IT departments to shrink in five years

The average size of IT departments is expected to shrink dramatically over the course of the next five years.

According to Silicon.com, which has assembled a ‘CIO Jury’ to investigate the matter, the growth of cloud computing is likely to have a huge effect as it requires significantly less hands-on management, and the advent of back-office management systems can leave the IT administration of a company to just one person.

The growth of third-party software-as-a-service providers will also have an effect as businesses look to a solution that is more cost-effective than retaining their own staff.

“For many business systems currently run in-house, the default option by 2015 will be the cloud. All of those IT workers currently working in these areas will either leave or, hopefully, find new roles delivering more tangible business value,” Stephen Potter, CIO at World-Check told Silicon.com.