Capterra Glossary
Shadow It
Shadow IT refers to internet technology (IT) networks that employees create as workarounds for company IT network limitations. In any company, many cloud-based storage systems, file-sharing applications, collaboration tools, or SaaS apps won't run on company IT due to firewalls and restriction settings. As the name suggests, employees develop these projects and use them without the knowledge or approval of a company's IT team.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About Shadow It
The main problems with Shadow IT are security risks, potential data loss, and loss of collaboration potentials. It can also waste money when employees don’t use company-purchased solutions. However, Shadow IT can be beneficial to SMBs and large enterprises alike because it allows employees to use tools that can increase productivity, customer satisfaction, and company revenue.
Related Terms
- Synchronous
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Intranet
- Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Haptics
- WAN (Wide-Area Network)
- Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
- Scalability
- Data Center
- Authorization
- Multitenancy