Shadow IT
"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.
Shadow IT by BrainSlugs83 January 28, 2022
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