One of the comments I received from Matt, who is an experienced software executive, sums it up pretty well…

“For years the CIOs had the ability to talk a language of black magic to the CEO/CFO about the unique technical components and architectures required to run the business. The CEO/CFO always demanded more for less, and the CIO could use techno jargon to explain why it couldn’t be done any other way. …..the ability to re-direct the discussion with black magic language is no longer available.”

The pressure from business is only going to increase and the CIO’s conversations with business are going to be lot more about ROIs, ease of service, and cost of service…as compared to which technologies are in and which are out.

I read a very nice book recently “The Real business of IT” by Richard Hunter and George Westerman. Very well written and captures the context of this relationship between CIO and the busienss pretty well.
A must read for anyone who wants to understand this better.