For several years now, prognosticators have insisted that cloud computing would take over the enterprise. And, for several years, we’ve seen growing adoption of cloud computing technologies, but nothing to indicate massive acceptance.

A recent study from Brocade, however, suggests that that phenomenon is about to change. Here are some of the most interesting statistics to come from the CIO survey, which included 100 CIOs from around the world:

• A third of CIOs report that they’re already implementing cloud computing. Interestingly enough, this adoption of cloud technology has rarely come as a result of a push from IT. It’s been demand from business units, rather than a move from the center outward.
• Half of CIOs see the cloud as a potential way to improve efficiency. They agreed that it took less time to implement a cloud solution than it would to implement new IT infrastructure or deal with current infrastructure issues. This was particularly pronounced in the areas of storage and email.

This tells us something we’ve known for a long time: organizations are adopting cloud computing technologies, whether the CIO is on board or not. Some CIOs might push back against unauthorized uses of cloud technologies like Dropbox or Google Drive in the Enterprise, but this doesn’t seem to help anyone.

Today’s CIO knows that the cloud is coming, whether or not they want it to do so. The task ahead of them, then, is to leverage all of that interest in the cloud and figure out the best ways for it to be used in their organization.

The CIO’s shifting role
What does this mean for the CIO? It means a couple of things. It means:

• CIOs have the choice to embrace cloud technologies or place barriers to its use.
• Those CIOs who place barriers are likely, eventually, to encounter a massive pushback. Sometimes that pushback will come from the corner office, and that’s not good for anyone.
• A good CIO has to understand technology that’s still emerging and realistically look at its value for the organization.

One thing is certain: CIOs aren’t going to be able to ignore the cloud for much longer. They’re going to have to embrace it if they have any hope of maintaining IT standards.

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