The way information technology is being  sourced and used  within government and educational organizations has been changing at an increasingly rapid rate. We're calling it the "3rd Platform" era. What does this mean? The 3rd Platform era is the era of cloud, mobility and social media. It's driven by the ability to tap into IT solutions anywhere, anytime on any device.

Recently we have seen the rapid spread of end-user devices and new applications. Public Sector IT departments are regularly challenged to keep up with demands needed to support the new devices within this era. The change in consumption and increase in the number of new devices and applications has increased the risk of "shadow IT," which occurs when  new IT solutions are brought into the workplace without the involvement of the IT managers. Because it's so easy for workers and managers to purchase apps or subscribe to new online solutions, "shadow IT" is a common issue at many organizations, bringing with them risks that are unknown to many outside of IT Management.

Because IT consumption has changed so remarkably over the last 50 years, many organizations are turning to an Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). IT needs to be able to configure a network quickly to support these new resources, and ACI can encourage automation and configuration management, while still maintaining control over newly purchased, currently supported, or long-term applications.

While their roles are changing along with consumption, CIOs and IT organizations have the opportunity to step up and lead their organizations' adaptation to the new models of consumption in ways that we have never seen before. Many of them are positioning themselves as the XaaS and cloud brokers within their organizations. In the U.S. Public Sector we are seeing a shift to a more hybrid approach to  IT organizations as they reinvent themselves in the new model,  leveraging both their internal capabilities and services from the outside to support their organizations' needs to ensure mission success.

To learn more about what IT consumption means and how this new era is impacting public sector organizations, please join me and the other panelists today, April 29, at 2pm ET / 11am PT -register online for the "A Clearing in the Clouds: New Models of IT Consumption" webcast. We will discuss a new report from IDC, which will be available to registrants following the webcast. In addition, both will be available on demand after the live broadcast today.

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