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CIOs and other digital leaders play a critical role in shaping the future of their organizations. Now more than ever, future-proofing the business requires developing a robust pipeline of IT leaders prepared to step up as the next generation of strategic partners and innovation anticipators.

A number of nonprofits are working to help prepare these emerging leaders for the next phases in their career journeys, providing the connections, education, mentorship, and professional support they need to move up into executive and C-suite roles. Through the Tech4Good initiative we launched in conjunction with the Tech Whisperers podcast, I’ve had the opportunity to see firsthand the impact these nonprofits are having on the technology leadership community, the individual leaders themselves, and their organizations.

Each podcast guest is invited to designate a nonprofit to receive a scholarship for one of its members to participate in TechLX, Ouellette & Associates’ 9-month, cohort-based IT leadership development program. To date, we’ve committed more than $400,000 in scholarships to a variety of nonprofits, including Girls Who Code, NPower, YearUp, and T200, that have been repeat recipients, a testament to the great work they’re doing.

“T200 was founded with a bold vision: to unite and elevate at least 200 women C-level technology executives from large-cap companies,” says Mamatha Chamarthi, co-founder and chair of T200 and chief digital officer at Goodyear. “Achieving that goal only reinforced a deeper challenge — the urgent need to strengthen the pipeline of women rising into executive leadership roles.”

To help address this, T200Lift was launched in 2021, expanding the mission beyond the C-suite to support women at all leadership levels, particularly those aspiring to their first C-level role.

“T200Lift is about fostering growth through mentorship, networking, and professional development — creating an ecosystem where women in technology can learn, connect, and accelerate their paths to leadership,” Chamarthi explains. “By building a stronger, more inclusive leadership pipeline, we are not only advancing individual careers but also shaping the future of technology leadership as a whole.”

I recently had a chance to catch up with four remarkable women who participated in the TechLX program through scholarships designated for T200: Lavanya Bobba, product owner at The Hartford; Gela Guiuo, digital and ecommerce program leader at Abbott; Emily (Pineiro) Hurff, vulnerability management service lead and senior manager at Zoetis; and Corrine Ptacek, SMO-ITSM catalog service manager at McDonald’s. They discussed their leadership aspirations and how connecting with nonprofits and gaining training opportunities have impacted their career journeys.

The T200: Empowering women in tech

Over decades of working with technology leaders, I’ve found that the most successful ones embody the notion of “leader as learner.” No matter their tenure or position, they are driven by a conviction that there’s always more to learn. Each of these women are terrific examples of that continual learning mindset, which has fueled their developmental paths and led them to T200.

Hurff says she was inspired to join in part by the passion and enthusiasm of co-founder Wafaa Mamilli, who was an executive at Zoetis at the time, and by the organization’s mission of advancing women in technology. The impact on her personal and professional journey has been profound. “Being a part of the organization has been transformative for me,” she says. “It showed me that my goals are achievable, and that I have this network of support to learn and connect with.”

Bobba, who was introduced to the organization by one of her mentors at The Hartford, says she was drawn to the organization’s motto, “We are better together.” Having been with The Hartford for 11 years, she has found immense value in connecting with leaders and mentors outside the organization to help broaden her perspectives.

Lavanya Bobba

Lavanya Bobba, product owner, The Hartford

The Hartford

“What I love about them is that they have programs that are relevant to women that are looking to move up,” says Ptacek, who adds that, through learning opportunities and conferences, “they really are pushing where we should go as far as what’s next in technology. It’s also reinforcing the importance of always being curious and helping and mentoring one another.”

That reciprocal relationship is another key value of T200 and other nonprofit and volunteer experiences, and it’s one that can create many positive ripple effects. As Guiuo observes, giving back “fosters empathy, broadens our perspectives, and strengthens leadership skills in ways that traditional business environments don’t always offer. Being intentional about service helps us grow — not just as leaders, but as people.”

Learning from industry trailblazers and trusted networks

These women are also drawing inspiration from the leaders they work with and admire on a daily basis. Bobba praises Deepa Soni, The Hartford’s chief information and operations officer, as a visionary and a role model. “It’s incredible how she pushes herself outside her comfort zone and is open to continuous learning.”

