The shape of IT has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Not only is IT more central in importance to many companies, it’s grown significantly, as well. Today’s average IT department has a wider array of skills and specialties than ever before. Along with all of those changes, the way a CIO or IT director functions has changed, as well.

Redefining success
In the 1990s, success for a CIO was defined by a fairly standard set of criteria. Email had to function properly, the network had to work most of the time, and applications had to function as designed.

Today, success for a CIO is very different. For example, we’ve gone from relatively lax requirements for network uptime to most organizations requiring five nines (that’s 99.999%) uptime. Add in the crucial nature of many cloud-based applications and the threat of security breaches over the network, and it’s a whole new set of pressures. Today, organizations expect the network to simply work at all times.

In the area of applications, the same holds true. Toda’s applications need to be able to be implemented on time and within budget. IT also is expected to provide a whole new set of workflow and efficiency tools to help the organization get by during lean times.

Redefined roles
20 years ago, a CIO might be involved in a new OS deployment, write the backup schedule, pour through server logs, and more. Today’s CIO isn’t  nearly as involved in the intricacies of technology. Rather, they become customer relationship experts, corporate liaisons, project managers, and more. In short, there are really few technical requirements of today’s CIO (other than a basic fluency across many areas of tech).

Today’s successful CIO is one who can make sure that the rest of the organization (as well as the organization’s customers) are satisfied with the services IT provides. She can make the hard calls when it comes to a strategic plan. She can implement effective communication models so that those inside and outside of IT understand what IT is doing at any given moment.

The role of CIO is changing, and as it does the successful CIO will change with it.

• CIO Success in Three Steps