AUGUST 20168As we just now begin to fold our security operations into our broader IT team, I'm reminded of how many times we made strategic adjustments to scale, how many times we refactored our path to success. Throughout my career, scaling has been a constant theme--either through explosive organic growth or through a series of acquisitions. In this article, I will share with you some of the narrative we are using inside Q2 IT to help us continue steering this rocket of the unbelievable growth we are on. In the four years I've been in my current role, the company has gone through a successful IPO and unprecedented year-over-year growth--to the point of we're growing nearly as much in a quarter now as we did in the entire first year I joined--only 4 years ago. Here's what that translates into for our IT department:- 500 percent end user growth, adding more users in the next 60days than we had when I joined- 279 percent employee growth, 7 new facilities- New hosting environments, >20X server and storage growth- IT team grew over 700 percentAn effective Strategic Roadmap contains these key elements:- What `Good Looks Like' at scale- Your current state- Your plan to get from here-to-thereStart by painting the picture of "What good looks like" at much larger volume: size, revenue, customers, end users, transactions--whatever work is in your environment. Plan higher than you think you can go, which may not be high enough; planning for 50 percent growth seems crazy until you actually hit 200 percent. You have to be able to clearly and simply explain where you need to take your business unit, which makes you the biggest challenge--your lack of experience at the larger scale, your lack of knowing how it should look, your lack of knowing where all the pieces fit into the larger puzzle. A knowledge gap could make you the wrong person to enact this transformation. Fear not. Remember that it was the first time for everyone when ground control decided that 756.3 seconds was precisely the perfect amount of time to fire the Lunar Module's descent engine on July 20, 1969, to land it safely in the Mare Tranquilitatis of the Moon (the Sea of Tranquility). So, the way to take your game up is to read, beg for and borrow information and best practices, and most importantly, use other companies as examples of what good looks like. It's just another knowledge gap you can close. Find and use a framework that resonates with you (ITIL, Scaling at Volume `11'By Lou Senko, SVP & CIO Information Technologies, Q2ebankingLou SenkoIN MY OPINION
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