Guiuo describes working under the leadership of Abbott SVP and CIO Sabina Ewing as “a masterclass in what it means to be a forward-thinking, people-first CIO,” adding that Ewing “has a rare ability to balance strategic vision with a deep understanding of people, ensuring that leadership is not just about technology, but about creating lasting impact.”

Gela Guiuo stylized

Gela Guiuo, digital and ecommerce program leader, Abbott

Abbott

Among other things, Hurff has learned from Mamilli not to sell herself short. “I never had ‘CIO’ on my list as a leadership goal until Wafaa said, ‘Why only CISO? Why stop there?’” That conversation spurred Hurff to meet with Zoetis EVP and Chief Digital and Technology Officer Keith Sarbaugh to learn more about the role and consider all the potential paths she might pursue.

Regardless of where that path ultimately takes her, she is seeing firsthand the kind of leader she wants to be. “I don’t want to go to work every day feeling like I’m putting this fake persona on. I want to be authentic. Working for people like Kristin [Peck, CEO of Zoetis] and all the other wonderful women leaders we have has made me realize how genuinely authentic and comfortable they are. It makes me believe that my goals are possible.”

Growing into the leader you aspire to become takes a healthy dose of self-awareness. Through the T200 community and as part of the TechLX experience, these women have had the opportunity to identify and build proficiency in critical core IT leadership competencies and connect with peers and mentors to build their confidence and chart their course.

True to her leader-as-learner mentality, when Ptacek reflects on the “Leader Amongst Leaders” award she was presented by her peers in the TechLX, she says it’s also pushed her to think about what areas she should be working on. “I’m always asking people, what can I improve on? Now I’m also asking, what are my strengths? Where do you see that I’m really leaning in?”

She has also taken to heart some key lessons from the training sessions. “Something one of the facilitators said really had an impact on how I’m approaching my projects: If you don’t like the initiative, just get it done and don’t take things personally. I think part of being a leader, and I see that with [McDonald’s CIO] Whitney McGuiness, is having a positive attitude: Let’s just keep moving forward.”

The women also noted that having an external network through the peer connections components of TechLX has provided value both in their current positions and their ongoing development. Ptacek, who says her peer group cohort still meets weekly, likens it to a “board of directors outside of your company circle. We talk about leadership topics and work through different issues and get the chance to learn what different industries are doing.”

Corrine Ptacek

Corrine Ptacek, SMO-ITSM catalog service manager, McDonald’s

McDonald’s

Bobba, whose sub-cohort peer group also continues to meet, says it’s been extremely beneficial to discuss how to solve problems in real-time, particularly for someone who’s been at their organization for a long time and typically only sees her own organization’s point of view.

Even for a self-professed introvert, Guiuo says the connections are a powerful step in growing into the leader you want to be. 

“I’ve learned that some of my biggest career breakthroughs, insights, and opportunities didn’t come from what I knew but from who I knew and who I learned from,” she shares. “Engaging with peers beyond my company has helped me see challenges from different perspectives, exchange ideas, and even find solutions I never would have considered alone.”

As Hurff says, “The world is way too complex. There is simply too much for any one person to know or do by yourself. Strong leaders have to build those communities of peers, of mentors, of teams that strengthen their own capabilities and also enable that ability to collectively grow and innovate the industry in a way that brings everyone with you.”

Emily (Pineiro) Hurff

Emily (Pineiro) Hurff, vulnerability management service lead and senior manager, Zoetis

Zoetis

Charting the course for next-gen tech leadership 

IT is constantly evolving, and roles are expanding to suit. The era of AI is creating new opportunities for driving innovation, efficiencies, and customer value, and along with them, new complexities and risks. From my conversations with these four leaders, it’s clear they are energized by the possibilities and challenges and are thinking strategically about how to leverage the learning opportunities afforded them through T200.

“As leaders, we must embrace ambiguity, experiment with new ideas, and remain resilient in the face of disruption,” says Guiuo. “Through mentorship, peer discussions, and real-world case studies, the TechLX helped me refine my ability to balance execution with strategic foresight, ensuring that technology investments drive measurable business outcomes.”

