Digital Transformation

CIO Strategy / Digital Transformation / IT Governance / IT Leadership / IT Security / IT Staff Retention / IT Strategy — Comments Off
10
Oct 18

CIO.com – Making IT processes effective for the digital age

Does how IT runs itself matter to their firm’s digital transformation plan?

I have spent a lot of time in the #CIOChat discussing digital transformation. But can the IT organizational design and IT internal business processes impede digital transformation? Can IT, itself, become an obstacle to responding to the waves of digital disruption that are coming? This is the question that I recently asked CIOs.

Do IT processes get in the way?
CIOs say that poor processes and organizational misalignment can get in the way. They say both represent barriers to success when transformational work is built upon them. This, of course, is frequently the case and may explain why so many digital transformations fail.

More of the CIO.com article from Myles F Suer

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09
Oct 18

ZDNet – Five ways to talk about tech, without switching people off

Talking about why tech matters can be hard. Here are some tips on getting your message across.

From engineers to chief execs, from top suppliers to the smallest customers, the ability of a tech managers to speak clearly about their aims and challenges can often be key to the success of a technology strategy. So, how can CIOs improve how they communicate? Five digital leaders give their best-practice tips.

1. BUILD A CULTURAL AWARENESS OF DIGITAL CHANGE
Julie Dodd, director of digital transformation and communication at charity Parkinson’s UK, says everyone across the business must understand that successful IT-led change is about more than simply buying the right kit. Instead, transformation requires a cultural change and an awareness of how technology can be used to help the business meets its objectives quicker.

More of the ZDNet article from Mark Samuels

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08
Oct 18

InformationWeek – DevOps: From a Business and Executive Perspective

Some of the roadblocks to a successful DevOps initiative have nothing to do with technology or the IT group. Business unit leaders and executives have to get involved in the initiative as well.

Creating an environment that is capable of shifting and adapting to market demands isn’t always easy. Remember, the major goal here is to develop agility around both business and technology. DevOps is certainly a method to accomplish this task. I mentioned this in my “DevOps 101” article, but it’s worth repeating. The concept of DevOps isn’t just a single tool or platform. Rather, it truly is a shift in thinking in how you deliver services, applications, and even business capabilities into a digital market. In some ways, it’s the engine around digital transformations.

More of the InformationWeek post from Bill Kleyman

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02
Oct 18

CIO.com – Why IT-business alignment still fails

With the push for digital transformation, relations between business and IT seemed to be improving, then they took a left turn. Here’s what’s worth addressing to improve alignment in your organization.

Do your company’s IT leaders and top business executives have the same understanding of IT’s role within the organization? Back in 2012, researchers at Capgemini asked this question of more than 1,300 senior executives. Sixty-five percent of them answered yes.

Perhaps a number closer to 100 percent would have been ideal, but the fact that nearly two thirds of companies surveyed believed business and IT were on the same page was very good news. It represented enormous and hard-won progress from the bad old days when business executives saw technology professionals as pointy-headed geeks, and technology professionals saw business executives as soulless and money-obsessed.

More of the CIO.com post from Minda Zetlin

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28
Sep 18

CIO.com – 8 CIO archetypes: What kind of IT leader are you?

From order taker to business leader, CIO responsibilities vary widely. Learn what role you currently play and how to break that mold in service of improved business value and career growth.

Global business disruption is quickening the evolutionary timeline of the CIO role. Market dynamicsare forcing IT leaders to extend beyond taking orders and delivering sustainable IT systems to massaging digital strategies and driving business outcomes.

More of the CIO.com slideshow from Clint Bouton

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26
Sep 18

CIO.com – Agility and architecture

Agile practices are still maturing. To scale, they require an enterprise and business architecture framework in their organizations.

I seriously doubt that agile initiatives can have success in the long run if they are not supported by an enterprise and business architecture framework that can be reused and enhanced from one project to the next. Digital transformation is not about a one-time change project or about spontaneous business activities. Digitization is more about transforming many dimensions of an organization with a structured approach involving business and enterprise architecture. This article will demonstrate how architecture can ensure success of agile digital transformation initiatives.

Agile practices in organizations

Agile practices are increasingly used for the digitization of today’s organizations because business environment demands sound decision making and quick follow through to address global competition treats and rapid market disturbances. According to a 2018 survey entitled How Agile and DevOps Enable Digital Readiness and Transformation, about 80% of surveyed organizations have committed to adopting agile practices in their software development.

More of the CIO.com article from Daniel Lambert

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24
Sep 18

Forrester – Beyond Moore’s Law: How Exponential Technology Will Drive Disruption

I’ve been thinking a lot about exponential technology and asking myself: “Is disruptive change due to ‘Moore’s Law’ done?” Newsweek recently proclaimed, “The Future Is Uncertain As Moore’s Law Comes To An End.” However, while most experts agree that silicon transistors will stop shrinking around 2021, this doesn’t mean Moore’s Law is dead in spirit — even though, technically, it might be.

Chip makers have to find another way to increase power. For example, there are Germanium and III-V technologies — and, at some point, carbon Nano-tubes — that provide new ways of increasing power. There is also “gate-all-around” transistor design, extreme-ultraviolet and self-directed assembly techniques, and so on. But how will more powerful CPUs drive future disruptions? I don’t know for sure, but I suspect not as much as other exponential trends and the technologies that exploit them. Here is what I’m thinking:

More of the Forrester blog post from Brian Hopkins

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23
Jul 18

Cloud Computing News – The data centre of tomorrow: How the cloud impacts on data centre architectures

Enterprises that are not efficient in how they manage their infrastructure will be at a perpetual competitive disadvantage to those companies that have adopted cloud practices to drive their business.

As the enterprise world continues speeding towards complete digitization, technologies like cloud and multi-cloud are leading the charge. Yes, cloud offerings like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are changing the way enterprises consume IT resources. Having cloud-grade infrastructure at an enterprise’s fingertips opens up opportunities that simply did not exist before.

But are the effects of cloud limited to a collection of somewhat ephemeral infrastructure residing in someone else’s data centre? Or does cloud carry with it the power to change owned infrastructure as well?

More of the Cloud Computing News post from Mike Bushong

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04
Jun 18

InfoWorld – When being cloud-native is a bad idea

Although being pushed as the end game for most cloud-based applications, there are trade-offs to consider.

It’s good to be cloud-native, or at least that’s what everyone is telling you. The idea is that you refactor (meaning partially recode) your applications to take advantage of the native features of the host cloud, such as its native APIs, storage systems, database systems, or security systems, depending on what that host cloud services offers.

The promise you’re being given is that being cloud-native will provide enhanced performance, lower operational costs for your applications, easier operations, and a bunch of other benefits as the cloud platform improves over time.

More of the InfoWorld article from David Linthicum

Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.