Cisco CTO: the CTO's role has changed

Cisco's Ian Foddering is an example of a new breed of CTO: externally facing and active as an industry spokesperson

The role of the chief technology officer (CTO) is changing at many technology companies which are relying more on the technical and business acumen of the senior role to provide industry leadership, according to Ian Foddering, UK & Ireland CTO for Cisco.

In the past, CTOs were the source of an organisation's technology strategy, which was then implemented by the CIO or IT director.

However, CTOs are becoming increasingly marketing focused and are often used as senior spokespeople for their organisations.

Foddering explained that his role is partly designed to make the market aware of his firm's innovations. "We wanted to bring all the internal knowledge and power of the CTO role and leverage that externally.

"The idea is to engage not just on a case-by-case basis with partners, but to operate at an industry level, driving awareness of the innovation taking place within Cisco," he said.

Foddering added that this is a change from the original nature of the role. "It's a shift; a swing of the pendulum from spending the majority of the time liaising with internal business units."

Raj Samani, CTO of leading security firm McAfee is also heavily active in the industry, leaving the internally focused work to the CIO. "The McAfee CIO is internally focused, whereas my role sees me with feet in both camps. I work with the local IT teams, supporting and assisting with strategy, and being a thought leader."

He is also heavily active in the industry, as founder of CAMM (Common Assurance Maturity Model), and involved with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). "My role in the CSA is much the same as a CTO role. It's about maintaining that oversight about what we do in EMEA; helping, supporting and guiding research in the area of cloud security," said Samani.

According to Foddering, this trend is happening widely across the industry. "It's happening across the board. There's been that lack of external voice across a number of organisations, so the opportunity to leverage the CTO role is a valuable one."

The CIO is still needed for internally focused projects and direction. The external CTO interfaces with the CIO to understand his own organisation's strategy, but also to advise on events and trends in the wider industry.

"We still have the internal CIO doing all the traditional CIO functions. I engage with him to understand what's happening and provide commentary as to what I'm seeing externally," said Foddering.

And as the larger technology firms diversify and expand their product ranges into new areas, the external CTO is even more necessary to help customers understand how those offerings interact.

"It's a very important role for tech companies. We need to provide a unified approach - we possess a very broad portfolio, so it's important for customers to see how it all fits together," added Foddering.