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4 Next-Generation Hyperconverged Infrastructure For Dummies, Nutanix Special Edition These materials are © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. This evolution and the myriad promises made about what enter- prise IT can accomplish have resulted in a situation in which enterprise IT now bears more challenges than ever before. Driving new revenue opportunities Long gone are the days when "management information sys- tems" and "computer services" were little more than expense lines in the budget. Today, business leaders are turning to IT to enable the business and drive top-line revenue. Shifting from a technology to a business mindset For decades, pundits publicly lamented the divide between IT and the business. The unfortunate truth is that the divide is, all too often, real. In the not-too-distant past, CIOs and IT decision makers differentiated their companies via infrastructure. The best servers, storage, and networks put the company ahead of its competitors. Why was this? After all, applications should have been the focus — at least that's the case when viewed from a modern perspective. Back then, though, infrastructure was deployed on-premises and more powerful infrastructure meant more powerful applications. That was considered a business-centric differentiator, but it was ultimately frustrating to the business. As the CIO role evolved, the business expected more from IT than just shiny, new infrastruc- ture every few years. However, infrastructure was such a core part of the IT identity that it was difficult for many CIOs to refocus on the activities that the business really needed. The cloud has upended the infrastructure paradigm, allowing CIOs to think in more business-centric terms. The shift was abrupt for many CIOs who had become comfortable with infrastructure. For those who resisted, the divide worsened, as CEOs and other busi- ness decision makers discovered the benefits of the cloud on their own and "shadow IT" began to push corporate IT departments out of the spotlight.