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The fact that cloud services and virtualization are making it feasible for executives to oversee the administration of their enterprise networks from devices like smartphones and tablets, has boosted the power of the cloud like no single innovation before. But a new survey commissioned by application performance management tools maker Compuware reveals a possible backlash: CIOs tell the survey they're afraid of everyday consumers having the same potential for access and power that they have.

What does this mean for their technology plans? Nearly two-thirds of CIOs surveyed say that now, their IT mobility tools and services rollout plans have been rendered impossible. Their fear plays out quite literally like this: Consumer trends have driven demand for more bandwidth on public wireless networks, and for public cloud services. Because the public cloud exists, businesses are compelled to adopt it. Adopting public cloud exposes businesses to new dangers. For which consumers are to blame.

CIOs today are in the cross hairs of every major decision companies make. In order to be your CEO's most valuable asset, today's CIO's need to think like their CEO's. Cloud computing has transformed our landscape and allowed CIO's to envision an environment of decreasing cost pressures, increasing compute, storage and network capacity with elastic flexibility. Yet, how does Opex reduction translate into revenue growth?

According to IDC, trading dollars spent for IT maintenance for innovation could drive more than $1 trillion in increased business revenues between now and the end of 2014. Once you decide that the business of IT is the business, then Cloud computing can enable CIOs to concentrate on delivering higher levels of business value in the form of new IT services, while providing the agility and scalability needed to deliver IT innovations quickly and efficiently.

The federal government is losing its first-ever chief information officer.

Vivek Kundra, the man behind Data.gov, the government IT Dashboard and the federal initiative to reduce data centers and move to the cloud, will leave his post in August, according to Politico. He is reported to be going to Harvard to join the Kennedy School and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, according to Federal News Radio. President Obama had tapped Kundra to be the first federal CIO in 2009 after he had been the chief technology officer of Washington, D.C.

The innovation that comes with the mobile enterprise are immense but problems come with this new world of devices. Namely the huge security concerns that arise. Devices can carry so much important information. How do you control it?

This paper from CIO Custom Solutions Group examines the mobile security landscape, including myths surrounding the risks and threats, and how organizations can establish a solid mobile security strategy.

The software companies that have risen to power in the past 40 years are talking more about the cloud. That has to be a factor of the business market and the interest on behalf of top IT executives, the ones who have in large part commanded the budgets for large-scale solutions projects.

According to a study by IBM, 60% of Global CIOs are now preparing to invest in cloud computing, double the number of two years ago when IBM last did the study.

Want a more global perspective of enterprise technology trends? Gartner's 2011 CIO Agenda survey included responses from 2,014 CIOs across 50 countries and 38 industries. In a recent announcement, Gartner detailed the responses of 36 top CIOs in India.

Cloud and mobile technologies beat more traditional concerns like enterprise resource planning and network communications.

The global recession, the consumerization of IT, the great cloud migration and other factors are changing the role of the CIO. Past failures of enterprise technology to live up to its promises and IT's lack of agility caused by legacy technology have decreased the influence of the CIO, explained R "Ray" Wang in a piece for Forbes last year.

Now in a new paper he has written for his own firm, Wang is exploring the future of the role that the CIO plays. He comes to the table with considerable insights. Wang is a global traveler who meets with CIOs on a constant basis in his role as principal analyst and CEO of Constellation Research, an independent firm with a key focus on the transitions the enterprise is experiencing.

RedMonk's James Governor and EMC VP of Global Marketing Chuck Hollis are calling for enterprises to put information on the balance sheet. In other words, start considering useful information as an asset and poorly managed information as a liability.

"If you've got an expensive manufacturing machine, you invest periodically to keep the asset running in top shape, otherwise its value falls sharply over time," writes Hollis. "Are information bases any different? How many databases in your organization are providing declining value simply because there isn't a regular program of data maintenance and enhancement?"

Morgan Stanley recently released a report detailing a survey it did of 50 chief information officers. We got our hands on the report and found it interesting from a market perspective.

We do not ordinarily follow what the investment banks say about the cloud computing and virtualization markets. But the viewpoints from this breed of analysts provides a perspective about the maturity of the space.

Overall, the report shows that investment bankers are paying more attention to cloud computing with particular interest in the acceptance of virtualization in the enterprise.

The US Government's Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, called today for a radical new approach to government information technology, focusing on utilization of consumer-type Web 2.0 tools that can "tap into the vast amounts of knowledge...in communities across the country."

"We've got to recognize that we can't treat the American people as subjects but as a co-creator of ideas," Kundra was quoted as saying by Government Computer News writer Wyatt Kash today. "We need to tap into the vast amounts of knowledge...in communities across the country. The federal government doesn't have a monopoly on the best ideas." That's exciting, if it's more than just words.