A recent study of global CIOs by IBM shows that what keeps CIOs up at night isn't necessarily just short-term pressure to cut IT costs. The study shows that intelligence and analytics (cited by 83% of respondents) and virtualization (cited by 76% of respondents) are top of mind. (The 2009 IBM Global CIO Study was released in September and is available here.)

These findings imply CIOs are thinking ahead in terms of how IT can help position their companies for success in the new normal, e.g. using analytics to improve the way business is run, whether it’s by incorporating customer and market feedback rapidly to maximize responsiveness or by achieving a cross-channel view of their customers to tailor sales offers; or applying virtualization technologies to help transform the way the IT function is run.

This is consistent with a recent piece of McKinsey research about CIO imperatives in the new normal.  Based on McKinsey surveys of global executives we found that in this much tougher environment IT organizations not only need to step up their own productivity significantly (effective use of virtualization is one lever), but they also need to drive operating improvement across the entire company (which analytics can enable) and help lead the change to embrace disruptive technologies.

CIOs' jobs are  tougher in the new normal but the opportunities for IT to contribute to the success of the enterprise,  are also much greater.