This article is condensed and originally appeared on TechDecisions.
Hybrid work continues to grow in popularity, which means businesses need to rethink and restructure their technology stacks to best support a distributed workforce. Central to the success of distributed teams is up-to-date, accurate, and accessible data. However, if a company doesn’t implement technology correctly, it risks creating IT silos.
An IT silo can be defined as information that is contained within an isolated framework. A framework in this context could be a specific application, department, or even one team member. For example, if a department deploys software to meet its unique needs, team members in other departments may not have access to that software or the data it generates. Another term for this approach is “shadow IT,” which occurs when groups deploy software or applications without approval of the IT department or decision maker.
Shadow IT creates IT silos and can lead to information sharing that is inaccurate or inconsistent. These instances can create problems such as duplicated efforts from employees that drive up costs and use of resources, inconsistent employee performance metrics that hinder effective reporting, and lack of unification and standardization processes that can impact progress on company goals.
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