CIO Exchange Podcast

As we’ve known for some time, top developer talent is scarce and continues to see a rise in demand. As a result, tech leaders are increasingly focused on developer productivity and the developer experience, looking for strategies to improve both. One potential solution is platform engineering. 

Rob Hirschfeld is the CEO and Founder of RackN, a leader in physical and hybrid DevOps software. He has been in the cloud and infrastructure space for 20 years and has executive experience at both start-ups and big companies. He has a background in Scale Computing, Mechanical and Systems Engineering, and is an advocate for applying lean and agile processes to software delivery. 

In this episode, Rob dives into platform engineering, explaining how it can support developers and operations teams, improve productivity and enhance the developer experience. He stresses the importance of collaboration between internal teams and thinking critically about how to define productivity. He also outlines the challenges that he is seeing in automation reliability and automation half-life.

Key Quotes:

“What’s happening is, it's not that hard to write code. It's getting even easier with some of the new things that we have, but it's incredibly hard to take that code on a journey all the way into production and to keep it running in production. And that understanding, learning all those pieces having to do with all the work that has to go into building that infrastructure and making that work, that ends up being a tremendous hurdle for developers.”

“If you're looking at productivity as, I delivered a whole bunch of code. It doesn't make any difference. What you actually need to be doing is delivering the right code at the right time.”

“The way I see platform engineering is, it's a service-oriented operations infrastructure that consolidates the operations experiences across multiple disparate development teams. There's people out there who talk about it being an internal product. If you get too focused on a product definition of platform engineering, you miss what we're really doing, which is creating a service oriented approach. Meaning, it's an operations team that is looking at the developers as customers and figuring out how to better serve those internal teams as a shared resource.”

“What we see everywhere in the industry is there is a reliability crisis in automation. Meaning most people don't believe their automation is very reliable….They’re basing it on, when you run your automation, how often does it work? What we find is that a lot of people have under 80 percent automation success.”

Time stamps:

1:00 Development team’s biggest challenges

2:46 Journey from ideation to production

4:46 Impact of improving the developer experience 

11:48 Definition of platform engineering 

13:06 Platform engineering case studies

18:51 Why developers and operations teams need to collaborate 

 24:30 How platform engineering impacts security

27:17 Importance of transparency and stakeholder buy-in

31:59 Automation reliability problems

35:00 Will generative AI improve automation?

This is the first of a series entitled “Customer Zero” where we talk with the member of the VMware IT leadership team who are the first to use the products that our engineering teams produce. Through conversations with IT and engineering, we see how they are leveraging the technology to solve the same hard problems our customers are challenged with. From Multi-cloud complexity and app modernization to the needs of the new workforce, we hear how they are changing IT and the business.

In this episode, we hear from VMware’s VP/Global Head of Engineering Roopa Raj and VP of Product Management, IT and Digital Transformation Satya Jena as they discuss business model transformation—what it is, and how VMware is changing mindsets and meet shifting needs. They talk about the importance of changing the business and not just transforming the technology. We discuss the importance of agility and how to address critical shifts needed in the mindset of the organization.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange

Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon

[Subscribe to the Podcast]

On Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts

For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

It’s difficult to create the right operating model in a post-pandemic work environment. Whether your workforce is remote, hybrid, or in-person, teams need the right structure and security to work efficiently. 

Saket Srivastava is the CIO of Asana, a software company that helps teams orchestrate and organize their work. In this episode, Saket explains the realities of today’s shifting office environment and describes the complexities of delivering the needed tools and experiences to different workforces. He emphasizes the importance of empowering your employee base and creating opportunities to be together, no matter where your team works from. Saket says that, no matter what, your employees need a space to do deep work and have the tools and platforms to help them do it well. 

Multi-Cloud briefing: “Navigate Economic Headwinds with a Cloud-Smart Approach.” 

https://blogs.vmware.com/multi-cloud/2023/03/21/vmware-april-2023-multi-cloud-briefing/   

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Key Quotes:

“Whatever vision you take, whether you decide to go fully remote, whether you try to be a hybrid workforce, or all in-office, you'll never be in a situation where everyone's gonna love the vision. It's not a consensus based vision. But the bigger challenge ends up being when you have not taken the company along in this journey. What are the reasons, the first principles against which you are making a decision on how you want to operate? Everything that follows after that has to support that vision.

