It's fairly well-understood by now that the job of CIO entails close interaction with the other C-level executives, but that doesn't mean the pressures are easing. While sharing in the responsibility for the company's overall success, the CIO is still responsible for all of the old back-office duties, reports Pam Baker at CIOUpdate.

Security remains in the CIO's purview even when there is a CISO on board. As business users demand more control over their technologies, the CIO has less control over IT and yet remains accountable for it. 

"In the past six months alone, we have observed increasing growth of purchases by non-IT personnel, which is driving sales of cloud services and replacing or paralleling established command and control IT structures," said Soumen Ganguly, principal of strategy consulting group Altman Vilandrie & Company. "CIOs are not only challenged by the consumerization of IT, but also the democratization of IT; changes at the bottom are rising to the top."

While keeping IT functioning in the face of dwindling control, the CIO is also expected to come up with innovative ways to improve processes, efficiencies and profits. CIOs work across an entire enterprise, unlike many others in top management positions, and they are in charge of supporting the entire operation.

"Who better to understand how to engineer growth? The most successful CIOs we work with are known more for their change management and vision-fulfillment skills rather than their technical skills," said Todd McKinnon, CEO of Okta, a cloud infrastructure company.

For more:
- Pam Baker's article at CIOUpdate

Related Articles:
As technology changes, so does the CIO's role
Recession boosts CIO stature
The cloud will challenge the CIO's job