Navigating the 2024 IT landscape: The essential role of governance

This year, IT teams across the globe are facing a tech landscape that’s undergoing a major transition. Cybersecurity has emerged as a paramount concern, with escalating threats and sophisticated cyber-attacks posing significant risks to business operations.

At the same time, the widespread move towards cloud adoption introduces complexities in managing data across different platforms, making it essential for companies to follow strict data management and oversight practices.

The surge in remote and hybrid work models further complicates the current dynamic, making it necessary to adopt robust infrastructure and security protocols to support dispersed work environments. Additionally, companies shifting to cloud-based operations are creating demand for accelerated cloud migrations, which adds another layer of complexity.

In the wake of these challenges, IT governance has emerged as a critical pillar in enabling businesses to create robust frameworks that guide technology usage, investment, and risk management. There are several ways IT governance can prepare industry pros for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Mitigating cybersecurity threats

To put it simply, cybersecurity threats are on the rise and they’re becoming more expensive. The vast majority of incidents total between $1 and $2.25 million, according to a recent Verizon Business report. Further, the median cost per incident increased significantly, with median costs hovering around $26,000. Unfortunately, the rising frequency of attacks means that IT teams must take a more proactive stance to protect against external threats. In addressing the ever-evolving nature of cybersecurity, IT governance plays a critical role in several ways.

First, IT governance creates a robust policy framework and standards, which are essential components of IT security. This framework covers crucial aspects like data protection, access controls, encryption, incident response, and adherence to regulatory requirements. Effective governance will make sure that these policies are discussed clearly and consistently across the company, creating a solid foundation for the company’s IT environment.

Risk management is another cornerstone of IT governance. This involves developing comprehensive frameworks for risk assessment and management. By identifying risks and vulnerabilities, understanding their possible impact, and prioritizing steps for mitigation, governance can provide a proactive approach to security threats. These strategies are integral to maintaining a strong defense against cyber threats.

Human error is a factor in most security breaches, with a human element involved in more than three out of four breaches. To address this, IT governance emphasizes the importance of employee training programs. These programs are more crucial than ever in educating staff about security threats and best practices for preventing incidents. By enhancing awareness and understanding, employees become key players in maintaining a secure operational environment, capable of recognizing and responding to potential security breaches.

Finally, managing risks involving vendor and third-party risks is a standard component of governance frameworks, especially considering that almost all companies around the globe engage with third-party vendors who have experienced breaches. Governance strategies must rigorously evaluate and monitor these external entities to ensure they meet established cybersecurity standards. This oversight is vital in safeguarding the organization against vulnerabilities that might originate from third-party integrations, thus strengthening the company’s overall cybersecurity position.

Ensuring smooth cloud adoption

Businesses worldwide are on the brink of a significant shift this year, with spending on cloud infrastructure projected to exceed $1 trillion. This significant rise in investment highlights the growing importance of cloud technologies. However, this transition also brings with it a demand for strategic foresight and adept governance.

Central to navigating a cloud-driven future is IT governance. It serves as a strategic guide, ensuring that cloud adoption aligns with the organization’s broader objectives. This involves evaluating scalability, cost-effectiveness, and agility to integrate cloud services seamlessly into business strategies. Moreover, IT governance plays a critical role in vendor management and compliance. As businesses evaluate different cloud service providers, governance frameworks offer criteria for selection, ensuring adherence to security, privacy, and compliance standards.

IT governance also addresses the challenges of change management and training associated with cloud adoption, which can derail an otherwise successful adoption strategy. Cloud adoption is more than a technological upgrade -- it represents a significant operational and cultural change. Governance structures facilitate this transition by giving employees the necessary training to adapt to new cloud-based workflows and tools. This holistic approach ensures that the shift to cloud technologies is not only efficient but also woven into the organization's fabric, allowing companies to fully leverage their cloud investment.

Supporting remote and hybrid work

By next year, more than 32 million Americans are expected to work remotely. With the rising popularity of dispersed teams, IT governance emerges as a critical force, sculpting the remote and hybrid work models to ensure they meet the business’ productivity needs while remaining secure.

IT governance lays the foundation for this transition by crafting the necessary infrastructure, from VPNs to collaboration software, all aligned with rigorous security and compliance standards. It also clearly defines the security protocols for remote access, ensuring robust encryption, multi-factor authentication, and secure network connections that comply with data protection laws and industry regulations.

In addition, IT governance goes beyond infrastructure to develop comprehensive policies tailored to remote work dynamics. This includes setting guidelines for the acceptable use of technology, data handling, remote device management, and protocols for reporting security incidents. It also underscores the importance of communication and collaboration, facilitating the selection of secure and efficient software for virtual meetings, document sharing, and team collaboration, thereby fostering a productive and protected remote working environment.

Enabling accelerated migrations

Data shows that 70 percent of companies have accelerated cloud migrations in the past year. This surge in transitions to new systems, platforms, or technologies underscores the necessity of a robust IT governance strategy. Such a strategy is vital for streamlining these migrations, minimizing business disruption, and ensuring that the shifts enhance operational performance rather than hinder it. Whether moving to new systems, the cloud, or consolidating infrastructure, governance can play a supportive role.

At the core of IT governance during these migrations is strategic alignment. Governance ensures that migrations are not just changes in a company’s IT stack, but also ensure improvements that align with the organization's strategic goals, whether that's boosting efficiency, cutting costs, bolstering security, or adhering to regulatory demands. Risk management is also a critical component, with governance frameworks diligently assessing the risks such as data loss, downtime, or compatibility issues, and devising plans to mitigate these risks.

Moreover, IT governance oversees the allocation of resources for migrations, everything from budgeting to sourcing migration tools, to bringing in specialized expertise and even planning infrastructure upgrades. Finally, testing and validation are integral parts of governance, involving rigorous performance, compatibility, and security assessments, all to ensure the migration process is smooth and secure, maintaining functionality and the integrity of the entire system.

The importance of IT governance

As we advance through the year, the importance of IT governance in navigating the evolving technological landscape cannot be overstated. From cybersecurity challenges to cloud adoption, and from supporting remote work models to managing accelerated migrations, IT governance stands as the cornerstone for ensuring that organizations are not only prepared but also thrive in the face of these changes. By prioritizing governance, IT teams can lead their businesses toward sustainable growth and enhanced resilience in an increasingly digital world.

Photo Credit: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock

Stacey Farrar is a product marketing manager at BitTitan, where he oversees go-to-market strategy and product messaging for MigrationWiz. His areas of expertise include cloud automation, SaaS, product marketing and management, digital marketing, customer engagement, and business development.