IT News: CxO (Nov. 29th, 2021)
John J. McLaughlin
Editor-In-Chief, Board Member, Professional Services Engineer, Community leader
In this issue:
FinConDX is a virtual conference focused on the DevOps, DevSecOps and Digital Transformation practices and tools you need to thrive in the FinTech industry. The conference will bring together financial services and tech leaders to cover a wide range of topics, including development, operations, product, architecture and leadership through a series of expert-lead sessions, panels and keynotes.
Security, IT alignment with business objectives, and staffing will be critical focus points for CIOs in the year ahead. Consider these areas as you set initiatives and goals
"Every CIO is beginning to make plans for 2022. While there is always an overwhelming list of things to achieve, strategic CIOs can focus on these three key areas to guide their organization forward in the coming year:..
Read on for details [The Enterprisers Project, November 22nd, 2021]]
In a rapidly changing world, IT and business leaders need to work together to steer their enterprise in the right direction
"Has your enterprise fallen out alignment? Telltale symptoms include pulling in the wrong direction, poor control, and perhaps worst of all, degrading productivity and results.
When IT and business teams fail to align, all parties can expect a bumpy ride. 'Digital transformation is driving fundamental change in how an organization delivers value to its customers,' says Sameer Bhagwat, vice president and head of the application managed services center of excellence at IT and business consulting firm Capgemini Americas..." [CIO, November 22nd, 2021]
I'm not a CISO, I never have been and hope I never will be. It seems like a lot of hard work and stress, and if you're the CISO at a company when you suffer a breach it's difficult to blame the intern without a mob of security professionals criticising you.
"But I do observe CISO's very closely, and as a result I have figured out how to be an awesome CISO.
Now, before you object, hear me out. David Attenborough isn't a whale, or a penguin, or a hippo. But he's observed these animals in the wild for many years and so when his soothing vocals accompany a nature documentary, you sit there and listen to his every word. He is an expert on all forms of animals without having been an animal himself.
Similarly, you can think of me as the David Attenborough of cyber security - observing CISOs in their natural habitat..." [Security Boulevard, November 24th, 2021]
The theft of government secrets by Jonathan Toebbe and others raises the question: How should CISOs deal with insider threats who have had insider threat training?
"The legal entanglement of the entrepreneurial U.S. Navy engineer, Jonathan Toebbe, who hoped to parley sensitive nuclear submarine secrets into a cool $5 million is now in hiatus as he sits in a West Virginia jail cell awaiting his December trial. We can only imagine the discussions within the Navy's information security teams upon learning some of the most sensitive of secrets were hand carried out of classified environments, back to the residence of the employee, and then passed on to an unauthorized third party. The epitome of insider threat realized..." [CSO Online, November 23rd, 2021]
A trial project using gesture-based technology to help customers order in restaurants is just one example of the pioneering digital innovations being explored by food and drinks giant PepsiCo
"What does a great digital leader look like? For Mia Sorgi, director of digital product and experience at food and drink giant PepsiCo Europe, top-tier digital leaders have an inherent ability to work out how technologies can be applied to the issues faced by modern businesses and their customers...
That's something Sorgi is focusing on right now in her role at PepsiCo. She joined the company in February 2018 and benefits from extensive experience in design and digital product development across a range of companies, including Fjord, which is part of Accenture, and Ralph Lauren. [ComputerWeekly, November 23rd, 2021]
Check out these podcasts to keep up to date on CIO lessons learned, emerging tech trends, leadership best practices, and more
"Thank goodness we live in the golden age of podcasts.
With fewer of us traveling to in-person events and conferences and less time available to connect with our IT peers, these audio gems can give us a bit of what we're missing. Whether it's hearing from fellow CIOs about their victories and losses, keeping tabs on the last trends in technology-enabled innovation, or learning from some of the leadership greats, these eight podcasts offer aural opportunities for IT leaders seeking education, entertainment, and connection..." [The Enterprisers Project, November 23rd, 2021]
When digital transformation work is never done, change fatigue can set in. Learn how award-winning CIOs are tackling transformation burnout head on
"One of the hardest aspects of digital transformation is that it's never truly 'done.' Being in a state of constant change and disruption can take a serious toll on employee motivation, causing fatigue, distrust, and burnout.
We asked CIOs who recently took home a 2021 CIO of the Year ORBIE Award how they are avoiding transformation fatigue on their teams. The awards were presented by the Charlotte CIO Leadership Association and the Michigan CIO Leadership Association, professional communities that annually recognize CIOs for their excellence in technology leadership..." [The Enterprisers Project, November 23rd, 2021]
Moving to the cloud, developing staff skills and responding quickly to the pandemic - from a public sector IT leader's perspective
"Karl Hoods, chief digital and information officer at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), says every IT organisation, regardless of sector, faces a similar challenge - how to deliver value for the business.
