Forget 'shadow IT' – it's 'self-starting IT' now

So says VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger. Do you have a better term?

POLL When VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger dropped in to Sydney a couple of weeks ago, he had a new phrase to share: “self-starting IT”.

Gelsinger prefers that term to “shadow IT”, the term describing adoption of software-as-a-service and/or cloud by folks outside the IT department, often without the IT department's knowledge. Never mind the IT department's blessing.

Shadow IT has acquired a pejorative tone, perhaps because as we've previously reported, SaaS creates requirements for at least half-a-dozen ancillary tools. If the IT department isn't aware of shadow IT implementaitons, there's significant potential for all sorts of problems.

Gelsinger calling SaaS acquired outside the IT department “self-starting IT” is therefore quite clever, as with a rhetorical flourish it goes from a shady practice to a positive initiative. And who can criticise a go-getting self-starter?

What's that you say: you'll have a go? That's what the comments are for. And the poll down there offers you a chance to tell us what you think about our other names for shadow and/or self-starting IT. ®

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