CIOs worldwide have identified cloud computing (software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service) as their third most important technology priority in 2013, according to theGartner Executive Programs' latest survey findings.
Cloud computing follows "analytics and business intelligence" and "mobile technologies," the top two tech priorities for CIOs in 2013, according to the Gartner EXP survey conducted on 2,000 plus CIOs globally.
Cloud computing first entered Gartner's top 10 CIO priority list in 2010, and has since remained as one of the top three CIO priorities.
Disruptive power of digital technologies
Alongside cloud computing, CIOs see mobile technologies, big data/analytics and social media as disrupting digital technologies to the business over the next 10 years. When asked which digital technologies would be most disruptive, 70% of CIOs cited mobile technologies, followed by big data/analytics at 55%, social media at 54% and public cloud at 51%.
According to Gartner, the disruptiveness of each of these technologies is real, but CIOs see their greatest disruptive power coming in combination, rather than in isolation.
But enterprises realize on average only 43% of technology's business potential, according to the Gartner EXP global survey, and IT needs to increase that rate to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world.
Gartner's EXP survey, titled "Hunting and Harvesting in a Digital World: The 2013 CIO Agenda," was globally conducted in Q4 2012 on 2,053 CIOs, representing more than $230 billion in CIO IT budgets and covering 36 industries in 41 countries.