08
Jul 16

CIO Dashboard – A CIO’s Guide for Engaging the Board

Guest post by Paula Loop, Leader of PwC’s Governance Insights Center

New technologies from artificial intelligence and drones to 3-D printing, predictive analytics, and driverless cars are disrupting how companies compete and create value. US CEOs believe investing in technology is the most direct path to meaningful innovation and operational efficiency, but these new technologies are generating risks that Boards are scrambling to contain.

The average age of a director at a public company is 63 years old. The majority of public company directors aren’t sitting executives who work through technological advancements in their day jobs. Given the pace of technological change, how can boards really be on top of their game?

Directors recognize their dilemma. Nearly one-third of directors polled in our 2015 Annual Corporate Directors Survey say their board isn’t sufficiently or at all engaged in overseeing/understanding the company’s annual IT budget. Similarly, 33% say the company’s approach to IT strategy and risk mitigation doesn’t anticipate potential advantages from emerging technologies.

What’s the solution? Should we swap all sitting directors with millennials and the technologically savvy? Or should we push companies to prioritize IT awareness and devote elements of board meetings to IT education? The answer lies somewhere in between.

More of the CIO Dashboard article from Chris Curran


07
Jul 16

FastCompany – Why Even The C-Suite Might Not Be Safe From Automation

Algorithms are already outperforming execs in key C-level tasks at a time when anti-hierarchical headwinds are blowing stronger.

In 2013, two University of Oxford professors published a study analyzing 702 different occupations. Of those, they determined that the role of chief executive fell within the 10% they deemed “not computerizable.”

There’s reason to think twice about that. Here’s why.

ANTI-HIERARCHICAL HEADWINDS
Broadly speaking, the push toward democratization is arguably one of the most potent social, technological, and economic forces today—one of the few, in fact, that runs powerfully through each of those fields. And while the motives and manifestations of this trend necessarily vary, examples abound.

Consider, for example, 42, a tuition-free coding school originating in France and now in Silicon Valley. 42 is essentially a university without instructors where students learn through what the founder calls “collaborative education.” Then there’s the U.S. Army’s recent science and technology Futures Project, “aimed at leveraging the collective wisdom and ability of the American public,” to help influence how the Army will use research and development investments to prepare defense forces for the world of 2040.

In 2013, two University of Oxford professors published a study analyzing 702 different occupations. Of those, they determined that the role of chief executive fell within the 10% they deemed “not computerizable.” There’s reason to think twice about that. Here’s why. ANTI-HIERARCHICAL HEADWINDS Broadly speaking, the push toward democratization is arguably one of the most potent social, technological, and economic forces today—one of the few, in fact, that runs powerfully through each of those fields. And while the motives and manifestations of this trend necessarily vary, examples abound. Consider, for example, 42, a tuition-free coding school originating in France and now in Silicon Valley. 42 is essentially a university without instructors where students learn through what the founder calls “collaborative education.” Then there’s the U.S. Army’s recent science and technology Futures Project, “aimed at leveraging the collective wisdom and ability of the American public,” to help influence how the Army will use research and development investments to prepare defense forces for the world of 2040.”

In 2013, two University of Oxford professors published a study analyzing 702 different occupations. Of those, they determined that the role of chief executive fell within the 10% they deemed “not computerizable.” There’s reason to think twice about that. Here’s why. ANTI-HIERARCHICAL HEADWINDS Broadly speaking, the push toward democratization is arguably one of the most potent social, technological, and economic forces today—one of the few, in fact, that runs powerfully through each of those fields. And while the motives and manifestations of this trend necessarily vary, examples abound. Consider, for example, 42, a tuition-free coding school originating in France and now in Silicon Valley. 42 is essentially a university without instructors where students learn through what the founder calls “collaborative education.” Then there’s the U.S. Army’s recent science and technology Futures Project, “aimed at leveraging the collective wisdom and ability of the American public,” to help influence how the Army will use research and development investments to prepare defense forces for the world of 2040.”

More of the FastCompany article from Liz Alexander


06
Jul 16

CIOInsight – The Heavy Cost of System Downtime

IT system outages have emerged as fairly routine issues for companies today—and the resulting downtime amounts to a five-figure financial hit every day, according to recent research from CloudEndure. The resulting “2016 Disaster Recovery Survey” report reveals that while the majority of IT professionals say they’ve set service availability goals of 99.9% (a.k.a., the industry standard “three nines” mark), far fewer say they’re capable of achieving this “most of the time.” As for the culprits? Either human error or network failures are usually to blame, not to mention app bugs, storage failures and (of course) the ever-troublesome hacker. Disaster recovery solutions would help. However, only a minority of businesses use disaster recovery for the majority of their servers.

