Very brief interview up over at Information Week with Google CIO Douglas Merrill. Doesn't much go into the nuts and bolts of his domain at the notoriously secretive search giant, but he does talk a bit about how he sees his role and how the role of the CIO is changing. While some (including myself) see the role of the CIO disappearing as outsourcing and SaaS become more pervasive in the industry, Merrill sees it evolving to be more of a traditional business executive with specialized knowledge of technology who can help drive the business forward with IT.

I'm not sure if these are actually two different ways of describing the same outcome, or if it's a position that is colored by his post at a top technology company. Although I agree with him about how the role is changing, and what it should be (for however long it's around), I question whether ultimately that role requires a full-time executive on the payroll at most businesses. It's certainly important, but it also seems as though, when you outsource most of the day to day problems, a role that simply could slide into Operations, just as many other technically oriented supporting services have.

There will no doubt still be job's like Merrill's (technology is obviously going to continue to be the focus at technology service providers like Google), but you have to wonder if they better he does that job (particularly in pushing out cloud computing services) the more likely it is that other CIOs will find themselves less and less necessary in traditional businesses.