CIOs nowadays divide IT functions into two categories: “core” and “chore.” “Core” functions are those that are central to the company’s competitive strategy and that CIOs therefore want their best people focusing on. These are functions that really drive the business, like customer-facing applications and figuring out what to do with Big Data.

“Chore” functions are fundamental IT tasks that CIOs need to have done right – but can be sourced from whoever can price it right and delivery it quickly.

Increasingly, IT is keeping “core” internal while moving “chore” to the cloud and – with “the cloud” including service providers who handle chores on a turnkey basis via an Internet connection. The offloading of IT management chores in particular is allowing companies to reduce the cost of operating their increasingly complex environments. Plus, it gives them the agility to take advantage of new technology resources as they become available and it to better focus on the “core” functions that really make a difference for the business competitively.

The interesting thing is that getting smart about what’s “chore” and what’s “core” — and making sure that “chores” get appropriately offloaded — is itself now very “core.” That is, there is a strategic advantage for companies that optimally leverage the cloud to improve business agility, control costs, and ensure that they allocate their internal resources where they can do the most good.

Nimsoft, of course, plays a key role in enabling mid-market companies to offload “chore.” In doing so, we therefore provide a strategic advantage to these companies — as well as to the service providers who are helping them spend smarter and more effectively focus on “core.”

It will be interesting to see how the movement of workloads between businesses, service providers and cloud solutions vendors continues to evolve as IT keeps try to do more with less and as we all get better at cloud sourcing. But one thing is for sure: Nimsoft will be right there with solutions that address the most pressing market needs.