In this ETR Insights interview, a seasoned CIO from a small business services enterprise shared practical strategies for navigating today’s challenging IT landscape. Facing rising costs, rapid technological advancements, and growing pressure to optimize IT budgets, the CIO discussed key priorities such as cost-cutting initiatives, AI adoption, and strategic vendor management. By staying agile and forward-thinking, this CIO is navigating a complex IT landscape while positioning their organization for success.
Vendors Mentioned: 8x8 / Broadcom (VMware) / CrowdStrike / HashiCorp / MOVEit / Microsoft (Copilot, Dynamics 365 Business Central, GitHub) / Nutanix / Okta / Rubrik / Scale Computing / Wiz
Key Takeaways
Cutting Costs Without Compromising Efficiency. As inflation and vendor pricing hikes have impacted IT budgets, this CIO emphasized the importance of proactive cost management. The organization is focused on cutting unnecessary expenses by consolidating redundant infrastructure, such as eliminating unneeded servers and reducing data duplication. This approach has not only trimmed hardware costs but also improved operational efficiency, creating a leaner IT environment without sacrificing performance.
Consolidating redundant infrastructure, improving data governance, and leveraging managed service providers (MSPs) were highlighted as effective strategies. For instance, our guest's organization tackled bloated hardware spending by cleaning up unnecessary servers and reducing data duplication, a move that saved costs while improving operational efficiency.
ETR Data: In preliminary data from ETR's January 2025 Technology Spending Intentions Survey (TSIS), among those decreasing their IT budgets year-over-year, respondents indicated that Reducing hardware/Capex spending and Consolidating redundnant vendors across business units are now the most common methods for achieving an IT budget decrease, overtaking Reducing staffing costs, which has seen a steep decline in citations versus three months ago.
Exploring AI Use Cases. While formal AI implementation remains on the horizon, the organization is actively piloting tools like Microsoft Copilot and GitHub to boost developer productivity and enhance code quality. By starting with small, targeted use cases, the CIO aims to evaluate the potential of AI to drive business outcomes while addressing governance, compliance, and security concerns upfront.
This reflects a broader industry trend: 85% of organizations are now evaluating AI use cases, although many remain in the exploration phase. By starting small and experimenting with AI tools, the CIO is preparing to capitalize on future opportunities while addressing governance and compliance concerns.
Avoiding Vendor Lock-In. To reduce the risks of vendor lock-in, the organization emphasizes maintaining relationships with multiple providers for critical services like vulnerability management and penetration testing. Additionally, they are evaluating emerging players such as Nutanix and Scale for cloud and virtualization needs, ensuring their IT ecosystem remains flexible and future-proof.
Our guest stressed the importance of diversifying vendors to reduce risks. While consolidation can simplify operations, reliance on a single vendor for critical functions, such as security, poses significant risks. As such, the CIO uses multiple vendors for vulnerability management and penetration testing to ensure robust results and maintain flexibility.
For more insights and detailed data on these trends, and hundreds of other research calls, contact the ETR Insights team.
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