Word of the Day – shadow IT definition

“The main driver for ‘shadow IT’ is the typically difficult, protracted and bureaucratic process of acquiring resources…Some CIOs only find out their organization uses Amazon Web Services when there is an AWS outage.” — Shlomo Swidler

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is shadow IT, an adjective that describes hardware or software within an enterprise that is not supported by the organization’s central IT department. Although the label itself is neutral, the term often carries a negative connotation because it implies that the IT department has not approved the technology or even worse — doesn’t even know that employees are using it.