CIOs tend to over-think cloud adoption: Ex-Dow Jones CIO : Page 2 of 2

CIOs tend to over-think cloud adoption: Ex-Dow Jones CIO : Page 2 of 2Continuing our one-on-one with Stephen Orban (pic), head of enterprise strategy at Amazon Web Services.
 
DNA: We often hear that top management is always hesitant of new technologies such as the cloud. Did you not have to get the buy-in of C-levels and perhaps even the board members for your journey to the cloud? How did you go about doing that?
 
Orban: To be honest, the biggest challenge was not the board or the executive team, but getting my own team over the line, as they are used to doing things a particular way. The biggest challenge was to prove to my own team that it was possible, and giving them the opportunity to learn the skills they needed to learn, and to make it happen.
 
Getting them to execute, this was far and away my biggest challenge, rather than any push-back from board or executive members.
 
That said, I don’t mean to discount the challenges that other IT executives from other companies may face from their board. I just didn’t have them because I was brought in to make those decisions and set the tech strategy for Dow Jones.
 
DNA: Having been on the end-user side, what would you say are the main reasons for resistance to technologies like the cloud? Why do people resist is so much?
 
Orban: I think that with any technology shift, there is always the fear of unknown. I also feel that there are a lot of messages out there in the market that aren’t clear.
 
But I think the most compelling arsenal that an IT executive needs to convince his or her board is that moving to a cloud-based IT model will allow them to focus the majority of their resources on things that matter to the business.
 
There are a lot of reasons why a company would benefit from using the cloud. It may be a compelling cost factor, or to ramp up on agility and time-to-market, or to go global, or to deploy apps faster.
 
But the most important is that with the cloud, IT guys can take their scarce resources and focus them on the things that matter.
 
Another important point to note is this: Some 10 to 20 years ago, enterprises had relatively free access to capital to invest in data centres and large IT, but today, the situation is no longer the same. Put simply, access to capital is no longer going to be the differentiator for enterprises.
 
DNA: What then would your advice be to those who face such challenges?
 
Orban: It’s a big change no doubt, but I believe it’s not about the technology change but a people and process challenge. I do find that some companies fall into the ‘analysis paralysis’ trap – that they try to solve problems before they encounter them. Doing this will take you forever to get onto the cloud as you’re planning to mitigate against problems that may or may not happen.
 
Don’t over-think it. Give it a shot and prove to yourself whether you can do it or not, as it’s just a few days’ exercise. Try something and I’m pretty confident you’ll understand why so many people are heading in this direction.
 
DNA: What are some of the lessons you’ve learnt as a CIO running a large enterprise?
 
Orban: One of the ways in which people can alleviate their fears is to address the issue of the unknown, because people are fearful of the unknown.
 
How do we get through this? Put everyone through training, although I know investment costs.
 
Secondly, learn to partner very closely with your vendors – and I’m not just saying AWS but whoever this may be – as this is important. This partnership is key because as you become more entrenched, relationships are strengthened between the two.
 
Another way is to not be afraid of trying new things, which is a big behavioural change as this leads to the fostering of innovation. People are afraid this may be expensive, but with the cloud this is much easier to do.
 
DNA: Lastly, what would be your advice for today’s CIO as the role is rapidly changing in this cloud-enabled world?
 
Orban: I feel very strongly that the role of CIO needs to become more and more product-orientated and forward-customer-facing, as opposed to the traditional IT manager who merely keeps the lights on.
 
There are many reasons for this, beginning with the introduction of the cloud, and not just merely AWS. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) players such as Salesforce.com Inc, Workday Inc and Infor Inc have all changed the landscape and are companies that are building software solutions that don’t require maintenance.
 
Companies are attracted to that, not only because the cost model is so attractive but also because they can stay up to date with the latest technology, and this gives them a chance to move alongside their vendor – which is very different from a decade ago, when traditional IT managers managed a PeopleSoft [applications] and a bunch of contractors.
 
Over time, there is going to be a lot less of that to do and IT executives will be thinking more about technology in terms of what they can do for their customers. That’s the reason why customer-facing is important.
 
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