“Technology can only take you so far. There's a whole lot of innovation that cropped up even before the pandemic, and obviously through the pandemic. But that human connection is just so important. If you've been in a place where you've kept most of your workforce remote, it's still very important to find opportunities to get people together.”

“As a CIO, what's important to me and my organization is how we create experiences for people where they can do their deep work when they need to do the deep work. And then provide them with tools and platforms to engage with teams and with people in the most productive way.”

“The way I think of security? Security is everyone's problem. Whether you're a security company or not. It's for every employee in the organization to understand that  they have a role to play in making sure that the company is secure.”

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Time stamps:

03:05 The challenge of adapting your workforce model

06:45 Setting up a successful working model

08:40 Keeping human connection strong in a digital world

12:20 Creating a positive employee experience

16:33 Maintaining a secure workforce

19:21 Keeping safe tools in, dangerous tools out

22:15 The value of curiosity

27:10 Having an empathetic conversation with the board

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Links:

GUEST on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saket-srivastava-84069711/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

Today’s technologists have to interpret the industry’s past, present, and future. At Genpact, Sanjay Srivastava uses data strategy and process design to help businesses make a plan and avoid disruption in the future.

As Genpact’s Chief Digital Strategist, Sanjay designs and runs thousands of digitally-enabled processes and services. In this episode of the CIO Exchange, Sanjay discusses the ideal mindset of a technologist, the evolving tech ecosystem, and the value of data. He also gives advice on bringing analytics and plans to the board, so your business is set up for success.

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Key Quotes:

“The reality is all of our businesses today are one great idea away from complete disruption. And so you gotta be really focused on, what is gonna come through tomorrow that is gonna change my industry? That'll disrupt my ecosystem? Or that might take my business model away? And that requires a very different way of thinking.”

“The reality is all of our businesses today are one great idea away from complete disruption, and so you gotta be really focused on what is going to come through tomorrow that is going to change my industry, that'll disrupt my ecosystem, or that might take my business model away. And that requires a very different way of thinking.”

“There needs to be a balance, right? You have to be an inside out person to be really effective at a CXO role in a Fortune 500 company. And by that I mean you need to understand the current business. You need to understand your domain. You need to know your stakeholders. You need to be able to champion large shifts in direction and you know, transformation for across the company. And, if you didn't have the credibility, if you didn't have the internal sort of stakeholder support, you couldn't get there. And, to be able to do all of those things, you need to be an insider.”

“Today, I can tell you that in terms of results, achieved or outcome driven, data driven projects are probably delivering the highest level of value. And the reason they're doing that is, number one, there's an understanding that this is important.  And number two, the toolkit tree that we have has changed.”

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Time stamps:

00:24 How Sanjay became an entrepreneur

05:25 Having a conversation with C Level executives

08:02 Why you should stay on top of emerging trends

10:37 The key to a successful startup

13:55 The role of the technologist

15:18 The ideal team culture

17:20 Having a business-first mindset

20:54 Keeping up with the changing industry

23:27 The evolution of tech tools

25:32 The value of data

37:26 How to speak the language of the board

43:25 Don’t underestimate emerging tech

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Links:

GUEST on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjaysrivastava/
CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, technology, business, AI, board, entrepreneur, AI models, technologist, technology trends, cloud, cloud computing, cloud ecosystem

As supercloud (also referred to as multi-cloud) emerges, tying together disparate environments into a distributed computing paradigm necessitates developer buy-in. In this episode, originally recorded during the January 2023 Supercloud event, theCUBE hosts Dave Vellante & John Furrier sit down with VMware’s Vittorio Viarengo and Sarbjeet Johal, industry influencer and Analyst at StackPayne. In this session they focus on the role of developers in the supercloud buildout and how organizations can align developer and line of business priorities. Also, watch our newest Multi-Cloud Briefing event, Navigate Economic Headwinds with a Cloud-Smart Approach. This Briefing focuses on helping multi-cloud IT organizations succeed in today’s challenging macroeconomic environment–not only to survive the economic storm but to emerge from it in an even stronger position. Multi-Cloud briefing: https://blogs.vmware.com/multi-cloud/2023/03/21/vmware-april-2023-multi-cloud-briefing/

As-a-service models can help companies become more agile, which may provide more choices for digital solutions. Lenovo helps their clients build digital resiliency through application changes, leveraging cloud, and narrowing the IT skill gap.

