And in addition to storage, security could become a video-related headache for CIOs, says Forrester’s Whiteley.

Today’s hackers are writing small, nimble pieces of spyware and virus code that they can quickly modify to work with various types of programs, including IM, VoIP or the player software that people use to view video clips, Whiteley says. Right now, the risk is theoretical, he says, but should be on a CIO’s radar.

In one of the first examples of malicious code being delivered via video tools, antispyware vendor Webroot reported in August that it located a Trojan horse program called Zlob, pretending to be an update to Windows Media Player. Users clicking on video clips were asked to download the update, which included the Zlob malware, and it proceeded to seek out other malware to install on those PCs, according to Webroot. The problem with malware like this is you typically don’t know what the intent of the virus writers is—to install “bot” software to control the PC, to look for data on your network or just to cause mischief.

Bottom line: CIOs will need to watch how the amount of video on the network evolves and be prepared to change the rules accordingly, says Matthew Miszewski, CIO of Wisconsin. “Our normal Web filter blocks inappropriate traffic,” he says, but he hasn’t had to make a move like forbidding ESPN during business hours for bandwidth reasons. “We’ve thought about it,” he says. “But I don’t think it would be a popular move. If it gets out of hand, we have the ability to lock it down.”

Do you?