More of the CIO Insight slideshow from Dennis McCafferty


05
Jul 16

SearchDataCenter – IT lifecycle management drives smarter refresh decisions

Here’s a nice look at the PC refresh model from a business perspective.

IT teams need to strike a balance between keeping up with the latest technology and being cost-effective. Proper IT lifecycle management techniques can help.

IT is a highly dynamic environment, with new products constantly coming to market. For organizations that want to have the best of everything, they must chase the market and accept the high cost of continuously replacing or updating their IT systems. Having the most up-to-date platform all the time doesn’t always work from a cost-benefit standpoint.

The majority of organizations follow one of two IT lifecycle management models for equipment refreshes. In the first model, organizations view equipment as having a nominal lifespan, and then replace it. If the piece of equipment fails during its lifespan, they either replace it with a similar specification to avoid retro-testing existing workloads against a new infrastructure or with a newer, more powerful and energy-efficient system.

More of the SearchDataCenter article from Clive Longbottom


30
Jun 16

Baseline – IT Struggles to Meet Network Capacity Demands

An insatiable need for access to data and digital technologies is causing organizations to expand their network capacity to staggeringly high levels, according to a recent survey from Viavi Solutions. The resulting “Ninth Annual State of the Network Global Study” indicates that most companies will soon be running the majority of their apps in the cloud, seeking to lower expenses while provisioning network resources more effectively. In addition, most enterprises are deploying some form of software-defined networking (SDN). At the same time, they’re investing in state-of-the art unified communications (UC) tools, including VoIP and Web collaboration apps—all of which are contributing to a need for more bandwidth. “Data networks of all types around the globe are being strained by an explosion of traffic, from bandwidth-hungry video today to the Internet of things tomorrow,” said Oleg Khaykin, president and CEO at Viavi Solutions.

More of the Baseline slideshow from Dennis McCafferty


29
Jun 16

HBR – How to Navigate a Digital Transformation

Here’s a simple approach from the Harvard Business Review to get started on improving your organization via digital.

An organization is essentially the sum total of its physical, financial, human, intellectual, and relationship capital. Different industries and different business models have always maintained different percentages of these asset types. Manufacturers invest most of their capital into physical assets, while high-tech firms invest in R&D to create new intellectual capital. But all assets are not created equal, especially as the technological landscape changes.

In today’s market, tech platforms enable IP and relationships to scale rapidly, and at near-zero cost. This is the phenomenon that has led to exciting platform businesses like Facebook, LinkedIn, Match.com, Uber, and Airbnb. Even when these firms rely on physical assets, like cars for Uber, they own the technology, not the physical asset. Meanwhile, the laggards continue to spend their time and money on assets that do not scale so easily — physical goods (such as manufacturing plants or inventory) and human capital (such as highly trained employees that deliver services). Digital transformation requires that companies reallocate their asset portfolio to support new, digitally enabled business models.

There’s no question why legacy organizations are tackling digital transformation now. Digital native upstarts are gutting traditional industries one at a time, leveraging scalable technology and participative networks. But shifting a firm’s asset portfolio is a lengthy process and is fraught with uncertainty for leaders comfortable with older asset types.

More of the Harvard Business Review article from By Yoram (Jerry) Wind, Barry Libert, and Megan Beck


28
Jun 16

Are you mistaking a business decision for a technology decision?

For the past ten years, I’ve been talking to CIOs, CTOs and business leadership about the role technology plays in making their organizations better. And while the conversations have become more business-centric, I’m still surprised at how many times we mistake business decisions for technology decisions.

This problem is understandable; information technology is complex, and today there are 20 ways to solve a problem with technology in contrast to two or three ways to solve the same problem ten years ago. So why do we mistake virtualization for business agility, disaster recovery for risk mitigation, and leasing or other financing options for cost control?

I think it’s because many IT leaders came up through the ranks as problem solvers. We’re ready to throw out solutions before we hear the whole story. The YouTube video “It’s Not About the Nail” is a fun example of this behavior.