Yadin speaks with Dale Aultman, VP & GM of Infrastructure Solutions Group Services at Lenovo. Dale has almost 30 years of experience in IT strategy, execution and leadership. She helps Lenovo create as-a-service solutions, smarter technology, and go-to-market maintenance support. In this episode, Dale describes the importance of digital resiliency, the success of as-a-service models, and leveraging hybrid cloud for consistent operation models.

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Key Quotes:

“From an as-a-service model, whether it be cloud or on-prem, you can better align your cost to your needs and use it to help you become more agile… I think that there's some interesting models from a cloud standpoint and from an as-a-service standpoint that can help clients navigate where they need to go and where they need to make some of those transitions from a digitization standpoint.”

“If you want to take advantage of cloud, can your applications be migrated to cloud? There's a lot of legacy infrastructure out there, from even a cloud standpoint. What if you put something on a public cloud and all of a sudden your costs go up to X? These are real things that we've seen in the industry.”

“A lot of clients are trying to align their cost with usage. And be able to leverage the latest technology, but also put their workloads in the right place. So if you think about things from a workload standpoint, that's really the starting point, as far as the needs for different workloads. Some are gonna work great in the public cloud, some of them are gonna be more expensive in the public cloud. So how do you look at a hybrid option to give you the economics of paying as you go? Aligning your cost with your usage and go into more of a hybrid model that allows you to take advantage of public cloud?

“It's not just about hybrid cloud, it's also about digital work for solutions. And then frankly, while as-a-service will grow, it will probably grow faster than traditional IT. We also have a really good business in traditional IT. So it is about providing choice, and then it's about partnering with the industry leaders.”

“I don't think that there's gonna be a one size fits all. I think it is about providing choice. It's gonna be about providing flexibility. And it's gonna be about helping clients fill those skill gaps when they identify that they just need to focus on higher value.”

“CIOs are looking at hybrid cloud. I think there's a good reason for that. They wanna leverage the best of both. Where can they get the most benefit out of public cloud? And when can they get the most benefit of keeping something on-prem?  DevOps may be something that just makes sense to be able to use public cloud for. Developing in a cloud native way helps set clients up for the future. Where can they get the best of both worlds? As well as the security that they need at the right cost point.”

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Time stamps:

01:47 Risks of ignoring digital resiliency

03:44 Success of as-a-service models

04:59 Challenges of becoming more resilient

07:48 What should companies prioritize?

12:56 How IT leaders can enact change

16:09 The skill gap issue

23:44 Leveraging hybrid cloud

25:44 Consistent operational models

28:47 Successfully deploying cloud

30:43 Where to connect with Dale

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Links:

Dale on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daleaultman/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

In this episode, we speak with Steve Lipner, Executive Director of Safe Code, and Karen Worstell, VMWare Cyber Strategist. They discuss the new scale of DevSecOps, secure code, and safely adopting new technologies. 

Karen describes how modern operating environments differ from older ones, and the concerns involved with quickening development cycles. Steve explains the work of his nonprofit, Safe Code, and the importance of integrating security with a development cycle. They also discuss the future of cloud infrastructure and get into the benefits and possible pitfalls of Chat GPT.

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Key Quotes:

Karen 

"What’s really really different? The type of code we're writing has changed. The operating environment that we're pushing it into has changed. And the time cycle has really changed. It's a concern, to be honest. It's a benefit, but it's also something that worries people."

Karen

“The cycle has revved up tremendously and it's changed the way we work. So DevSecOps basically means that you've got this development cycle and then you've got the operations of it on an ongoing basis.”

