{"id":64898,"date":"2024-05-31T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=64898"},"modified":"2024-05-31T10:35:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T14:35:07","slug":"the-rising-stakes-for-public-sector-cios-to-make-the-right-technology-bets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/the-rising-stakes-for-public-sector-cios-to-make-the-right-technology-bets\/","title":{"rendered":"The rising stakes for public sector CIOs to make the right technology bets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rob Schaeffer is president and chief revenue officer of e360, an enterprise IT services company that has been providing cloud, infrastructure, security and digital workplace solutions and managed services to hundreds of public and commercial enterprises for over three decades. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology\u2019s constant evolution has always presented CIOs with the challenge of how best to balance planning for the future while meeting the demands of day-to-day operations. That\u2019s especially true at government agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public sector organizations aren\u2019t alone in facing budget constraints; commercial enterprises do, too. However, government agency CIOs also have to align their IT investments with the ups and downs of budgets that are typically legislated annually or biannually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recurring lack of funding predictability not only makes long-term planning difficult, but also injects uncertainty into shorter-term projects critical to keeping IT operations up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bygone era of predictability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By many measures, the challenge of anticipating future IT needs has become significantly more complex over the past 20 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two decades ago, technological advancements followed a relatively linear and predictable path. Hardware improvements\u00a0\u2014 marked by the introduction of faster processors and larger storage capacities \u2014 drove the evolution of software. CIOs could typically plan and budget for technology refreshes every three to five years, knowing they would align with the release cycles of major hardware and software vendors. The upshot was a degree of planning predictability and minimal disruption to business operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advent of the Internet and cloud computing disrupted this predictable pattern. The Internet accelerated the pace of software development and distribution, leading to software updates becoming available faster and more frequently. The launch of Amazon Web Services’ commercial cloud in 2006 soon provided enterprises with the revolutionary means to invest in the latest technology as a service instead of a capital expense. It also allowed agencies to adopt new infrastructure and software solutions without significant upfront investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new challenge for CIOs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those and other innovations, such as software-defined networks and advances in mobile communications \u2014 not to mention the explosion of new forms of cyber threats \u2014 have forced CIOs to adapt to an increasingly unpredictable and ever-changing technology landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, of course, comes the added complexity of a new generation of artificial intelligence that cloud and IT providers are injecting into their solutions. Put another way, the big challenge for CIOs is knowing what technology to bet on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an organization that specializes in working closely with the leading cloud and technology providers and actively serving hundreds of enterprise accounts, we\u2019ve learned from experience that regardless of how much technology changes, CIOs are better prepared to succeed when they:<\/p>\n\n\n\n