Are you even built to disrupt? (2 min read)

What your network security architecture says about the state of your ’digital transformation’

And then the new CIO, hired after months of interviewing candidates with just the right background, just the right energy, and just the right amount of ‘shake-things-upness,’ said on the technology all-hands:

While the procurement team cheered, the remaining tech talent opened LinkedIn and began updating their profiles.

The cloud is the new center of data

It seems laughable to the generation of technology leaders who started their careers and ‘grew-up’ in the cloud to even consider building out in the hub-and-spoke, data center model of yesteryear. As our SVP of Product likes to say, “Data centers are for boomers.”

The new center of data is the cloud.

When a development leader or operations manager can spin-up production-ready AWS or Azure environments in minutes, why the heck would they even think about a data center?

Unfortunately, not every CIO is able to start from scratch and go all-in on the cloud. He or she often inherits a legacy infrastructure that was built for a different decade. Cloud native is simply not yet a luxury afforded the enterprise CIO for a company that’s been around for 20 years. The key word here is ‘yet’.

While the phrase ‘digital transformation’ has become such a buzz-wordy expression, change is absolutely happening. And the CIOs that are changing the fastest and driving a different way for IT to lead the business are the ones that understand that the cloud is absolutely the future … for almost everything. The more parts of the business that run in the cloud and the quicker they can get there, the faster the CIO can become an agent of change for the business, not just an enabler of the technology.

Up next: The leading indicators of CIOs who are truly transforming the business.

About the author

Sean Kaine

Sean researches and writes about networking and cybersecurity services and trends for Aryaka. With more than 15 years’ experience leading product and marketing teams for b2b enterprises, Sean brings a diverse background across networking and security services. Prior to joining Aryaka, Sean led teams at Motorola Solutions, Neustar, Network Solutions, and Verisign. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife, two sons, and overly anxious pug, Gus.