In his recent blog (Unleash the Promise of Cloud), Enrico Fuiano reports  how a Cisco Intel study  clearly indicates that Line of Business (LoB) leaders have been playing a more important role in driving requirements for IT solutions and services. Amongst the reasons driving this shift, Enrico pointed to the "shadow IT" initiatives.

Robert  Dimicco, Cisco Senior Director , Global leader and founder of Cisco's Cloud Consumption and Broker Services Practice  tells  a similar story , as he recalls  a recent  conversation with a CIO "My CFO and CEO just asked me if I knew how many of our users were accessing cloud services. They asked me if I knew how much we were spending or if there were any risks." He said, "Bob I don't know the answers, and I don't have a plan."

In his blog, "Beyond Data Security ..Five Biggest Risks of Shadow Cloud IT Services " Bob shares that "In working with our customers, we have found that there are typically 5-10 times more cloud services being used than are known by IT."  This challenging trend, called Shadow-IT is not without any risk . In fact , Bob describes  the 5 major risks of Shadow IT which are

• Data Security Risks
• Brand Risks
• Compliance Risks
• Business Continuity Risks
• Financial Risks

So how to identify these risks and deal with them ? Bob explores the benefits and  services offered by the Cisco Data Center Assessment for Cloud Consumption.

• Identify unauthorized cloud services and gain greater visibility into your cloud usage in order to reduce
  security and financial exposure
• Mitigate risks by proactively identifying risk and compliance issues associated with cloud usage
• Reduce costs through recommendations to consolidate and/or eliminate cloud services
  ? Obtain early warning of overage and related charges
  ? Identify duplicate services and identify potential candidate cloud services for consolidation
  ? Highlight over- and underutilized services
  ? Estimate potential cost savings through a customized financial model
•  Enable greater business agility through cloud governance, which can help IT and LOBs
  efficiently select and deploy cloud services to rapidly meet organizational needs
• Enable greater business agility through cloud governance, which can help IT and LOBs
  efficiently select and deploy cloud services to rapidly meet organizational needs

To learn more, and start now to build a plan,  check Bob's blog here