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Email ForresterSecurity & Risk and Infrastructure & Operations pros can drive customer growth
Working together to reach key business objectives
Published 15:10, 27 September 11
Security & Risk (S&R) chiefs and Infrastructure &
Operations (I&O) leaders have a lot in common, and in great
companies, we work in concert to run an efficient and reliable technology
infrastructure that keeps critical business assets safe.
Much has changed in the world of technology since I pulled my first all-nighter in a data centre (falling asleep next to the EMC Symmetrix array was not one of my better ideas, those corners were sharp!) but that partnership is still the same, it takes security engineers and network/server engineers working together to solve really thorny problems.
We have our frictions of course - I&O pros prioritise
operational stability and continuity of service, while S&R pros must
occasionally interrupt that continuity to contain security breaches.
But when a serious incident (whether security breach or system failure)
threatens to sideline our business systems, it falls to us to find and
fix the problems together.
We may be organisationally separate now, with I&O reporting into the CIO and the CISO reporting into a COO or Head of Operational Risk, but we share a set of fundamental challenges. We must excel in our own domains (not exactly a cakewalk) but also anticipate and deliver on what our businesses need (much harder).
What our businesses seek today is growth. In Forrester’s most recent survey of business decision-makers, the top two priorities were growing overall company revenue and acquiring and retaining customers. S&R pros have already worked hard to escape their “Department of No” reputations, and I&O pros have laboured tirelessly to get out of the data centre and into the business.
But that’s not enough
As CISOs and I&O leaders, we must help our firms:
- win and
serve customers
- expand into new geographies
- form new
relationships with distributors, suppliers and financiers (the extended
enterprise) and
- deliver top-notch customer service.
We must be an integral part of our companies’ efforts to differentiate and grow. For S&R, that means becoming the “Department of Yes, And Here’s How.” And for I&O, that means thinking about, and indeed, even obsessing about, the end customer.
So if you’re a Security & Risk or Infrastructure & Operations professional looking for new ideas on how to safely and effectively unleash creativity and drive revenue with mobile, social, video and cloud technologies, join me and all of Forrester’s Security & Risk and Infrastructure & Operations experts on 9-10 November 2011 at the Doral Resort in Miami for our Security Forum 2011 and Infrastructure & Operations Forum 2011.
Posted by Laura Koetzle
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