The CEO of Technology

Chapter 3Driving Innovation across the Enterprise

Creating Value through Test Labs and Sandboxes

One of the benefits of forging close partnerships with start-ups and other technology allies are the lessons they offer in approaching innovation and business. Start-ups, in particular, are working off of a clean slate and have fresh perspectives when it comes to creating imaginative processes and novel approaches to innovation.

CIOs and IT organizations can also draw from the test labs and sandbox environments that are synonymous with many tech start-ups. For the uninitiated, a sandbox is a testing environment where software code or other technologies are isolated from the production environment.

Not only are an increasing number of IT organizations making use of test labs and sandbox environments, they're also gaining value from them. According to a March 2016 study conducted by IDC, 58 percent of IT organizations that are “thriving” have an IT culture that excels at experimentation in every part of the business.

There are numerous benefits that can be gleaned from the deployment of low-cost test labs and sandboxes. These include opportunities for IT team members to gain hands-on experience working on next-generation innovation efforts that have the potential to add meaningful value to the business.

Sample scenarios may include testing an Internet of Things (IoT) device for web interface vulnerabilities before putting the apparatus into production by a utility, or exploring next-generation ...