The Rise of the CGO

"Career Is Over", a tonguecheek acronym for Chief Information Officer (CIO), appears to be making a comeback as organizations get savvy about IT strategy and consolidate their cash blow. Nick Carr, a prominent proponent of utility computing, thinks the IT dial tone is getting louder every day, resulting in scaled systems that don't require a lot of effort to run; initiatives like the Green Grid just drive this home. Another canary is those meddling college kids, who no longer need assistance managing their computer; please, just give me a dumb pipe and exit the building. To borrow a word from tennis, IT as we know it is tanking.

But this is terrific! Because The dot green future has arrived - or as Chuck says, getting green is now an important part of your job as an IT professional. Here's the plan; operating expenses are typically 80 percent of a firm's IT budget. These can be reduced down to 50 percent (par for the course) or 30 percent (prizefighter status) with some directed cost savings efforts. Then, use all those freed up bodies and dollars and put them to work on business-centric green projects - solar, wind, biodiesel, whatever pertains. You will need to a lot of these people to sustain your business, and I'm pretty sure that hiring, say, solar engineers is going to get a little tough. So roll your own people using your existing IT staff - we will all stay employed and usher in the new era together.