Executive Summary
The issue is control: IT has always controlled access to computing assets and data But now the cloud has shifted control into the hands of the non-technical business user
That user no longer has to wait for an overburdened IT department to meet their needs With a phone call, or a few clicks of the mouse, that user can ask a cloud service provider to spin up a flexible solution, without the control—or even knowledge—of corporate IT
That’s why this dynamic has earned the nickname “Shadow IT” Nobody in the IT department even has to know it exists
In short, the cloud has given business users a significant new measure of independence from the corporate
IT department But this freedom brings with it some significant business risks that IT leaders cannot ignore
This white paper describes eight steps to help CIOs and other IT leaders bring Shadow IT into the light And this paper points out that Shadow IT is not all bad—that in some ways it actually benefits the business The key is to gain those benefits without risking the company’s most valuable asset: your data
Note that in this paper, the terms CIO, CTO, IT chief, and IT leader are used interchangeably