"Shadow IT" is technical jargon describing any services, applications, media, devices, or infrastructure that are not explicitly approved and managed by an organization's IT department.
"Shadow IT" does not have a positive or negative connotation associated with it, instead it has both Pros and Cons (discussed below), and modern IT organizations seek to adopt a culture of discovering, and managing their existing Shadow IT; and in some cases to promote it (so as to foster innovation and citizen development, while easing discovery, which can help to get ahead of security and compliance concerns).
Pros:
- Shadow IT Systems are an important source of innovation.
- Shadow IT Systems may become prototypes for future Central IT solutions.
- Shadow IT Solutions may be boosting internal productivity.
Cons:
- Undiscovered Shadow IT can lead to serious security risks to your organization through data leaks, and more.
- Undiscovered Shadow IT can lead to compliance violations.
- Undiscovered Shadow IT can lead to knowledge silos.
Examples of Shadow IT:
- The File Server under Bob's desk.
- That Web Service running out of Susan's personal Azure subscription.
- The hundreds of Excel Spreadsheets and Macros that the accounting department uses to get around the shortcomings in their ERP system.
- Using other non-sanctioned cloud apps to store and transmit data (i.e. Evernote and Dropbox).
"Shadow IT" does not have a positive or negative connotation associated with it, instead it has both Pros and Cons (discussed below), and modern IT organizations seek to adopt a culture of discovering, and managing their existing Shadow IT; and in some cases to promote it (so as to foster innovation and citizen development, while easing discovery, which can help to get ahead of security and compliance concerns).
Pros:
- Shadow IT Systems are an important source of innovation.
- Shadow IT Systems may become prototypes for future Central IT solutions.
- Shadow IT Solutions may be boosting internal productivity.
Cons:
- Undiscovered Shadow IT can lead to serious security risks to your organization through data leaks, and more.
- Undiscovered Shadow IT can lead to compliance violations.
- Undiscovered Shadow IT can lead to knowledge silos.
Examples of Shadow IT:
- The File Server under Bob's desk.
- That Web Service running out of Susan's personal Azure subscription.
- The hundreds of Excel Spreadsheets and Macros that the accounting department uses to get around the shortcomings in their ERP system.
- Using other non-sanctioned cloud apps to store and transmit data (i.e. Evernote and Dropbox).
According to a McAfee study, Shadow IT cloud utilization is at least 10 times larger than known cloud usage.
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Un pour tous, tous pour un
"No bullet no shell, no demon in hell can break our bond" -unknown
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