For CIOs, Freedom means Technology Driven Freedom

A special write up for the 73rd Independence Day of India, written at the cusp of dawn.

As decision makers of our companies, every time we check our mobile phones, we check if our servers are working or not, our core application is working or not. This is the date we fixed for some activity in our company for technology upgradation, application update, test run, trial, etc. I personally feel that this is the day we ought to upgrade our technology. With competition coming from completely unrelated sectors, we as leaders are under immense pressure to not only stay ahead of the competition but also to open up new revenue streams and create some bench marks for cost saving. Almost all enterprises are undertaking Digital Transformation, especially in Real Estate, Banking, Insurance, Pharma, etc.

Overall, it makes the job of IT leaders tough as they have to be constantly prepared for new technology initiatives, upgrades for cyber security, etc. Real Freedom for a technology leader is to enable robust and efficient solutions for clients and industry to manage cyber risk appropriately.

Cyber Security creates lots of Havoc for CIO’s globally, In the world of Information Security, the independence of building holistic solutions is one of the key aspects which gives leaders the liberty to perform at their optimum efficiency and encourages them to keep the doors open to exploring new ideas. CIOs want technology upgrades easily, without any downtime and easy to revert if anything goes wrong with the new updates.

From the business owners’ point of view, they want a seamless transformation of People, Process and Technology. In real world companies want seamless transformation like mobile phone, mobile apps, no training required, no IT person help is required. Here in this world we still want an IT person to connect our Video Conferencing. A seamless transformation of different technology to talk to each one is the need of the hour, this is called real Freedom.

CIOs today need the Freedom to do away with the day-to-day mundane tasks which take lots of energy and time on the part of the top management for simple connectivity of VC, etc. CIOs of 2020 want some automation called RPA, AI, ML, etc. to smooth the complete process on technology, where they can update and upgrade the servers from home. I appreciate some technology on Hyper Converged Infrastructure, where we can upgrade our VM’s from anywhere.

Actual Freedom for CIOs is to be able to save some cost on technology implementation, CIO, CFO relationship. CFO’s believe in technology and some investment in technology.

A Government initiative for storage of data in India is also a good shift towards CIOs acquiring some freedom for storage and controls of data in Indian sub-continent. Government can support organizations by defining appropriate policies and frameworks. A collaboration of Reliance JIO with Microsoft and creation of new data center by Hiranandani Group, called Yotta, is easing the pricing and policy for storage etc in India.

The CIOs’ Digital Revolution and 24/7 work are deeply affecting the way we live, consume, work and interact with one another. Not only do companies have to revamp their operating models and adapt to a changing market environment; CIOs must also upgrade their arsenals and come up with new strategies, tactics and tools that help them build a purposeful digital enterprise, and this is what will give them True Freedom.