Contemporary Trends in the Information Technology (IT) World and its Transformational Effect on Chief Information Officer (CIO) Roles: Analytical Study

Abstract

The word of IT is not, any more, exclusive for IT people and, to the contrary, it is becoming dominated more and more by business objectives and plans. Because IT is becoming a service or tool that was found and developed over decades to help business doing better using computers and networks to achieve business goals such as efficiency, resources utilization, making profit, reducing expenses, and expanding market share. If we look at few elements of the IT world such as devices, users and applications developed since the first decade of IT in mid 1940s, we can clearly see that users’ community has grown from thousands to billions of users all over the world. Similarly, software applications have grown to reach millions of software applications covering, again, billions of devices from desktop computers, notebooks, wearable devices, swallow-able chips and insulin pumps embedded in human bodies of some patients. Personalization and customizations are becoming major trend in each and every application and smart device that can monitor and track individual’s actions during day-today life i.e., travel, purchase, calls, transactions and many other types of uncountable actions. This research is going to explore the new image of IT world in the light of new trends that are shaping the directions of the IT world. Furthermore, the research is discussing the impact of these trends on related factors such as people, processes, technology, business, environment, and governments. This research will browse new trends in the IT world – Social, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud (SMAC) – and their impact on the current role of Chief Information Officer which is clearly passing a major shift in its responsibilities and duties in the light of dramatic changes from business perspective and the security threats encountered within these emerging trends.