The Shadow IT Department

This fantastic article entitled "Users Who Know Too Much and the CIOs Who Fear Them" really struck a chord in me. It talks about how your users will engineer around you to get their jobs done.

I think the folks in both the engineering and security fields should give this a read. Although we don't take an obvious financial hit by not innovating, we are affected. We need to be aware that when we say "no," we are encouraging (forcing?) users to go around us, potentially affecting productivity and probably affecting security. An interesting question to ask oneself when considering a user request is "how could they engineer around us if we say no?" Read "I, A User" for an example.

The capability of your IT needs to be on par with what's available outside your organization. Two of the biggies that stuck out for me: collaboration and mobility. Both availability and usability have to be up to snuff, or users will go elsewhere.

Sidebar: Tools for Managing Shadow IT
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