PHOENIX — IT is changing faster than many people can comprehend, and everything from refrigerators to medical devices are being connected — the so-called Internet of Things — without full thought given to potentially tragic consequences.
It is in this environment that CIOs find themselves today, and they must learn to lead organizations through it, said Robert Herjavec, an entrepreneur and technology leader with the Herjavec Group, a star of TV’s “Shark Tank,” and one of the keynote speakers at the CHIME 2016 CIO Fall Forum in Phoenix.
“The fastest moving industry in the world is the IT business,” Herjavec said. “There are roughly 3.5 billion people online globally, and roughly 6 billion IP addresses. Your mind can comprehend that. Everyone knows someone with a couple of phones. You can get your mind around that. By 2020, there will be 6 billion people connected and more than 6 trillion IP addresses. The Internet will cease to exist. It will be electricity: It will just be. The idea of going online will no longer exist. You will date yourself by saying I’m online. Everything will be connected all the time.”
[Also: CIOs reveal what it takes to make a great IT shop]
This massive change will require healthcare CIOs and other executives to think differently about the work they do and the projects they undertake.
“Your consumers, internal users and patients, think of information — a user today doesn’t understand why they can’t get their data when they want it, in the format they want it, all the time,” Herjavec said. “And in the fast pace of change, you have more stuff being connected, like medical devices. Everything in the hospital will be connected.”
One of the big enablers of change, and at the same time an enabler of threats, is cloud computing, Herjavec added.
“A bunny is like the cloud, because if you leave two bunnies in the corner, you get lots of bunnies,” he remarked. “You have a user in your system today using a cloud application that you do not allow, I guarantee you. On top of all this other stuff, the applications are moving to the cloud because the cost benefit of cloud computing cannot be denied. And visibility, how do you know where your users are going and what they are doing with that technology?”
For these and other types of security threats, Herjavec stressed there is no silver bullet.
“There is no one product,” he said. “The answer from the vendors is just buy us for everything. But the reality is multi-vendor in our industry, and that will never go away because the threats are constantly evolving.”
Healthcare IT News’ Best Hospital IT Departments 2016:
⇒ Meet the winners
⇒ CIOs reveal what makes an IT shop great
⇒Interactive map: Best Hospital IT Departments
⇒ See the people who make their IT departments winners