And that’s a critical role for tech leaders, who no longer have to convince their CEOs to come on board with digital transformation; the challenge now is making sure the organization doesn’t fall prey to the hype cycle and squander resources where they’re not going to deliver strategic value.

As Ptacek puts it, “There’s so much innovation coming at leadership, and everybody wants that new piece of candy, from AI to bots to cloud services and everything else. You have to balance bringing your company forward with doing it in an intelligent way.”

That means tech leaders need to not only make informed, business-focused decisions but also make the case for those decisions. “One of the most impactful lessons I learned from the TechLX is the importance of marketing,” Hurff says. “It’s about understanding your audience, framing your goals, and crafting a message that’s going to resonate with them.” 

She adds that technology leaders must sharpen their ability to recognize the early signs of significant change. “Big change doesn’t happen overnight. By anticipating and then responding proactively, you can turn opportunities into business value quickly, efficiently, securely, and with a team that understands and is ready to adapt to that.”

In other words, being able to see around corners and recognize opportunity is one part of the leadership story. Just as important: being able to connect the strategic dots, galvanize a collaborative effort, and deliver game-changing value with that technology.

“You need to have the business understanding and the complete enterprise picture to be able to lead successfully,” says Bobba, who is acutely aware of this need for big-picture thinking having worked in a number of different roles across her career at The Hartford.

Looking ahead at the ever-growing influence and importance of strong technology leadership, Guiuo sums it up well: “The future of technology leadership will be defined by the ability to orchestrate AI-driven transformation while balancing innovation, governance, and human-centered leadership. AI is not just another technological shift; it is a fundamental redefinition of how businesses operate, compete, and serve customers.”

It’s a bold agenda with big business consequences, and my optimism for the future of our profession has never been higher after spending time with these four women. They are quite impressive.

Polly Lagana, executive director of T200, shared her optimism about the future of women in technology, emphasizing the strong impact that T200 is making to advance and celebrate women’s leadership in technology.  

“I’m continually inspired by the passion and leadership of our T200 CXOs, who are deeply committed to giving back and paving the way for the next generation of women leaders,” Lagana said. She expressed her gratitude for the opportunities provided by Ouellette & Associates to T200 members, noting, “Their unwavering support, promotion, and investment in T200’s mission has been transformational, allowing our organization to expand our reach and provide unparalleled opportunities for the growth and development of our community. Together, we’re creating a future where women in technology thrive, lead, and drive meaningful change.”

The future of technology leadership is undeniably bright, and much of that optimism is fueled by the brilliant women leaders featured in this article. From their commitment to continual learning and mentorship to their ability to connect strategy with execution, these women embody the very essence of transformative leadership. They are not just navigating the complexities of today’s digital landscape but actively shaping what’s next — proving that the future of our profession is in exceptional hands.

As technology continues to drive change at an unprecedented pace, leaders like Bobba, Guiuo, Hurff, and Ptacek, supported by organizations like T200 and powered by their mentors and peers, will ensure the industry evolves with purpose, inclusivity, and impact. Their journeys remind us all that with collaboration, curiosity, and courage, we can meet any challenge and seize every opportunity the future holds.

Special thanks to my Tech Whisperers podcast guests, all passionate T200 leaders, who gave these four emerging leaders the benefit of this developmental experience: Marina Bellini, president of global business services and enterprise digital technologies, Mars; Deepa Soni, chief information and operations officer at The Hartford; T200 co-founder Wafaa Mamilli, EVP, group chief digital and technology officer at Roche; and Diana McKenzie and Karenann Terrell, two former technology executives who are now involved with a range of executive advisory and board roles.

See also:

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Across the manufacturing industry, innovation is happening at the edge. Edge computing allows manufacturers to process data closer to the source where it is being generated, rather than sending it offsite to a cloud or data center for analysis and response. 

For an industry defined by machinery and supply chains, this comes as no surprise. The proliferation of smart equipment, robotics and AI-powered devices designed for the manufacturing sector underscores the value edge presents to manufacturers. 

Yet, when surveyed, a significant gap appears between organizations that recognize the value of edge computing (94%) and those who are currently running mature edge strategies (10%). Running edge devices and smart-manufacturing machines does not always mean there is a fully functioning edge strategy in place. 

