Did you know it pays to optimize your cloud strategy? (Literally)

A recent IDC/Cisco report shows that key business indicators (top-line revenues, strategic IT budget allocations, greater IT asset flexibility) all increased with a better cloud strategy.

You see this in the results. On average, companies who optimized their cloud experienced:

• 4% increase in revenue growth
• 200% improvement in strategic allocation of IT budgets
• 99% faster time to provision IT services
• 77% IT cost reduction

On the flip side, the same report noted that only a whopping 75% of companies have only an opportunistic, ad-hoc, or no cloud strategy at all.None!So what are they waiting for?

Cloudy Shadows

Business groups and employees aren't exactly waiting for IT cloud strategy. Lines of business demanding speed and flexibility are already adopting cloud services. However, as they speed ahead of IT, they're creating amassiveShadow IT challenge. (yikes!). Shadow IT is rampant across every industry and company size -it's absolutely pervasive.

Today, CIOs are quickly realizing the need to discover and reign in Shadow IT. They must evolve their organizations in order to truly power disruption, optimize their cloud, and create better hybrid IT environments.

Why? Because optimized hybrid IT environments deliver the efficiency and speed stakeholders are demanding, while keeping the security and control they're used to getting from traditional IT intact. This enables developers and lines of business to leverage the technology, develop the applications, and support the devices required to take advantage of market disruption and even start the disruptions themselves.

So, What's Next? CIOsynergy

On October 22, I'll be meeting and presenting to leading CIOs at CIOsynergy San Francisco to collaborate on Shadow IT and how CIOs can address it.

What will I be diving into?

• The extent of the Shadow IT challenge
• How CIOs can discover and manage their cloud use and Shadow IT
• Steps organizations can take to move up the cloud maturity curve and optimize their cloud use
• How organizations are evolving their cloud management strategies to provide greater speed and efficiency to their business

Come and Chat

• Attending?
  • Come and chat with me and the Cisco Cloud Consumption team at our booth. We'll be doing a fun giveaway and handing out some cool items!
• Not attending?
  • Feel free to follow me on Twitter where I'll be live tweeting all day
  • OR search the hashtags#cloudconsumption &#CIOsynergy to see what's trending.
  • Learn about your Shadow IT by signing up for our 30-day free trial of Cloud Consumption as a Service.

Hope to see you there!