Doug Lynn

As Web services standards mature over the next few years, they will increasingly challenge the ability of CIOs to successfully incorporate them into the enterprise.

Standard staffing models across planning, building and operating are essential to justify personnel requirements, to restore organizational performance, and to negotiate service-level changes, particularly after budget cuts and layoffs have significantly reduced IT organizational headcount, according to META Group.

As middleware gains popularity in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it forces high-performing CIOs to justify its large expense through portfolio management methods and to mitigate its risk through skills management (i.e., either sourced or managed in-house).

As economic uncertainty constrains IT funding, responsive IT executives will implement an infrastructure-funding framework based on four milestones to organize, standardize, and better utilize tactical techniques, and to convince business management that infrastructure funding is a corporate responsibility.