CIOs Say IT's Getting More, Not Less, Complex

A vast majority of UK’s chief information officers believe IT has made their business lives more complicated instead of simplifying things, a new study has shown.

According to research released by Trustmarque Solutions, 93 per cent of CIOs believe IT complexity has increased, with cloud computing leading the way with 66 per cent of CIOs citing it as the biggest issue.

Legacy technology and software licencing (51 per cent) were also big contributors to IT complexity. Nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of respondents say it was increasingly complex to understand what the right technology to use was. A further 61% agreed establishing the right solution to their business problem/need was becoming more complicated.

Some 89 per cent of CIOs also said that simplifying legacy IT while innovating at the same time presents a real challenge, as traditional IT models can’t support new requirements and increased pace of change.

That is why 79 per cent said simplification of IT was their company’s priority. When asked about their biggest priority 36 per cent said it was ‘simplifying the management of shadow IT and business-led IT spend’, followed by ‘simplifying the user experience through deploying new digital technologies’ (34 per cent) and ‘simplifying legacy IT’ (30 per cent).

The rapid change also brings concerns in the cybersecurity aspect, with 87 per cent admitting it is a challenge to handle security threats in such a surrounding.

The speed of change also left a mark in the knowledge department, with 88 per cent saying IT skills their business needs have changed in the last five years.

Eighty per cent have said their company lacks necessary skills in-house.

The research was undertaken by independent market research company, Vanson Bourne; the total sample size was 200 UK CIOs and senior IT decision makers from large enterprises with over 1,000 employees.