An integration platform is a set of automation tools for connecting applications deployed in different environments. It is not farfetched to imagine that as we move deeper into best-of-breed and multi-cloud, the technologies available to organisations as well as the environments from which to fulfil business needs to grow in complexity. 

To complicate this is COVID-19 which threw a spanner on how organisations plan and execute their strategies in 2020. With no real-end in sight – just a glimmer of hope – for 2021, how should leadership including the CIO move forward?

FutureCIO spoke to Jitesh Ghai, chief product officer, Informatica, to get his opinion on the evolving data integration landscape in Asia.

In the future of work, CIOs will need to consider how technology can sustain a distributed workforce model that reaches beyond the restrictions of a traditional office environment and may be dispersed across geographies.

In today’s podchat for FutureCIO, we have with us Chandra Sinnathamby, Head of Adobe Document Cloud, Asia Pacific, to discuss the results of the recently released Forrester report: How Digital Document Processes Are Shifting From Best Practice To Business Necessity.

Covid-19 revealed just how badly enterprises in Asia are when it comes to security. According to CrowdStrike the highest ransomware payments recorded to date came from Asia.
FutureCIO spoke to Mr Sherif El Nabawi, Vice President, Engineering, Asia-Pacific and Japan, CrowdStrike to better understand the state of the security landscape as more and more enterprises go digital-native.

As we’ve seen, many governments across Asia are turning to data to help manage the impact of COVID-19, from contact tracing to managing safe distancing. With more countries looking to reopen their borders and ramp up economic activity, the need for fast, accurate analytics is critical for delivering timely, and reliable insights to inform policymaking. 
But beyond the pandemic, the role of data analytics will only grow with governments’ ambitions to deliver more efficient and accessible public services for citizens in line with the emergence of technologies such as 5G. How can public sector CIOs design a data architecture that is optimised to deliver intelligent, yet highly personalized services at scale to support a highly-digitalised, resilient society? 
Sunil Chan, vice president - FlashBlade for Asia Pacific & Japan at Pure Storage, talks to FutureCIO on how governments can use data to delight citizen service.

It is the role of the insurance industry to take on the volatility that clients and corporates are unwilling to take. As a rule, the value of insurance rises during times of crises. Consumers tend to buy more insurance when things are bad?
COVID-19 went against this norm mainly because insurers were not ready for the crisis.
Travis Callahan, co-founder and president of Ignatica, talks to FutureCIO on the state of the insurance sector and how the industry can pivot in times of crises.

Indonesia’s Bank Mandiri is taking a data-driven approach towards protecting its customer base, growing as a business, and proving itself a valuable partner to the government in times of need – as in the COVID-19 case.

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, we spoke to Billie Setiawan, head of Enterprise Data Management, Data Analytics Lead; and Grace Winnee, Vice President, Enterprise Data Management, at Bank Mandiri on their rather unique approach to creating a data-driven culture at the bank.

Steven Sim, vice president of ISACA’s Singapore Chapter and Kenny Yeo, Associate Director and Head of Asia Pacific Cyber Security Practice, ICT, Frost & Sullivan, joined FutureCIO for a review of the recently completed joint survey on the State of Cybersecurity in Singapore.

Within the finance function, departments like accounts payables got a renewed sense of urgency to transform following recognition that the pandemic crisis we are experiencing this year may not be a one-off occurrence and there is a need, and an opportunity, to introduce reforms to the way things are done to ensure that future crises will not have as disruptive an impact on overall operations as the one we are having this year.

In today’s Podchats for FutureCFO, we have with us, Marcus Rex, managing director for Asia-Pacific with xSuite, sharing his views on one aspect of finance automation – that of accounts payables.

DevSecOps attempts to bring security into the DevOps methodology by integrating security testing into the continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines. As a practice, DevSecOps is still very nascent in development teams. According to the WhiteHat Security report, 2019 Application Security Statistics Report, an average of more than 50% of apps are always vulnerable for organisations that have not adopted DevSecOps. 

FutureCIO spoke to Gina Smith, research manager at IDC Asia to get her perspective on the state of DevSecOps in the region. 

IDC says rationalization of legacy IT, both applications and infrastructure, is a critical prerequisite for successful IT transformation. 
In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Rijo George Thomas, senior analyst, IDC Asia-Pacific, talks about the application modernisation landscape, including the drivers and inhibitors..