Why the gap? 

What is holding back successful edge implementation in an industry that clearly recognizes its benefits?

The very same survey mentioned above suggests that complexity is to blame– with 85% of respondents saying that a simpler path to edge operations is needed. 

What specifically do these complexities consist of? Top among them is: 

Data security constraints: managing large volumes of data generated at the edge, maintaining adequate risk protections, and adhering to regulatory compliance policies creates edge uncertainty.Infrastructure decisions: choosing, deploying, and testing edge infrastructure solutions can be a complex, costly proposition. Components and configuration options vary significantly based on manufacturing environments and desired use casesOvercoming the IT/OT divide: barriers between OT (operational technology) devices on the factory floor and enterprise applications (IT) in the cloud limit data integration and time to value for edge initiatives. Seamless implementation of edge computing solutions is difficult to achieve without solid IT/OT collaboration in place.Lack of edge expertise: a scarcity of edge experience limits the implementation of effective edge strategies. The move to real-time streaming data, data management, and mission-critical automation has a steep learning curve.

Combined, these challenges are holding back the manufacturing sector today, limiting edge ROI (return on investment), time to market and competitiveness across a critical economic sector. 

As organizations aspire toward transformation, they must find a holistic approach to simplifying—and reaping the benefits of — smart factory initiatives at the edge.

Build a Simpler Edge 

What does a holistic approach to manufacturing edge initiatives look like? It begins with these best practices: 

Start with proven technologies to overcome infrastructure guesswork and obtain a scalable, unified edge architecture that ingests, stores, and analyzes data from disparate sources in near-real time and is ready to run advanced smart-factory applications in a matter of days, not weeks. Deliver IT and OT convergence by eliminating data silos between edge devices on the factory floor (OT) and enterprise applications in the cloud (IT), rapidly integrating diverse data types for faster time to value Streamline the adoption of edge use cases with easy and quick deployment of new applications, such as machine vision for improved production quality and digital twin composition for situational modeling, monitoring, and simulationScale securely using proven security solutions that protect the entire edge estate, from IT to OT. Strengthen industrial cybersecurity using threat detection, vulnerability alerts, network segmentation, and remote incident managementEstablish a foundation for future innovation with edge technologies that scale with your business, are easily configured to adopt new use cases— like artificial intelligence, machine learning and private 5G— that minimize the complexity that holds manufacturers back from operating in the data age.

Don’t go it alone

The best way to apply these practices is to start with a tested solution designed specifically for manufacturing edge applications. Let your solution partner provide much of the edge expertise your organization may not possess internally. A partner who has successfully developed, tested and deployed edge manufacturing solutions for a wide variety of use cases will help you avoid costly mistakes and reduce time to value along the way. 

You don’t need to be an industry expert to know that the manufacturing sector is highly competitive and data-driven. Every bit of information, every insight matters and can mean the difference between success or failure. 

Product design and quality, plant performance and safety, team productivity and retention, customer preferences and satisfaction — are all contained in your edge data. Your ability to access and understand that data depends entirely on the practices you adopt today. 

Digitally transforming edge operations is essential to maintaining and growing your competitive advantage moving forward.

A trusted advisor at the edge

Dell has been designing and testing edge manufacturing solutions for over a decade, with customers that include Ericsson, McLaren, Linde and the Laboratory for Machine Tools at Aachen University. 

You can learn more about our approach to edge solutions for the manufacturing sector, featuring Intel® Xeon® processors, at Dell Manufacturing Solutions. The latest 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors have built-in AI acceleration for edge workloads – with up to 10x higher PyTorch real-time inference performance with built-in Intel® Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel® AMX) (BF16) vs. the prior generation (FP32)1.

See [A17] at intel.com/processorclaims: 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors. Results may vary.

Edge Computing

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After moving resources and applications to the cloud, pioneering enterprises in the finance and telecommunications sectors have been stepping up efforts to dive into the cloud. They are trying to leverage innovation on the cloud to drive exponential business growth.

Huawei Cloud has suggested three ways for enterprises to dive into cloud: tapping into more cloud-native technologies, developing more application innovation on cloud, and drawing on state-of-the-art expertise and experience.