Steve 

"The role of the security team is to help organize, train, and equip so that the developers have the right processes, the right training. They know what a security bug looks like and why you don't want to have one. And the right equipment, the right tools to tell them when they need to do something differently and what to do about it."

Steve 

"If you want a thousand person security team, then the way to do that is  to do all the audits and all the testing, and all the security reviews and all the compliance after the fact. If you want secure software out there this afternoon, the responsibility for building secure software has to be with the developers.  The role of the security team is to help organize, train, and equip so that the developers have the right processes, the right training."

Karen:

“I think the truth of it is that in the technology world, where we're surrounded by new technology, and we're used to that cycle of new technology evolution and adopting it like early adopters, we can get out over the skis when it comes to the rest of the world…Technical debt is our biggest risk, my opinion.”

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Time stamps:

(02:45) What DevSecOps means

(04:40) Leveraging DevSecOps as a leader

(08:20) The development cycle’s acceleration 

(10:05) Safe Code’s mission

(10:55) Old dev cycles vs. new ones

(12:05) Building a secure development model

(14:50) Difficulties behind a security push

(17:40) Recognizing the importance of security pushes

(19:55) Exploring the move to cloud

(21:00) How the modern world adopts new technology

(24:00) The risks of AI acceleration 

(30:05) Where to connect with Karen and Steve

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Links:

Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-lipner/

Steve’s website: https://www.stevelipner.org/

Steve on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lipner?lang=en

Karen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenworstell/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, IT, information technology, technology, cto, cloud, multi-cloud, security, devops, devsecops, artificial intelligence, machine learning, AI, Chat GPT, development cycles, technology leadership, AI security

Today’s technology environment evolves quickly, but fluency in tech advancements may not be enough. Michael Krigsman has advice for how to keep up. CIOs and technology leaders need to understand the impact of technology on their companies, while also honing business and communication skills.

In this episode, Michael Krigsman, industry analyst and publisher of CXOTalk, describes the changing IT landscape. He tells us why CIOs need to have a deep understanding of technology and a relationship with IT. He gets into the importance of partnerships between the CIO and other C-suite leaders. Michael also describes communicating with the board, how to decipher what they’re seeking from their company, and understanding the needs of business stakeholders.

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Key Quotes:

• “Since you have a sophisticated set of stakeholders who understand technology, it is incumbent on the CIO to identify those spots where IT can really support finance or support marketing beyond being just a service provider for technology integration. The only way to make that happen is for the CIO to really have a deep understanding of the finance needs and then understand and be able to figure out the intersection points.”
• The CIO is continuously asked to innovate, be a driver of innovation, and at the same time keep costs contained, cut costs. This means the CIO needs to be thinking out of the box
• “If the CFO is focused not just on being a bean counter, but really focused on, ‘How do we enable innovation inside the organization from a funding, from an investment standpoint?’ The most innovative CIOs recognize that this innovation piece is essential to the future of the business.”
• “You also have the capability for the CIO to either be a technologist or to be able to transcend the technology and be a business leader. Because they're not the same.
• “If you're a CIO, your stock and trade is understanding the needs of your business stakeholders so that you can serve the company as a whole, not just with technology, but from a business perspective. And so, the hard truth is, if it's beyond your experience and your organization is growing and is vibrant, you better learn, because if you don't, you will devolve into CIO irrelevancy, and that's a bad place to be.”
• “There needs to be a consensus-driven response inside any organization, and we need to be part of that because we need the best minds in the company, the best leaders in the company, to put our heads together and think this through. So, the strategy for the CIO is, yeah, you want to be the hero, but you have to also know when to be a team player.”

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Time stamps:

02:00 The role of CIO as a business leader

04:20 Using IT to support the business

07:30 Getting what we need from technology

09:00 Innovating for the future as CIO

14:45 The secret power of IT

16:45 Developing crucial CIO skills

19:30 How the pandemic shifted the CIO’s reputation

21:00 Creating consensus within your organization

23:00 Preparing for a period of uncertainty

25:00 How to work effectively with boards

28:00 Getting on the same page as stakeholders

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Links:

Michael Krigsman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkrigsman/
CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, technology, business, CFO, leadership

Understanding the use of cloud, its context, and how things are quickly changing is top of mind for many companies today. Safety of information and management of risks are paramount when trying to keep up with the changes, while also making sure to not slow down important and necessary workflows. When it comes to compliance and security, Hillery Hunter has visibility across the challenges and success of some of the largest companies across multiple industries.

