IDC has recently produced a white paper for systems management company Kaseya. The paper entitled: “10 Effective Habits of Indispensible IT Departments” unsurprisingly details 10 actions that will help CIOs cut costs, improve efficiency and align IT to business goals.

Most of the trends identified in the document are no-brainers: understand the organisation’s business goals, keep your organisation’s data safe,  identify potential problems before they become major issues etc. However, Effective IT Habit #4 is a little less clear cut: “Don’t be afraid of embracing new trends.”

While keeping up with new trends is most definitely important for your career and ongoing professional development, I am not sure that you should embrace them all. Take cloud computing for example.  For some industries heavily affected by data protection or those that deal with sensitive information, a public cloud strategy just doesn’t make sense no matter how many other companies embrace it or how much it is purported to save you. It is too risky. I strongly believe that CIOs should apply some caution to new tech trends and not necessarily embrace them. Investigate first whether in some way they could be beneficial to your organisation: for example private cloud instead of public cloud for retailers. I don’t believe there is any value in jumping on a technology bandwagon just for fear of being left behind.

My effective habit #4 would be: investigate new technology trends, discuss perceptions vs reality of them with colleagues in other departments, but don’t embark upon anything without a solid business case that really works for your company.

IDC | Kaseya | 10 Effective Habits of Indispensible IT Departments