The key to success, says Hoods, is for CIOs to look beyond the enterprise firewall. Digital leaders must consider how other businesses and sectors are being disrupted and apply that understanding to the challenges faced by their own employees and customers..." [ComputerWeekly, November 22nd, 2021]
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MarKeith Allen, senior vice-president and general manager for mission driven organisations at Diligent, discusses the importance of good governance in digital transformation success
"The COVID-19 crisis forced businesses everywhere to fast track their digital transformation efforts. Faced with the stark choice of becoming a digital-first business, or having no business at all, companies that were previously behind the curve had to implement everything from remote working to entire digital storefronts in a matter of days.
According to research by McKinsey, the digital initiatives unleashed in response to the pandemic leapfrogged seven years of progress in a matter of months as companies acted 20 to 25 times faster than they had believed was possible. In the process, this acceleration of digital during the crisis brought about a sea change in executive mindsets with regard to the role of technology in business..." [InformationAge, November 25th, 2021]
Data and analytics should be a core competence for every Chief Information Officer and Information Technology organization
"Given the business, technical, and cultural challenges of using data to make informed business decisions, it's no surprise that data science and analytics are hard.
So, how do you make your enterprise data and analytics program a success? Bruno Aziza, head of data and analytics for Google Cloud, explains his approach with valuable lessons based on practical experience...
Bruno Aziza: This is about looking across all your workload, so if you're using transactional or analytical workloads, how do you bring all of that together, reduce the cost, reduce the maintenance headache, and create an environment where now you can scale technically and also humanly?..." [CXOTalk, November 23rd, 2021]
The pandemic and the new world of hybrid work has changed how Wilson approaches instrumenting the organization. Learn how he is overcoming hybrid's hurdles
"Like many organizations, MITRE is wrestling with how to make hybrid work effective and seamless and adapting and applying new technologies and lessons learned along the way.
CIO.com's Maryfran Johnson sat down with John Wilson, vice president, CIO and chief security officer at MITRE, to discuss just that..." [CIO, November 27th, 2021]
The pandemic pushed CIOs to the head of the C-suite table. Here's how they can keep that respect and power and create true partnership with their CEO
"The pandemic did for many CIOs what years of career jockeying and C-suite campaigning couldn't: It gave them a spotlight and a microphone.
CIOs can take advantage of the clout they gained during the pandemic and use that to become a strategic partner to the CEO, lead the company on its digital innovation journey and be the company's key technical advisor. Doing this well requires understanding what steps to take.
Here's a look at six of the most important steps CIOs can use to be a strategic business partner to the CEO..." [SearchCIO, November 22nd, 2021]
Some are spending up to 24 extra hours at work every week
"Many Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are stretched to breaking point as a result of the various burdens they shoulder at work.
This is according to a new report from security company Tessian, which says CISOs are missing out on key moments in their personal lives, which could be avoided with the introduction of automation solutions.
Polling 300 CISOs in the US and UK for the report, Tessian found they usually work 11 hours extra per week, with some working an additional 24 hours. The majority (59 percent) also struggle to switch off when the working day is over..." [ITProPortal, November 22nd, 2021]
Everybody has an opinion. The problem is, some opinions simply aren't worth listening to
"Advice is cheap. But unfortunately, many IT leaders end up paying a hefty price for listening to recommendations that turn out to be misleading, self-serving, or simply dead wrong.
Most bad IT advice is dispensed innocently. That's because a misleading suggestion, like a lie, tends to become accepted truth when it's repeated often enough by enough people..." [CIO, November 25th, 2021]
As 2021 comes to a close, many of the uncertainties that shaped the year will persist even in the next year. The cyber security challenges that accompanied the pandemic will be rampant, as hybrid remote workspace have become a way of life
"And through it all, the threat landscape continues to evolve, as innovations in cloud computing and other areas open up new threats - some many unexpected areas.
In its recently released report on cyber security predictions for 2022, security experts (Jeremy Rowley, Avesta Hojjati, Mike Nelson, Jason Sabin, Dean Coclin, Stephen Davidson, Tim Hollebeek and Brian Trzupek) take a closer look at the cyber security trends and predictions for next year and believes that the threat landscape continues to evolve as tech innovation open up new threats..." [CXOtoday.com, November 24th, 2021]
Two in five Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) have missed holidays like Thanksgiving due to work demands, a Tessian report reveals. In addition, one-quarter have not taken time off work in the past 12 months
"In addition to missing national holidays, the report reveals that CISOs work, on average, 11 more hours than they're contracted to each week while one in 10 works 20 to 24 hours extra a week. As a result of their stressful jobs, 59% of CISOs say they struggle to always switch off from work once the working day is over.
Cybersecurity incidents caused by human error drain resources
According to a separate survey, employee-related security incidents take up a significant amount of CISOs' time. It reveals that security teams spend up to 600 hours per month investigating and remediating threats caused by human error - the equivalent of nearly four employees' full-time workloads..." [HelpNet Security, November 24th, 2021]