But technology solutions don’t address all business problems. Try to solve the problem of attracting and retaining high end infrastructure talent with software and see what happens. Implementing cloud infrastructure without considering the risks associated with the provider can end in disaster. A perfectly implemented disaster recovery scenario can sink a business if the the most critical business data is not being protected.

The simplest way to stay on track is to map all technology decisions to clear non-technical business requirements like:
• Agility
• Speed of Delivery/Time to Market
• Innovation
• Cost Control
• Availability
• Risk Mitigation
• Business Productivity/Efficiency
If you can’t map the technology to a clear business requirement, drop it.

Then ask yourself what parts of the business requirements remain unaddressed, even with the technology. Chances are, people and process issues will still need to be considered and addressed, and these are often much bigger issues that what the technology can solve.

How are the most successful companies addressing business requirements? Contact me.


24
Jun 16

Fast Company – How Giving Up TV For A Month Changed My Brain And My Life

I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, I don’t know what the Scandal is, and I couldn’t name a single “real” housewife. I thought I didn’t watch much television and that taking a 30-day break would be a piece of cake. I was wrong.

The average adult watches 2.8 hours per day of television, according to the American Time Use survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another study puts this number higher, at four hours and 15 minutes each day. I added up all of the viewing at my house, and we were definitely on the high side.

-A one-hour standing date with Judge Judy, marking the official end of my workday
-An hour of news
-Thirty minutes of Jeopardy (because it’s educational)
-And an hour-plus of mindless shows before bed

Nielsen, we have a problem.

THE DANGERS OF TV
A lot of research has been done around TV viewing and children, and Adam Lipson, a neurosurgeon with IGEA Brain & Spine, says one of the best studies is from Tohoku University in Japan. “They noted thickening of the frontopolar cortex, which is related to verbal reasoning ability, and also correlated with a drop in IQ in proportion to the number of hours of television watching,” he says. “In addition, they noted thickening in the visual cortex in the occipital lobe, and in the hypothalamus, which may correlate with aggression.”

More of the Fast Company article from Sephanie Vozza


23
Jun 16

HBR – Every Fast-Growing Company Has to Combat Overload

It feels horrible: You’re scaling up aggressively and working harder than ever, but with each passing day you feel more overwhelmed. Your business is a success, but you feel like a failure. You used to be able to track everything with an Excel spreadsheet, personally designed by your CFO; now you’ve got an SAP installation in its place, supported by an entire IT department. You and your founding team used to feel like members of the same small tribe; now you’re working with unfamiliar layers of staff hired from companies whose culture is not like yours. You used to know your key customers by their first names; now you know them only as averages on PowerPoint slides. Every employee used to know what made your mission special; now most of them don’t. Things are spinning out of control, and you don’t know what to do.

What’s going on? You’ve hit overload—the internal dysfunction and loss of external momentum that strikes young, fast-growing companies as they try to rapidly scale their businesses. Overload is one of the three predictable crises that companies experience as they grow. With overload everyone in the company becomes stretched and loses the focus on the customer. A helpful image to keep in mind here is that of a plate spinner. As the spinner sets more and more plates in motion (growth), he obviously has to keep them in motion. This gets harder and harder, especially if he hasn’t prepared adequately for the challenges involved. Soon what once was a satisfying process becomes a deeply troubling and threatening one (overload): plates start to wobble, and the spinner has to scramble ever faster to keep them all in motion. His mission has changed. He’s no longer thinking about serving and delighting his audience (customers). He’s just trying to manage the chaos and avoid catastrophe.

More of the Harvard Business Review post from Chris Zook


21
Jun 16

Data Center Knowledge – FedRAMP’s Lack of Transparency Irks Government IT Decision Makers

Four out of five federal cloud decision makers are frustrated with FedRAMP, according to a new report from government IT public-private partnership MeriTalk. Federal IT professionals said they are frustrated with a lack of transparency into the process.

MeriTalk surveyed 150 Federal IT decision makers in April for the FedRAMP Fault Lines report, and found that 65 percent of respondents at defense agencies, and 55 percent overall, do not believe that FedRAMP has increased security. Perhaps even worse, 41 percent are unfamiliar with the General Service Administration’s (GSA) plans to fix FedRAMP. The GSA announced FedRAMP Accelerated in March.

“Despite efforts to improve, FedRAMP remains cracked at the foundation,” said MeriTalk founder Steve O’Keeffe. “We need a FedRAMP fix – the PMO must improve guidance, simplify the process, and increase transparency.”

More of the Data Center Knowledge article from Chris Burt