In this episode, we interview the GM of Industry Clouds and Solutions and  CTO at IBM Cloud to learn more about storing sensitive data in the cloud. Hillery explains how radical cloud models can work to your advantage, including co-design and approaching compliance as a group. During the discussion, she names some challenges of cloud adoption, then describes how to overcome those barriers. Hillery also describes the best cloud adoption practices she’s seen over the course of her career, and why these transformations are so important to the success of a business. 

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Key Quotes:

“It's not just whether or not somebody has a cloud certification, right? It's the context in which they're doing their work and it's the skills of the CISO organization, it's the skill of the risk management organization, et cetera, in understanding the cloud context and how all those things are changing and have to be measured differently as well.”

“Make sure that public cloud is an appropriate landing place even for the most sensitive data.  It is possible to take this security and compliance and put it into structured programs and ways of protecting things on the cloud. So that all of these inherent barriers to adoption can be overcome.”

“When the metric is too narrow, and placed only on the IT organization for the outcomes of a cloud migration, you miss the opportunity to be talking about end to end value creation… When you're doing that, then everyone understands that the cloud migration and digital transformation is in service of a higher level objective, and it's not just trying to save money on the HR system or something else like that.”

“When you make a public cloud choice, industry cloud contextualizes the requirements of that industry. It includes things like security and compliance, and enables the public cloud to be a safe enough and compliant enough place for you to grab other content that lives there. It also allows you to move your data there and trust that you are still upholding your responsibilities.”

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Time stamps:

2:00 Barriers to cloud adoption

3:00 Managing security and controls

4:50 Cloud migration pitfalls

5:20 Cloud adoption can be transformative

7:30 Committees can lead a successful cloud deployment

9:50 Creating an objective for cloud adoption

11:20 Making the cloud a safe space for data

13:20 Dealing with disruptors

15:15 Exploring what’s available in cloud

17:00 Establishing trust in the industry

19:40 Taking it to the board

20:40 Future opportunities for cloud

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Links:

Hillery Hunter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillery-hunter-97962a14/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, DevOps, Developer, operations, IT, information technology, business, technology, cto, cloud, public cloud, privacy, security, cloud adoption

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange

Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon

 

[Subscribe to the Podcast]

On Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts

For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange

Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon

 

[Subscribe to the Podcast]

On Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts

For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange

Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon

 

[Subscribe to the Podcast]

On Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts

For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon [Subscribe to the Podcast] On Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon [Subscribe to the Podcast] On Apple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

This conversation is part of our Lead/Forward series, where we talk with technology leaders about the real stories behind the themes of innovation, talent, and experience. In this episode, we interview Ginna Raahauge, CIO at Zayo to find out more about the current state and future of the expanding definition of DevOps and what application modernization really means within the new environments the applications are being consumed. She explains how Covid has accelerated the diversification of application use in the office and at home. Ginna delves into the need for enhanced internet speed and bandwidth capabilities, as well as new considerations for implementing security measures earlier in the development process. She also talks about pushing further into the edge, scaling in the cloud, and the trials and tribulations of understanding legacy applications while investing in infrastructure and talent to upskill and modernize for the future. 

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Key Quotes

“When you think about the infrastructure by which the foundation you are deploying your applications, the developers are really having to think about that differently, have more immersive conversations around what that architecture looks like, what the risks in that architecture are, or the assumptions that have really changed in their development aspects of that.”

“Developers are so much more closer to the impact of the experience, whether it's consumer, partner, customer, or even end user inside like an employee experience. And, it just is becoming so much more blended and immersive.”

“We are still going through that transformation of really what is DevOps? We've been trained on the traditional or the more longstanding DevOps methods and agile taxonomy. But, I do think that it's still early given the new environmentals of hybrid and just the pure consumption demand over more wavelength and 5G types of experiences, versus hard line experiences or fiber to the house. Not everybody has that.”

