Who Owns IT?

Technology governance was often tightly controlled but is now loosening. There are many internal and external technology governors today. Governance is now about productivity and partnerships, not just standardization and control. Vendors, service providers, partners, and colleagues in the cloud are now governance stakeholders. Vendors and service providers are special stakeholders since the products and services they offer define in reality governance. Companies that outsource huge amounts of their operational infrastructures outsource many of their technology standards and the governance around those standards. Environments that outsource lots of technology and technology services share governance with their providers. Governance must extend well beyond the corporate firewall to include policies and protocols for the use of externally developed, yet powerful APIs and other software widgets that can be used to enhance functionality. In addition to APIs and widgets, the crowd can also provide expertise.