How to Stay Out of the Shadows of IT

   With the dawn of cloud computing (dawn, clouds, weather joke, get it?  No.. alright...), it has become easier than ever for corporations large and small to flex on the availability that the Cloud provides.  In the 80's, 90's and early 2000's, machines weren't as powerful, and any concept of the Cloud and mobile computing wasn't even thought about, except as crazy ideas of what could be.  This was the age of IT dominion, where Sys Admins, DBAs and other such powers of IT hierarchy ruled their networks with an iron fist.  Where we had a place for everything, and everything was in it's place.  We kept the businesses safe from themselves as we had the locks on everything and only we had the keys.

Now, all it takes is a phone call by
anyone who has the money to
spin up an AWS server.

   Now, all it takes is a phone call by anyone who has the money to spin up an Amazon Web Services server, install a MySQL database and have their own internal tools running.  And what happens to us IT pros when non-tech people are persuaded with shiny features and adaptability?  We're left feeling dejected, brushed aside and take the blame when a tool we didn't even know was being used doesn't work, and it has to be running in the next 5 min otherwise the business will lose the biggest deal they've ever had.

   But, it doesn't have to be this way.  No, as much as I'd like to, I don't live in a fairy tale land where the CEO takes everything I say as if it's come from the angel on high.  What you can do as an IT pro is to step out of your dungeon of blinking lights and rurring fans, and get involved with the company.  Let's face the truth here, most of the employees and management in companies don't know and have no interest to know technology.  If they did, we wouldn't have a job.  It's an uphill road to get Corporate to talk tech, we're lucky if we can get most of them to reboot the computer before calling the Help Desk.  No, we have to be the one's to take the plunge and learn to talk business.

We have to understand the
day to day operations of the
departments.

   What we have to do to keep Shadow IT from taking over is to get in those boring meetings, talk to the Accounting department, schmooze with Operations and chill with the regular folk around the water cooler.  We have to understand the day to day operations of the departments and with the other lowly folk who have to take marching orders.  When you take the time to talk to everyone around you, you start to learn a lot about the struggles everyone is facing.

   Be the one at the helm and lead the company in the right direction, with the right vendors and with the proper oversight to keep them from going off the deep end.  Get out of your comfort zone, really talk to those around you and start learning where the pain points are.  Then, and only then, can you be the one who casts the shadow instead of the shadow being cast on you.

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About Jimmy R. Tassin

Jimmy Tassin is the IT Manager of Midwest Regional Bank and has been involved with the Technology field for over thirteen years. His two hobbies are overseeing the daily operations of OmniKraft, a Minecraft server community, and writing at Goblinbyte.com.