| | December 20148CIOReviewHybrid Clouds can Open Possibilities for Data ManagementBy Scott Musson, VP-Global Strategic Alliances, Red Hatopinionin myScott Musson | | December 20148CIOReviewStephen Covey, author of the book `The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,' once said "There are three constants in life...change, choice, and principles."Chances are he wasn't talking about CIOs, but he may as well have been. After all, over the past few years, CIOs have seen a lot of change, and many are faced with several choices, particularly when it comes to how to best manage that change. As such, they're struggling to hold onto their principles of maintaining organized, efficient IT operations.At the root of it all is data, which has become enterprises' most valuable commodity. Every organization is driven by the type of data it collects, and the insight that can be gleaned from that data. CIOs can use it to help drive the overall direction of a company because it gives them very specific insight into what customers, partners, and others actually want from the company. It can also be used to gauge current and future trends, and set an enterprise up well for what lies ahead.It's also extremely difficult to get a handle on, because it's coming from all different directions. Organizations are no longer just compiling sales data; today, organizations are trying to corral details from a myriad of sources, including social media networks, customer analytics, and more.In response, CIOs are faced with the need to re-architect their data centers. For many companies, it's no longer sufficient to rely on a proprietary environment, no matter how finely tuned it may be; those days are past. Managing the information age calls for a more open and flexible environment that can easily adjust to the needs of the business.This is why the cloud has taken off like no other technology in recent memory. It provides multiple options--for storage, access to data, increased cost efficiencies, and more. The cloud exists and continues to grow not because it's a "nice to have," but because the massive amount of information that organizations need to parse, share, and store, has made it a necessity.And yet, even the cloud presents CIOs with certain quandaries and additional complexity, particularly when it comes to determining
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