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What are your IT resolutions for 2015?

In this #CIOChat, participants shared their IT resolutions for 2015, focusing on security, app dev, big data and cloud -- all while keeping their users in mind.

Francesca Sales
Site Editor

When SearchCIO asked its Twitter followers how they plan to improve their IT operations in 2015, IT resolutions ranged from improving their development cycles, taking advantage of more digital channels or -- a biggie, considering the plethora of cyberintrusions that occurred in 2014 -- building up their security processes. Above all, our #CIO-Chat-ters were almost unanimous in emphasizing their intention to put internal and external customers at the center of these strategies.

In this #CIO-Chat recap of followers' IT resolutions for the New Year, find out why 2015 just might live up to be what Forrester calls the age of the customer.

What are your IT plans for 2015?

One of the first IT resolutions tweet chat participant Mark Lorion mentioned was integrating user feedback into the application development process and embedding this Agile mindset into the company culture. He offered examples of how development teams can get closer to their customers -- not an easy feat, he admits:

Forrester analyst Jeffrey Hammond says it's important to begin IT projects by first admitting that you probably don't know what products are going to work and what aren't. "The reality is that even the best teams aren't sure what the right user interface design is, or what they should be doing for their customers when they first start out," he said. Start with something small and then, using actionable feedback from your customers, grow your product from there.

Cloud was another focus area for the next year for participant Stuart Appley:

Appley isn't alone: Cloud (21%), along with security (21%) and business intelligence (BI)/big data (17%), were the top three project focus areas cited by the 333 senior IT leaders who took TechTarget's annual IT Salary and Careers Survey.

It's no coincidence that security and big data are both at the top. Some survey respondents hinted that differentiating the two is becoming increasingly challenging, particularly because of the challenges of data integration and management -- a reality follower Walker White highlighted in his resolution:

SearchCIO Executive Editor Linda Tucci corroborated this, saying that advanced data analytics is a prevalent CIO resolution:

Gloria J. Miller focused on Hadoop. In 2015, she wants to find out exactly how the evolving technology can aid the business and other functions:

Hadoop 2.0 might not only help with managing transactional data, for instance, but it could also assist businesses in tackling structured and semistructured data types, big data experts told SearchCIO recently.

Senior Managing Editor Rachel Lebeaux vowed to experiment more with emerging digital platforms -- and rightly so. Many companies, including The New York Times and AT&T, are rushing to adapt to the digital economy; the convergence of social media, cloud, analytics and mobile technologies continues to create more digital channels through which customers engage:

Tweet chatters Elliott Franklin and Will Lassalle's shared IT resolution for 2015 is an oldie but goodie. Both stressed that IT should become even more involved with and build a deeper understanding of their organizations' business strategies:

How can security be improved in 2015?

2014 was a banner year for data breaches, if you can call it that, so it's little surprise that security tied with cloud as the top priority for the senior IT leaders who responded to TechTarget's salary survey. And it's even less surprising that the majority of tweet chatters' resolutions for 2015 revolved around enhancing security.

Creating more complex passwords and coming up with discrete ones for each account, as SearchCompliance editors suggest, is one more layer of security employees can use to safeguard their data and applications. However, as followers David Chou and Lorion pointed out, there's a fine line between multilayered security and employees' willingness to implement complicated security practices:

Indeed, as follower Scott King argued, employees often sacrifice security for convenience -- until they are placed squarely in the crosshairs. He cited what happened after the cyberattack on Sony Pictures:

Participants White and Lorion offered a couple of suggestions for how to streamline security processes for users:

Perhaps even more important than bridging security practices and the user experience, participants agreed, is baking security into the company culture so that employees can function as the first line of defense:

In addition to biometric authentication, which uses physical metrics as the basis for a personalized password, organizations can also take advantage of educational awareness programs led by security experts and diversity training to educate employees, former White House CIO Theresa Payton advises.

And perhaps most important of all, users must be the focus of a security strategy, as participant Rajiv Gupta tweeted. This is especially resonant as employees increasingly work remotely, corporate data is stored outside of organizations' data centers -- and risks multiply accordingly:

What are your IT resolutions for the New Year? Share them with us in the comments section below.

This tweet recap is part of our #CIOChat on IT resolutions for 2015, hosted by SearchCIO. For more recaps or further information on our next tweet jam, follow @SearchCIO on Twitter.

Next Steps

Check out another end-of-the-year recap to find out our followers' biggest IT regrets of 2014. Then, read CIO expert Harvey Koeppel's column on what 2015 holds for CIOs.

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What are your IT resolutions for 2015?
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Security is high on the priority list, specifically looking at vulnerabilities across all of our applications. We have about thirty different accessible applications, some of which involve external customers and some of which are internal apps for our own use. We've done our own vulnerability assessments, but this year we need to focus on understanding how these apps work together, what common databases and repositories they use, and getting a third-party view of our vulnerabilities.
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My resolution - single - is easy. To remain vigilant. This means being aware of what goes on with my personal and professional profile. Keeping an eye out for incidents that might affect my livelihood or productivity. And keep up-to-date on security events that happen anywhere on the planet. Armed with this info, I think I'll have a 2015 that is as safe as it can be. Though nothing is guaranteed.
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