Fusion Connection Blog

Shadow IT sounds sinister, like the dark side of IT, but in truth shadow IT often has good motives and at worst it is usually just misguided. Usually, shadow IT is the result of employees trying to do their job better, and using their initiative to solve problems that they perceive as important and neglected by the organization or by IT.

As such, shadow IT is an organizational problem, and typically can be countered by organizational solutions.

Threats of Cloud Computing Multiplied by Shadow IT

Software-defined WANs are transforming how businesses manage connectivity. With cloud computing, the internet of things, widespread mobile device use, and an increasingly distributed workforce converging, businesses need their network to accomplish flexibility and performance that has been either impossible or cost prohibitive in the past. SD-WAN technologies are changing these dynamic, empowering organizations to optimize their networks and ramp up performance in a cost-efficient way.

IT disaster recovery and business continuity strategies have generally been fairly segmented from one another in the past. Business continuity plans would often focus on key issues such as employee safety, keeping certain mission-critical systems running regardless of a disaster, and preventing downtimes from having an adverse impact on the organization. Disaster recovery, on the other hand, focuses on responding to an incident that causes an outage or data loss event.

Cloud communications technologies have already changed how people collaborate in the workplace, establishing a foundation for more flexible, intuitive communication. In many ways, the rise of cloud services with integrated communications functionality represents a convergence of related trends. Voice and video are commonly delivered over IP networks, making it easier to integrate core functionality into apps and services.