PodChats for FutureCIO: Turning cloud complexity into a competitive advantage

The cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS) market consists of standardized, highly automated offerings in which infrastructure resources such as compute, networking, and storage are complemented by integrated platform services (managed application, database, and functions as-a-service offerings).Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 50% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives. Industry cloud platforms enable a shift from generic solutions to platforms designed to fit the specifics of the user’s industry.In the race to the cloud, organisations are discovering for themselves just how 'not simple' things are in the cloud. The near ease at which organisations can now connect to the cloud and acquire the resources they need to run the business also introduced new challenges including security, scalability, compatibility and interoperability, and compliance. And like creatures of habit, businesses want to be able to customise the cloud to suit their business objectives – further introducing complexity and additional costs.In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Matthew Swinbourne, CTO Cloud Architecture for APAC at NetApp, to walk us through we can turn this growing cloud complexity into a competitive advantage1.       How have cloud architectures changed since 2020? What is/are driving this change?2.       When viewed from the perspective of operations and business, is there (among C-suite and operation leaders) an understanding of how this complexity will hit back on the organisation in general? a.       Who is best qualified to lead organisations out of this complexity?3.       What is the role of the CTO?4.       Why should CTOs care about how complex cloud architectures have/are become/becoming?a.       How should CTOs work with CIOs to realise the business goals? 5.       How can the CIO work with business and operations leaders ensure user buy-in and adoption of applications and processes?6.       Drawing from the NetApp study on complexity, what are your recommendations given your role as CTO?7.       How should leadership navigate the web of emerging technologies without losing sight of business goals and objectives?8.       AI – what have we achieved so far?9.       Single pane of glass – are we there yet?