The Amazon Web Services outage in early December provided a key lesson in the emerging role pf the chief technology officer (CTO), says[1] noted industry consultant Keith Townsend. "Are there external mitigations that enable you from overcomplicating your system design? The more complicated your system design for high availability, the longer it takes to implement new features. It takes someone who can have these complex conversations with technical staff and the lines of business. There's the need to have a reputation and the authority to impact both sides of the conversation. That's CTO level vs. engineer level."
The CTO, long a broad-based role overlapping with that of chief information officers, is emerging as a leading player in the growth and viability of digital enterprises. A recent survey[2] of 5,000 CTOs and CIOs by the IBM Institute for Business Value bears this out, stating that "the CTO has become one of the most strategic roles within an organization." This "may come as a revelation for some," the report's authors, led by Rashik Parmar, an IBM Fellow. "Yet, this positioning has been years in the making. CTOs are aligned to lead a new virtual enterprise model that is emerging, fueled by a fresh post-digital approach to business opportunity."
Top CTO responsibilities cited in the survey include C-suite and board advisory (88%), software development lifecycle (72%), cybersecurity (69%), innovation strategy (61%), and business continuity (59%). CTOs also add data to their list of central responsibilities. 79% of CTO respondents report a leadership role in their organization's data strategy— and 70% state that their colleagues look to them for data governance and stewardship.
In a separate IBM Institute survey of 3,000 CEOs, CTOs and CIOs jointly ranked in the top three,