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By Troy Vetter, Senior Director – Software Defined Data Center Solutions for Logicalis US

It’s All Digital

According to a new McKinsey survey,1 IT spend in the enterprise is no longer locked into the CIO organization and tied to specific data center projects. IT spend is instead earmarked for “Digital Projects.”

So just what is “Digital,” per McKinsey? It is never really explained. Much like the term ‘cloud’ before it, “digital” appears to mean whatever services match the agenda of the author/surveyor. But the key takeaway for this report is the continuing pattern of the past several years: IT spend is no longer ‘owned’ by the CIO.

Instead, the CIO is more often seen as an in-house council for internal IT. And the CIO is no longer the end-all for technology budgeting that results in new revenue or captured ROI within the modern enterprise (see chart below).

graphic1

So who ‘owns’ the budget for IT service solutions? The full exec suite and the business units, according to McKinsey.

Follow the Money

So if the money for IT solutions is more spread out than ever…and it is…what are the priorities for these new buyers?  Solve for “X” as shown in the table below from the McKinsey report:

graphic2

What Does This Mean for You?

  1. The most spend (aggregate) in IT is going toward new revenue projects.
  1. The second most spend is going toward innovation.
  1. The third most spend is going toward automation and orchestration of business processes.

To learn more about the Software Defined Data Center and the impact it has on IT spend, Click Here.

  1. Cracking the digital code: McKinsey Global Survey results, September 2015: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/cracking_the_digital_code