“I think that the definition of DevOps is expanding and getting bigger and we're seeing where those edges are blending, and we have to think about some of those experiences in that and they have to develop differently.”

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Time stamps:

01:15 Shift in Technological Acceleration and Application Performance

04:45 Breaking down Bandwidth

07:30 Developer Redevelopment of Approach

10:15 Evolution and Reskilling of DevOps

14:15 DevSecOps Considerations with User Experience

10:15 Future Developers Understanding Legacy

25:45 Producing New Ideas Without Old Constraints

29:15 DevOps and Cloud

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Links:

Ginna Raahaug on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginna-raahauge-9b4275/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, DevOps, Developer, Developers, ops, operations, IT, information technology, business, technology, cto, devsecops, security, cloud, multi-cloud, hyperscaling, hyperscalers

What’s stopping your business from deploying applications 50% faster to increase market share and boost revenue? For Jeff Shaw, CIO of EMPLOYERS Insurance, it was finding the right place to run the right application with the agility and scalability of the cloud. This meant leveraging not one cloud, but multiple clouds to take advantage of the best tools that each one had to offer while at the same time, managing them as if they were one cloud. In this episode, Jeff is joined by his VP of Cloud Infrastructure Dale Ramsey and together they describe the journey they took to move all their applications off of aging infrastructure, and run them in multiple clouds while ensuring that everything worked together seamlessly. Throughout the conversation, we discuss the real challenges that the business faced when it came to evaluation, training teams, and executing what seemed, at first, to be impossible. During the discussion, Jeff reveals what he considers to be the key elements for successfully taking advantage of all the best tools of each cloud while ensuring that security and customer experience are not compromised. 

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Links:

Jeffrey Shaw's Profile: https://www.employers.com/management-team/jeffrey-shaw

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, DevOps, Multi-Cloud, Cross-Cloud, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, AWS, VMC, Developers, ops, operations, IT, information technology, business 

This conversation is part of our Lead/Forward series, where we talk with technology leaders about the real stories behind the themes of innovation, talent, and experience. In this episode, we interview Tihomir Bajic, CEO of LTSE Software to find out more about the evolution of DevOps, and his vision for overcoming siloed developer, ops and security teams for fast, consistent and scalable operations across environments. He explains the importance of developer lifestyle and flexibility, to ensure they can remain effective while working in a supportive culture while the barriers between teams are removed. During the discussion Tiho expresses what he considers to be newer and better ways of measuring developer productivity. He tells us what he thinks about the developer and operations relationship, shedding light on how best they can integrate and interact to be influential on productivity, progress, and profitability. Tiho also delves into how LTSE is innovating investment, experimentation, and scaling for companies, in an effort to help them find continuous success.

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Key Quotes:

“If you are a technology company, you're focusing your innovation on technology. One of the most important things that you can think about is speed of development, and how fast you can get new products or changes out in the market, into the hands of the customers. And, what matters there is the people who are creating that code, who are creating that content; their ability to do so quickly, their ability to do so reliably and to be able to troubleshoot, test, engage, and monitor how the customers are working with what's out there.”

“Software, writing code, it's a craft. You develop your own jargon, and you need to engage with people who are creating, who are craft people, who are creating this valuable thing. You need to really study and understand and appreciate what they do and what's needed for them to be successful in that craft.”

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Time stamps:

01:30 Importance of the Developer Experience

04:00 Evolution of the Developer Lifestyle

11:30 Building Companies that Support Developer Lifestyle and Culture 

17:30 The DevOps Relationship, Culture, and Working Environment

24:00 Budget Authority and Responsibility

25:15 Innovation at LTSE

30:15 Developer Flexibility and Success

34:00 Developer Value

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Links:

Tihomir Bajic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tihomirbajic/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, DevOps, Developer, Developers, ops, operations, IT, information technology, business, technology, cto, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, investment

This conversation is part of our Lead/Forward series, where we talk with technology leaders about the real stories behind the themes of innovation, talent, and experience. In this episode, we interview Ashish Kakran, Principle of Thomvest Ventures to find out how his organization nurtures the future of technology and advancement by investing in companies to help them become leaders in their fields. During the discussion we tackle the technology challenges related to multi-cloud, including infrastructure, security in DevOps, and continually scaling workloads. We delve into how covid played a big role in speeding up the digital transformation, and how CSOs and CIOs are working to enable innovation without inhibiting applications or compromising their companies.

