make sure everyone is on same page

creating enabling infrastructure that allows for rapid deployment of apps is very key competitive advantage

@IBMSmrtrCmptngThey embrace, understand and participate in the business strategy. They bring sanity to the “Hyrid by accident “ approach that comes from lack of LOB-IT collaboration. Embrace the skills needed http://ibm.co/11W6iG...

Collaborating with the biz to provide IT infra solutions to support their biz needs

Also, investing in IT infra to achieve competitive differentiation is their top biz driver. This helps to enable and fuel biz growth

@rfk5 "hybrid by accident" is definitely a good term. Collaboration is key to prevent the accident from happening to make it purposeful

surjit

Companies today increasingly look at IT infra as a competitive differentiator. IT execs that understand how CAMS can help drive new business models will have a REAL business impact.

@IBMSmrtrCmptng@surjitchana, These IT connectors, tend to work in companies that are 200% more likely to outperform their peers -

@rfk5 "Hybrid by accident" ? Say a bit more

Sure - with LOB taking a more direct role in buying IT Services, often from Public clouds w/out a real IT strategy, IT leader find they are "hybrid by accident" vs planning for it

Wondering if other audience members have different IT infrastructure leadership aspects based on their experiences? Q open to all!

IT connectors are the levers that can accelerate the change - could be person or trend; cloud is the transformation oppty as forcing function to transform

Does a Map ( or GPS ) Matter ? If IT leaders don’t understand where the business is going, and an infrastructure that is not based on Open Standards, and can leverage existing investment along with Private & Public Cloud, well ..not pretty

First and foremost: biz results. Strategic IT Connectors with leading infra practices are 3X more likely to outperform peers in revenue growth and 2.4X more likely to outperform in net profit

Today IT = Business... the line has blurred

@SurjitChana Agree - and almost 50% more prepared for mobile. How can you afford NOT to prepare for mobile ?

It's clear that these practices lead to improved biz results. Many examples of organizations winning with infra

technology doesn’t make decisions: leaders do here is a great paper on #bigdata and leadership I just read today from my friends at Kellogg School http://www.egonzehnd...

@pcarvao Exactly right. Technology is the top factor impacting the biz according to CEOs. The line has blurred indeed

@pcarvao and business = IT...that's why reaching out to LOB is so important

Effect IT infra practices drive better business outcomes: revenue growth, profitability and net profit margins

They carefully planned so that their existing infra is much more prepared this new era of cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security

They go beyond just managing service levels and cost... this is "dial tone"

They highly value biz knowledge and analytics as two of their top 3 skills needed to support IT infra. Those same two skills are valued at the bottom of list in laggard group.

By working alongside the line of business to achieve better outcomes for the company. In fact IT connectors view Business Knowledge as #1 on list of skills vs only #8 for Siloed

revenue generating opportunities for their businesses. Do more with less.

They build an IT infra for self-service and able to deliver business insight

@IBMStorage Great point - doing more with less is very important. I bet there are quite a few storage examples here

It leaders think more about enabling the business strategy vs just delivering "IT"

They highly value biz knowledge and analytics as two of their top 3 skills needed to support IT infra. Those same two skills are valued at the bottom of list in laggard group.

Agree with Surjit about biz knowledge and analytics, but automation and removing human intervention from Storage, B/R are important elements