IT Essentials: The fungal IT network
Shadow IT grows best in darkness and solitude
In just over a month, ChatGPT will have been live for a whole year - but the world is still getting to grips with generative AI.
This week the BBC, that bastion of British soft power, announced it would begin exploring generative AI in journalism. Does that represent a continuation of the innovation that drove colour TV into every home, or a bowing to financial pressures that hastens the demise of original content?
It was a question that also lurked under the surface at Google Cloud Next this week; and our own IT Leaders Summit last week, where delegates agreed the possibilities were "really frightening."
Nevertheless, nobody can afford to ignore AI. In fact, we should all be embracing it.
Why do I say that about a technology that concerns some of the most senior CIOs in the country? Simple: While you might ignore it, the rest of your company will not.
You've probably spent years trying to get control of shadow IT. It's the ever-present, sprawling menace, lurking beneath the surface of your nicely ordered, controlled and (hopefully) secure systems: a fungal network that feeds on restrictions and eats compliance officers.
The hybrid world has given the network everything it needs to spread its tendrils. Workers have a newfound degree of freedom, and it's no surprise they use the lack of oversight to investigate new apps and tools.
The ability to respond in the right way is the biggest challenge facing any IT team looking to control shadow IT. In most cases, that doesn't mean locking everything down, but taking a mindset that leans towards facilitating and enabling experimentation - safely.
By itself, the fungal network isn't a threat; it's only when it grows into your own systems and data, unsupervised, that the rot sets in. But before it gets to that point is an excellent opportunity to prove your relevance as a business function. Learn what people want to do, and why they want to use that tool to do it. Encourage proportionate, relevant action to shape it before it grows unchecked.
Like any good fungus, shadow IT grows best in darkness and solitude. Shine a light on it, and it will soon start to wither.