Enterprises have encountered many challenges as they seek to dive into cloud:

Difficult technologies: Cloud native comes with a wide range of tech stacks. There are a range of different infrastructure, applications, data, AI, and IoT technologies to be mastered, which can be challenging for many enterprises.Complex scenarios: As digital transformation continues, enterprises have to deal with more and more scenarios where different business needs are involved, where there are no unified standards, and where successful experience is hard to share. This hinders innovation.Challenges acquiring state-of-the-art experience: There have been no platforms available to consolidate and replicate state-of-the-art expertise and experience from industry pioneers.

How Huawei Cloud Helps Enterprises Dive into Cloud with Three Approaches

Huawei Cloud Stack is a cloud solution provided by Huawei Cloud to help large enterprises dive into cloud. Deployed on-premises, Huawei Cloud Stack enables enterprises to establish a secure, reliable, and efficient hybrid cloud with improved security and compliance and continuous service innovation.

To help enterprises rise to the challenges, and in response to the shift from cloud migration to a dive into cloud, Huawei Cloud Stack provides three key approaches to simplify technologies, develop easier specific-scenario solutions, and share experience.

Setting Up a Preferred Digital Foundation

Over the past two years, Huawei has set up teams dedicated to serving customers in different industries. Huawei Cloud Stack has established a preferred digital foundation to enable these dedicated teams to cooperate with Huawei’s internal ICT solution organizations, so they can jointly help customers speed up digital transformation.

We enhanced coordination with ICT products and helped adopt different technologies to provide product portfolios tailored to more customer needs.

We developed cloud-native disaster recovery and security protection capabilities to free customers from having to spend time maintain infrastructure, so they can better focused on innovation.

Plus, we standardized and visualized the processes of AI development, application integration, and data governance, and harnessed aPaaS capabilities to offer industry-specific expertise as APIs that can be called with ease.

Providing Standardized Scenario-specific Solutions

To accommodate the diverse needs of enterprises in different industries, Huawei Cloud Stack aims to provide scenario-specific solutions by tapping into continuous operations and cooperating with ecosystem partners.

We identify consistent customer needs in similar scenarios and integrate hardware, cloud service offerings, networking, configurations, and applications into a standard solution that can easily meet those needs.

We work with our ecosystem partners to pre-test the industry applications included in the solution and update them continuously to keep up to date with the most current customer needs. Only proven solutions are launched to market.

We also consolidate helpful procedures and tools such as an application migration procedure consisting of 12 steps in four stages and an automated migration tool. This helps standardize the process of continuous operations.

Distilling Experience into Professional Services

Huawei Cloud Stack provides over 70 professional services in 8 categories to distill Huawei’s own experience in digital transformation and their experience enabling digital transformation for customers in diverse industries. We provide the services for customers in numerous industries, services that help them build, move to, use, and manage cloud. Additionally, in the Huawei Cloud Stack zone of Huawei’s KooGallery, an online store, there are more than 500 popular applications available for enterprises to use. It is expected to act as an important application distribution platform for enterprises in the future. At HUAWEI CONNECT 2022, Huawei worked with Financial Information Technology Institute (FITI) to release the Modern Financial Core System White Paper, aiming to share the experience and expertise of developing modern core systems in the finance sector with customers across all sectors.

Huawei Cloud Stack has helped many customers dive into the cloud to unleash digital power. For the government of Foshan, a prefecture-level city in China, Huawei Cloud Stack’s Astro low-code development platform helped government application developers use iteration and visual orchestration to quickly create and roll out applications. Thanks to its low skill requirements, the platform also allows officers who want to use applications to develop applications by themselves. This means much higher efficiency. Huawei Cloud Stack’s mining industrial Internet solution integrates big data, application governance, IoT, ecosystem setup, and other technological advances. It has helped many mining companies, like Hongliulin Coal Mine of Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group, transform their mining operations. Also, using Huawei Cloud Stack’s professional data governance service, HydroLancang, a subsidiary of the China Huaneng Group, set up a data governance system that unifies data standards and lets data empower operations in the energy sector.

