Restrict, Ignore, Embrace: The Shadow IT Trilemma
CIO, Tuesday, July 8th, 2025
100 developers, 100 experiments: Why employees breaking the rules may be a gift
According to the latest CSA's findings, 58% of IT managers are using unapproved tools to collaborate and communicate. Let that sink in - that's not just a few rebels; more than half of the very people tasked with enforcing tech compliance are sidestepping the rules themselves.
Why? Because rules that don't align with real workflows get walked around.
Even though you might think that the shadow IT topic is not relevant anymore, I'd like to challenge you on this: the systems have evolved, and so has shadow IT. A decade ago, it was Dropbox and Google Drive. Today, it's unsanctioned AI agents, open-source frameworks or LLM-powered copilot tools that developers experiment with on their own.