Advocate Open Communication

“Shadow IT will often, if not always, fail if the owner of the network [or] firewall is not informed,” says Martin, of Peak UpTime. “Open communication [among] all participants is key.”

Calling it progress, the Logicalis survey found that CIOs spend almost half their time – 42 percent – on activities that are consistent with being an “internal service provider,” which requires more communication with the lines of business. Nearly a quarter of the average CIO’s working day – 24 percent – is spent engaging with line-of-business managers, the study revealed.

Gangwer, of Rook Security, says IT should be “more open-minded when employees bring new tools to the table,” rather than deny them. Doing that, he adds, will open the door and enable them to come back.

And that can help bring the line-of-business units out of the “shadow.”