New Huawei Cloud Stack Version Unveiled to Unleash Digital Power

Over the next decade, more enterprises will dive into the cloud to reap more benefits and positive outcomes. As a trusted partner of enterprises in their cloud journey, Huawei Cloud has adopted two strategies:

Think cloud native and act cloud native in composable delivery, data-driven operations, DevOps development, service architecture design, and security and trustworthiness assurance to help enterprises promote application modernization.Explore a new model for industrial-scale AI development to operationalize AI in core applications of enterprises in diverse sectors.

Huawei Cloud Stack 8.2 was launched in line with Huawei Cloud’s strategies. This new version has been improved in many ways:

We have reinforced the infrastructure’s capabilities, including cloud-edge synergy and all-scenario disaster recovery. The cloud-native architecture they are built on provides a solid, resilient foundation for digital transformation. We developed a new security protection system consisting of Cloud Security Brain and seven layers of protection. Cloud Security Brain is a cloud-native security operations center backed by Huawei Cloud’s international security operations experience. It accesses more than 200 kinds of security data and provides over 100 security event response plans to offer actionable insights into risks and help close 99% of security events in minutes. The seven-layer system of protection provides comprehensive protection for physical machines, cloud servers, applications, and data.AI training, AI Cortex, and industrial Internet solutions have been put in place to drive cloud innovation and intelligent upgrade. The CityCore solution and Pangu mining model infuse AI into city governance and industrial development, at scale, and with continuous iteration and optimization.We have launched scenario-specific solutions such as industrial Internet for mining, a new financial distributed core, integrated finance management, and digital twins for cities. We also worked with third parties to release Modern Financial Core System White Paper, Financial Digital Transformation Best Practice White Paper, and Introduction to City Digital Twins. This way, we have distilled expertise and suited core needs of customers in the industry-specific scenarios.

Huawei Cloud Stack 8.2 helps enterprises in more sectors to reap more benefits from modernization and smart transformation:

Shenzhen’s Futian District leveraged Huawei Cloud Stack’s AI-powered CityCore solution to enable automated allocation of service tickets. Ticket allocation that took 4 minutes now needs just 50 seconds, and the accuracy reaches over 90%.Hongliulin Coal Mine of Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group worked in tandem with Huawei Cloud Stack to set up an intelligent integrated management and control platform with an industrial Internet architecture for mining. The platform centrally captures huge volumes of device data, provides over 100 device models and 400 operational models, and offers data insights into mining operations. This means distilled mining expertise, less manpower, and more secure and efficient operations.

Huawei Cloud Stack is now used to accelerate digital transformation for more than 4,800 customers across 150 countries around the world, customers including more than 800 e-Government cloud customers and 300 financial institutions. We have released more than 30 scenario-specific solutions tailored to multiple sectors, such as government, finance, transportation, energy, and manufacturing. The solutions include unified government affair management, financial intelligent data lake, and smart airport solutions.

In the future, Huawei Cloud Stack will continue to innovate to lay a more powerful foundation for digital transformation of every sector while joining hands with more customers to dive into cloud and unleash digital power.

Digital Transformation

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The retail industry is always in motion. Shifting macro-economic influences and changing customer expectations spark new business models, channel strategies, and strategic partnerships. To keep pace, retailers require a strong digital core that delivers powerful data-driven insights while staying compliant, maintaining security, and preventing fraud.  

Shree Venkat, chief architect at TCS, and GV Krishnan, Head of Solutions & Sales for the TCS Microsoft Unit in the UK and Ireland, note that business transformation, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), can help retailers innovate across four primary areas:  

Customer experience: Consumers want to engage with a retailer in a manner that eases their path through the shopping transaction.  TCS is a pioneer in delivering cloud-based solutions that facilitate hyper-personalization, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CoPilot, which turns service agents into superagents.  With Copilot, which brings next-generation AI capabilities and natural language processing to Dynamics 365, agents can quickly craft a draft email or chat response to customers with a single click. 

These insights can be used to deliver exclusive pricing offers, personalized call center access, and other rewards that build customer loyalty. AI/ML-based solutions like  Microsoft Cognitive Services helps further drive bespoke preferential services through sophisticated vision, language, speech, sentiment and contextual analysis to make bots more informed and more conversational.  

