Make way for Devops and Cloud CIOs. Or Non-CIOs?

MUMBAI, INDIA: DevOps is more than a new buzz word. It may have not been much of an attention-grabber earlier but now most CIOs are waking up to it and awareness is certainly skyrocketing on this one. IT function alongside, is coming under increasing pressure from business to develop relevant applications.

Hence, the spotlight is deepening on DevOps.

This takeaway harbors inside itself two interesting kernels if you read that bit again. Look again at those words - DevOps, IT function and business.

So a new species of services is making ‘IT as we have used so far’ inching closer to extinction? And as that happens, CIOs are losing steam as they watch these shifts gain speed?

Well, Sunil Manglore, Managing Director, CA Technologies, India, corroborates those apprehensions to a certain degree as he translates some key findings of a survey of some 1300 IT decision-makers in a mix of verticals undertaken by CA.

“There is a greater focus on newer services like Cloud, DevOps, mobility and big data and a lot of current investments could be moving in that direction. As to whether they are they going to replace buy-and-build, he insinuates how Opex-based and Pay-as-you-go models make a stronger case for new-age options like Clouds.

He also brings to note the underlying forces driving this change as majority of IT spending is expected to be driven by non-IT functions and with that would arrive greater need for customization as non-IT sections could be more demanding. “Users in various functions want solutions, and lots of applications are now easily available. Also, IT’s evaluation role is not much relevant in this new breed of applications,” he explains the irony of shadow-IT here.

The research that CA Technologies conducted in association with Vanson Bourne with CIOs across the globe including India to understand the 'Changing Role of IT and What to Do About It' shows that more than 60 per cent of Indian IT leaders, highest in APJ, are focusing on investments made to deliver new services than existing services.

However some three per cent growth in IT investment is expected in the upcoming three years’ time as compared to 56 per cent in China, 60 per cent in Singapore and 57 per cent in Australia was a significant. Also, almost half (45 per cent) of the IT departments of Indian organizations will control the IT spending for organizations (which signifies the trend of technology spend getting higher outside IT departments).

CA on its part is taking cognizance of these trends and as he indicated, “We have plans to focus on these new service categories and forces and are already in that direction. We wanted confirmation and a future-proof approach so that impact on customer experience is enhanced.”