I found this article POSTed in 2007 interesting and would like to summarize it.
The Different CTO Roles - All Things Distributed
This entry was written by Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon.com, to sort out the rolls that are being talked about in the term CTO because they are getting mixed up.
Vogels talks about 4 rolls
| Infrastructure Manager | Responsible for managing the execution of operations, including IT infrastructure, networking, security, application development and maintenance, and |
|---|---|
| Technology Visionary and Operations Manager | Responsible for determining which technology is the right one to implement the business strategy and actually using and implementing (even partially) that technology |
| External Facing Technologist | The CTO acts as a liaison between the customer and the team, communicates with key customers to engage in market research, and manages the product portfolio with the internal development team. |
| Big Thinker | Evaluate how IT technology can be used for your current and future business, and consider how you can get ahead of your competitors' projections. |
CTOs must think about the present and the future at the same time, based on the axis of applying technology to the business.
