Chief information officers (CIOs) should understand shadow IT is part of the modern, hybrid-cloud enterprise.
So says Wimpie van Rensburg, country manager sub-Saharan Africa at Riverbed Technology, who notes the term shadow IT is now a well-established phenomenon in the enterprise.
Shadow IT is a term used to describe IT systems and IT solutions built and used inside organisations without explicit organisational approval. It is also used, along with the term 'stealth IT,' to describe solutions specified and deployed by departments other than the IT department.
According to a recent Gigaom research, a staggering 81% of line-of-business employees admitted using unauthorised software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. When it comes to enterprise-grade file-sharing solutions in the enterprise, Dropbox was used without the IT department's authorisation in 38% of the organisations.
"Consumer tech can move faster than enterprise tech, so the adoption of new applications outside of IT jurisdiction in the workplace cannot and should not be blocked," says Van Rensburg. "A good CIO knows that anyone in business is living with their Dropbox account, Google Docs and iPhone," he adds.
He points out while CIOs may think they are on top of shadow IT, the reality of what is happening in their organisation may be quite different.
"It's not uncommon for the number of cloud services in use in a business is dramatically higher than what's estimated. Especially when you take into consideration the way BYOD is flourishing in the workplace, which opens doors to more employees to adopt cloud services on their own accord."
However, he believes banning shadow IT applications and practices is not the answer. Instead, he explains, CIOs need to get a better handle on what is going on in their networks to ensure applications are able to perform at their peak.
"In the hybrid enterprise, where IT is run on a mix of secure on-premises systems and public cloud systems, it is vital the IT department equips itself for visibility, control and optimisation of its network."
Van Rensburg notes the CIO needs visibility, control, and optimisation across hybrid clouds and networks. "Only then will on-premises, cloud, and SaaS applications perform to the service-level agreements determined by the business.
"If the CIO is unaware of the dozens or even hundreds of unsanctioned cloud services and devices their employees own, then there's very little chance of them achieving this."
According to Van Rensburg, the lines between personal and work IT have become blurred, and companies need to manage these complexities, while finding ways to make their applications perform at their peak to gain an advantage in the new digital world.
Meanwhile, Ovum analyst Alan Rodger, says the benefits of shadow IT are primarily in its delivery of products and services that the IT function probably cannot support or deliver quickly.
However, he notes the potential shortcomings of shadow IT span the whole scope of governance principles, including numerous risks, the lack of cost and budget control, uncoordinated and untested security, and the lack of information control.
"It is important to apply appropriate governance to all projects and IT adoption, but processes will need to be adjusted to cater for the now prevalent rapid delivery requirement, and any additional risks must be recognised and managed," Rodger concludes.
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