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Time stamps:

01:00 Convergence of Security

05:15 View of the Market as an Investor

07:51 Multi-cloud Expansion and Usage

12:00 Multi-cloud logistics and security

15:30 Future dominance and structure of multi-cloud

18:00 AI and ML Impact on Customer Experience

23:00 Impact of Culture, Team Structure, and Tech on Customers

30:00 CIO and CSO Realignment Reservations

32:00 Transform or Die

34:00 CSOs with a Seat at the Table

36:00 Security Economics

37:00 What Companies are Doing Right and Wrong

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Links:

Ashish Kakran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kakran/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, IT, information technology, business, technology, cto, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, investment, cloud, multi-cloud, security, devops, devsecops, artificial intelligence, machine learning

Nowadays, technology is a crucial part of every company. Technology leaders need to be capable of more than just supporting their business, they need to be able to help drive it. Heller Search is an executive search firm that places technology leaders in the right opportunity for them, nationwide, and across all industries. 

In this episode we speak with Martha Heller, CEO at Heller Search Associates, to find out how her team excels at navigating the IT talent market while engaging with high level of candidates. Martha explains why working in executive search is so fascinating because she learns so much by engaging with different business models, cultures, and candidates. She sheds light on how the pandemic has changed the rules for recruiters and clients, including what companies have to do now to retain top talent. Martha describes what is required of technology leaders to be impactful, how they need to look at their career development, and how roles in technology are shifting.

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Key Quotes:

“If we are all in a company whose products and services are more and more dependent on software and on data, and we all are, that means we all need to be a little bit IT, a little bit data, a little bit business. We all have to be these cyborgs who can be our own data analysts, who can be our own technologists. So the dramatic shift that I'm seeing is CIOs recognizing that they need to get out of the business of delivering data and software unto their users who then consume it and they need to design an organization that democratizes IT and democratizes data.” - Martha Heller

“For a CIO to be considered a highly qualified candidate, they need to be a really good communicator. They need to demonstrate that they're not an order taker, executing on somebody else's strategy that they themselves are strategic thinkers, but it's not my way or the highway. They're really good collaborators, so that business partnership relationship piece is extremely important. They understand how to run a high performing IT organization, and they can prove that through metrics. That's what companies are looking for.” - Martha Heller

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Time stamps:

01:15 Approach to Executive Recruiting

04:45 Difference Between Prospects and Clients

07:45 Approach to Candidate Market

11:15 Impact of the Pandemic on Retention and Recruiting

13:45 Shifts in Technology Roles

17:45 Approaching Problems from a Technology Perspective

23:15 Eliminating the Distinction between Inside and Outside of IT

26:45 How Technology Leaders Should Look at their Careers

28:45 How to have an Impact as a CIO

35:15 Best Ways to use a Recruiter

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Links:

Martha Heller on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthaheller/
CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

Illuminate Ventures focuses on finding, funding, and accelerating great founders in the B2B, Enterprise cloud, and mobile computing spaces - BUT, without a crystal ball into the future, how do they determine what are the right trends and technologies to back? In this episode, I speak with Cindy Padnos, Founder and Managing partner at Illuminate Ventures, to find out how they’re leveraging data to make the best investing decisions.

From artificial intelligence and machine learning to hybrid cloud and human capital, we go over all the tools that go into building a platform that excels at serving customers and setting companies up for success. Cindy delves into how these can help siphon through the overlays of technologies and tailwinds to determine what is really needed in the market, what are the next best great ideas, and help identify which companies are most likely to prosper.  

 

Cindy Padnos on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindypadnos/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange

Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

[Subscribe to the Podcast] 

On Apple Podcast: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907 

For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to 

https://www.vmware.com/cio