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December 18, 2009
• Vol.31 Issue 30
Page(s) 13 in print issue
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The Changing Role Of The IT Manager
One Of IT’s Toughest Jobs Has Shifted Focus In 2009
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 2009 will be remembered as a harrowing year marked by a tremendous financial crisis that roiled markets and severely strained enterprises. In many ways, this year also signified a turning point of sorts over the role that IT managers play in modern enterprises. In short, IT managers assumed a larger, more strategic role in many enterprises as IT was increasingly recognized as a function vital to the strategic success of organizations.
 Change Arrives
One factor widely recognized as a catalyst for change in the role of IT managers is the arrival of IT services, most notably the increasing use of cloud computing for delivery of business applications. Gary Mayer, an independent consultant with 40 years of experience in the computing industry, says adoption of the cloud computing strategy mitigates hardware management but poses additional challenges for IT managers.
Among these challenges are application selection, the integration of multiple cloud and in-house systems, security risks, and networking requirements. Also, he adds, the role of the IT manager has become less technical and more business-oriented as the use of services becomes the rule rather than the exception.
Matthew Busch, product marketing executive at UC4 (www.uc4.com), says with the arrival of new technologies such as SOA, cloud computing, and virtualization, IT is now poised to deliver quality IT services at reduced costs. So, Busch says, IT is now in a position to become the economic enabler of the competitive advantage many organizations are looking for.
Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies (www.evolvetech.com), adds that as more services are moved to the cloud, IT managers are less in charge of managing onsite systems and increasingly responsible for making sure services are delivered appropriately in terms of contracts or needs.
Compliance Requirements Get Tougher
As regulations proliferate and compliance pressures increase, the role of the IT manager is also evolving into that of an agent of regulatory compliance. Dr. Mickey S. Zandi, managing principal, consulting services, at Sungard Availability Services (www.availability.sungard.com), says data center managers are not shielded from business demands because they are responsible for running mission-critical applications that cannot suffer downtime. But, he adds, stricter regulations and compliance bring added pressures because downtime can not only cause operational hiccups but also lead to lawsuits and regulatory issues.
In terms of compliance, there are numerous examples where IT managers are now tasked with keeping up with dramatic changes relative to privacy, compliance, and support for litigation, says Jim Cuff, vice president of strategy at Iron Mountain (www.ironmountain.com). For example, in terms of privacy, regulations such as the new Massachusetts Data Privacy Regulations require that companies understand, at a very detailed level, where personally identifiable information is in their systems, says Cuff, who adds that controls need to be in place that really require companies to know exactly where their data is.
Also, he says, companies need to not only do the right thing but also ensure that record-keeping proves the right things are getting done. Finally, Cuff says creating strong partnerships with an organization’s legal team is also a change that has been underway.
The importance of compliance tasks that are now on the plate of busy IT managers cannot be understated. According to Mike Logan, president of delivery and operations at Axis Technology (www.axistechnologyllc.com), IT departments are on the front lines of the battle to ensure compliance with new and potentially crippling data security laws, meaning IT managers are now participating in meetings with legal teams and CFOs. These new laws could easily bankrupt companies of all sizes in any industry, so CEOs are putting a lot of pressure on IT to ensure compliance and iron-clad security.
Partners With Business
As IT managers’ roles evolve, they are becoming more strategically entrenched with their organizations and are now asked to help the business with a variety of tasks that are of key strategic importance.
For example, says Jonathan Gossels, president at SystemExperts (www.systemexperts.com), IT and data center managers are now expected to be responsive in providing the business with reliable computing infrastructure and providing the required support for new business initiatives. And, of course, all of these tasks must be delivered with minimal headcount and operating costs.
In fact, says Sungard Availability Services’ Zandi, because critical applications are hosted in data centers, today’s IT is not only a service provider, but a business enabler. Therefore, Zandi says data center managers are an integral part of making the vision of an organization a reality, and as always, they must consistently deliver more services with fewer funds.
Business and IT success go hand in hand with today’s tough business environment. UC4’s Busch says that business units in organizations are under pressure to do more with less, so they are turning to IT as an enabler of automation and process improvement. By leveraging new technologies, he says, IT can provide the agility, automation, and process improvements that will enable the business to succeed. 
by Sixto Ortiz Jr.
The Evolution Of The IT Manager
So how will the role of the IT or data center manager continue to evolve in future years? Here are some thoughts from industry experts:
Kevin Low, president and CEO of Secured Network Services (www.sns-usa.net), believes IT managers will become a member of the business inner circle. “A trusted and reliable IT manager with business smarts,” says Low, “will be the CEO’s new right-hand man.”
Ahmar Abbas, senior vice president of global infrastructure management for CSS Corporation (www.csscorp.com), says that the IT manager, as the manager of a portfolio of services, will need to evolve into a product developer—one who can quickly create and deliver cost-effective IT services to the business.
Independent consultant Gary Mayer says business intelligence, social networking, and nonrelational databases will add additional challenges to the IT/data center manager’s responsibilities. Management will increasingly use that data to answer questions, so as the volume of unstructured data increases geometrically, it will become necessary to make that data a part of the decision-making process.
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