Every week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on ways to improve IT productivity, lessons for CIOs in the age of the cloud, and more. I hope you find them useful:

5 lessons for CIOs in the age of the cloud
The CIO of Chiquita Brands recently shared insight on how his company operates in the age of the cloud. I especially agree with the second and third points: Avoid any technology that ties you to a single vendor, and flexible architecture will prepare you for whatever the future holds.

11 ways to improve your IT team’s productivity
How can CIOs and IT executives help their teams be more productive? Here are the top 11 tips — from CIOs, IT executives, productivity and leadership experts and project managers — for getting the most out of your IT team. You can find more information on this topic right here.

Many CIOs unprepared for the next era of IT
The next era of enterprise IT is upon us, but many CIOs are not prepared to manage the demands that come in this new era. A recent survey found that 51 percent of CIOs are concerned that this change is coming faster than they can cope and 42 percent don’t feel that they have the talent needed to face this future. How can CIOs prepare their companies for the future? I know I sound like a broken record, but it all starts with architecture.

Data visualization: 3 questions for passing the eye candy test
While business intelligence and data visualization hold enormous potential for companies trying to capitalize on their data, it’s not without risk. Primarily, many businesses run the risk of creating meaningless data visualizations–eye candy that doesn’t actually deliver actionable data.