Retailers are also improving customer experiences by removing friction. Digitally driven innovations such as automated self-checkouts, pick and go, and contactless payments are helping in making happy customers. “When retailers embark on this journey, they gain more control in providing optimum customer experience and give their customers a sense of affiliation at the same time” says Shree Venkat. 

Store and channel operations: Customers have fully embraced ecommerce, social commerce, mobile commerce, and services such as buy online/pick up in store (BOPIS) and buy online/pick up at curb (BOPAC). 5G and edge computing technologies are helping retailers integrate and optimize in-store experiences. TCS specializes in AI-powered vision technologies like Microsoft Azure Percept to create a smart retail store solution that helps with visitor recognition, foot traffic analysis, store design planning, product quantity/quality checks, and more.  

Supply chain & sustainability transformation: Integration of data and digital systems with suppliers is a quintessential requirement for retailers to embark on intelligent supply chain initiatives. IoT & AI/ML-powered technologies can enable business capabilities such as just-in-time inventory management and auto-replenishment, which in addition to reducing waste and saving money also help retailers track, record, manage, reduce, and report emissions.  (In this whitepaper, TCS and Microsoft explore how to embark on supply chain decarbonization initiatives.)  

Employee experience: Shree Venkat believes the above three areas of business transformation seamlessly and quickly empower retail staff. Low-code/no-code technologies like Microsoft Power Platform, Azure Communication Services, and Azure OpenAI enable organizations to quickly capture customer sentiment, search for and respond to customer queries, and pass on the information to their frontline employees, providing real-time data about stocks, product insights, customer profiles, their buying patterns, and other behaviors to help them deliver better experiences across multiple channels. Training employees to use new digital tools and services is a critical step in the transformation journey for retailers. 

A powerful partnership 

Retailers face many challenges in keeping pace with rapidly changing markets and consumer demands. TCS along with Microsoft empower retailers to maximize the value derived from their Microsoft Cloud investments. The TCS Algo Retail™ framework, together with Microsoft Cloud for Retail, helps retail organizations transform into resilient, adaptable enterprises. 

TCS offers a rich portfolio of intellectual property using machine vision, conversational assistants, predictive analytics, machine learning, AI, and other capabilities on Microsoft Cloud. They include:  

TCS Optumera™— A strategic retail optimization suite that enables integrated, intelligent merchandising and supply chain decisions TCS OmniStore™— A future commerce platform that enables unified customer journeys catering to new channels and brand expansions TCS Optunique™— An enterprise personalization solution that delivers contextual hyper-personalization across omnichannel journeys 

These solutions help retailers enhance customer engagement, accelerate the launch of new products and services, build differentiation, and unlock business value.  

Learn how to master your cloud transformation journey with TCS and Microsoft Cloud.  

Cloud Computing, Retail Industry

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With the most advanced tier IV data center in Spain, and one of the most advanced in Europe, KIO Networks Spain provides a diverse array of private-sector and public-sector enterprises with Infrastructure-as-a-Service for mission-critical systems and applications. The company also offers a diverse array of cloud solutions and services.

Some of the many offerings in its growing portfolio include Disaster Recover-as-a-Service, Backup-as-a-Service, a fully dedicated private cloud based on VMware technology in a maximum-security data center, and Platform-as-a-Service offerings designed for Kubernetes-based environments. KIO Networks Spain even provides cloud services designed specifically for Software-as-a-Service companies.

On joining the VMware Zero Carbon Committed initiative, Javier Jarilla, director general of KIO Networks Spain, says he believes it has never been more important for sustainability efforts to be genuine.

Jarilla notes that high-performance is a hallmark of KIO Networks Spain, which includes a high-touch approach in which the company’s engineers are personally involved in all phases of a customer’s cloud deployment, from planning and design to data migration and post deployment support.

“The effectiveness of our approach can be seen in the number of clients who outsource 100% of their IT systems to us,” he explains.

He adds that the organization’s efforts now include a genuine and steadfast effort to do business in a sustainable way. One among many actions we are taking is operating data centers powered by renewable resources.

