CIO Exchange Podcast

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

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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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“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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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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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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“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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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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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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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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“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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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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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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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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(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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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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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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• “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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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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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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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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“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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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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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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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