Skills for IT Operations Management

The technology industry is changing at a rapid pace, but let me put that into perspective. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, it took Television 13yrs, the Internet 4 years, Facebook 1,096 days, and  Google+ only 88 days. So what's this rapid change in how business is done mean for us in the IT industry? It means our skill sets are going to need to also change rapidly. It can no longer be "I only do storage, so that's not my problem", there has to be a fundamental shift in how we move forward in the IT industry. We have to be in tune with others outside our group and be more aligned with the goals of the business. I've felt in some of my previous roles that the infrastructure and operations teams gained little visibility into the goals of the business. This is not to say that we don't want to know, or that we have no clue what they are, but a lot of context is lost once it make it to these teams. For example: You may have management ask you to go research this or go do this,  but with little context around how it affects the business or other teams.

So how do we change this? Well, part if it's a culture change, but a big part is changing some of our skills. Below I've listed a few skills I think are important to IT operations management.

• Understands business goals
• Problem solving skills with organizational challenge orientation
• Effective communicator across teams
• Holistic view across various technology silos

I would love to hear what others think about the skills needed for this role and how you've changed some of your skill set in this rapidly changing IT industry.