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Guest author: Mike Alley, Director, IT Service Management

In a recent study, Logicalis found that IT leaders are beginning to see value in moving toward “as a service” infrastructure models – from security to servers. As CIOs aim to maintain strategic roles within their organizations, strategic functions like business analytics and mobility strategies are taking priority over day-to-day operations.

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External service providers might be the best way to free time and resources to meet their business goals. It is a subtle but substantial change that will keep the CIO relevant and recognized as the head of a critical and compelling business function. Furthermore, 30 percent of CIOs say they want to make better, more extensive use of managed service providers as they seek to reshape the IT function to allow them to focus on higher-value, more strategic activities – like enabling strategic business goals and mobile enterprises strategies.

For example, technology that was once seen as in-house only is now considered ripe for outsourced management by CIOs and IT directors looking for ways to regain lost time and re-establish their leadership positions through a services-led transformation. It was not long ago that CIOs would have been appalled at the idea of outsourcing security, but now nearly half say they are prepared to put security into the hands of a trusted partner.

Hype or ripe: Will “as-a-service” models become the new norm as CIOs aim to maintain their strategic roles in organizations?