New IBM CIO Study: Big Data, Bigger Clouds

IBM has released its most recent study of more than 3,000 global CIOs.

The Global CIO study, last conducted in 2009, includes a range of interesting sound bytes, but here’s the lead: 60 percent of organizations are ready to embrace cloud computing over the next five years, a figure nearly double that of the 2009 study.

What explains that doubling of interest in cloud computing? As the amount of information companies and consumers generate increases, companies are seeking simple and direct access to data and applications that cloud computing delivers in a cost-efficient, always-available manner.

Also, though early cloud deployments typically began in an intra-departmental paradigm, use has now become more common between organizations and their partners and customers.

From a global perspective, seven out of 10 CIOs in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, and 68 percent in China, now identify cloud as a top priority.  In 2009, CIO interest in cloud computing hovered at around a third in these countries.

The Business of Business Intelligence

The latest CIO study also found that more than four out of five CIOs (83 percent) see business intelligence and analytics as top priorities for their businesses as they seek ways to act upon the growing amounts of data that are now at their disposal.

Mobile computing was also a central theme, with nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of CIOs seeing mobile computing and mobility solutions as a game-changer for their businesses.

Among some other trends IBM discovered in this year’s study:

• Analytics and business intelligence hold the most interest in the chemical and petroleum, consumer products, and healthcare industries, with CIOs from each of those industries citing it as part of their plans to increase competitiveness over the next three to five years.
• Mobility solutions were identified most in the travel (91 percent), media and entertainment (86 percent), and energy and utilities (82 percent) industries.
• Risk management is a top issue in the finance and banking industries, where more than 80 percent of CIOs said they are focusing their attention.
• Simplification is a key issue for CIOs, as more than 80 percent said they plan to lead projects to simplify internal processes.
• A wide array of innovative methods and tools are being sought to turn “big data” into real, actionable information. This ranges from master data management (68 percent) to client analytics (66 percent), data warehousing and visual dashboards (64 percent) and search capabilities (59 percent).

The report also highlights a number of recommendations, ranging from strategic business actions and use of key technologies that IBM has identified that CIOs can implement, based on CIO feedback from the study.

The full 2011 CIO Study and interviews are available here.

About the IBM 2011 CIO Study

IBM’s 2011 study, the definitive study of trends among chief information officers, is the product of face-to-face interviews with CIOs from diverse organizations in 71 countries, 18 industries and organizations of every size.

The study, titled “The Essential CIO,” reinforces the increasingly strategic role that CIOs are playing as leaders of innovation and growth. The study is being released in IBM’s centennial year as the company marks the historic role it played in both establishing the need for CIOs in the 1950s and 1960s — the early days of business computing — and elevating the position over the ensuing decades to give a voice to IT in the C-suite.