“It was important to all of us at KIO Networks Spain to join VMware’s Zero Carbon Committed initiative for a number of reasons,” says Jarilla. “We were one of the first data center companies in our region to achieve VMware Cloud Verified status. That was an important accomplishment not only because of our long relationship with VMware, but also because so many of our cloud offerings are based on VMware technology. The Zero Carbon Committed initiative is important to us because we believe that awareness of climate change and taking actionable steps to protect the environment and positively impact the future of the planet should be intrinsic in business.”

With this in mind, KIO’s engineers and data center experts are focused on five fundamental outputs in all data center projects, including the use of 100% renewable power as required in VMware Zero Carbon Committed. Additional goals include zero water input to combat water stress, the use of natural refrigerants in cooling systems, reuse of waste heat that is generated to supply local heating systems, and investment in environmental projects to offset any of the minimal carbon footprint that will be created through these efforts.

Jarilla stresses that these efforts have not gone unnoticed and that the intersection between sustainability efforts and business is increasingly visible, as evidenced by several long-term customers who have requested tangible sustainability targets they can apply to their own efforts.

“Our immediate goal is to be the most sustainable provider of cloud services and solutions on the Iberian Peninsula. More broadly, we want to provide enterprises in Spain with a partner who not only has made a genuine commitment to achieve zero carbon emissions in our data center operations, but who can also make those same measurable, auditable, and verifiable gains available to them. We all win when we create an ecosystem of companies intent to achieve real sustainability.”

It’s an effort Jarilla says will impact how vendors and providers are viewed. He believes that in the near future the commitment to doing what’s right for the environment will be another factor in the evaluation of vendors, their hiring, and renewals.

“In that sense,” he concludes, “the very definition of high-performance will increasingly include a commitment to be achieving zero carbon emissions.”

Learn more about KIO Networks Spain and its partnership with VMware here.

Cloud Management, Green IT, IT Leadership

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Already a leader in Malaysia’s burgeoning cloud services and solutions sector when it was acquired by Time dotCom, one of the region’s largest fixed-line communications companies in 2021, AVM Cloud recently became one of the select group of providers who offer VMware Cloud Verified Services to earn the VMware Sovereign Cloud distinction.

Originally known as Integrated Global Solutions Technologies, AVM Cloud has a long relationship with VMware going back to 2010.

David Chan, CEO, AVM Cloud

AVM Cloud

AVM Cloud’s CEO David Chan explains that “being named VMware’s Hybrid Cloud Provider of the Year FY 2018 reflected our commitment to provide customers with choices that enable them to optimize their unique cloud journey and in many ways our decision to pursue and earn the VMware Sovereign Cloud distinction is a natural progression of that effort. Now our customers can choose to have their data safely and securely kept, maintained, and safeguarded by Malaysian citizens in Malaysian territory.”

Chan notes that AVM Cloud’s commitment to providing enterprises with choices is readily apparent in the depth and breadth of the company’s portfolio. This includes not only its hybrid cloud products, but also the private AVM Cloud offered in multi-tenant and dedicated versions, Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service, the company’s Fusion backup to cloud solution, and AVM’s Cloud-In-A-Box – a ready-made offering that lets organizations deploy a private cloud with robust security features on premises or in a co-located data center.

Notably, AVM Cloud also offers a number of custom cloud solutions. This includes an ever-growing portfolio of cloud-native applications based on VMware Tanzu.

Chan says AVM Cloud’s top priority in achieving its status was to be able to cater to full spectrum of customers’ workloads, including those that are best served when data resides in, is safeguarded in, and is managed and maintained within sovereign territory without intervention from foreign entities

Sovereignty is increasingly a priority for many organizations in Malaysia. In the case of AVM Cloud, this includes customers in numerous industries, including financial services and manufacturing.

“The regulatory requirements on sovereign cloud are still nascent and developing in Malaysia,” he says. Data sovereignty is reflected in existing legal and policy frameworks which encompass a comprehensive, cross-sectional framework to protect personal data in commercial transactions and play an important role in helping companies address data sovereignty issues.

These issues are directly addressed by the five criteria and numerous requirements that must be met to achieve the VMware Sovereign Cloud distinction: data sovereignty and jurisdiction control, data access and integrity, data security and compliance, data independence and mobility, and data innovation and analytics. AVM Cloud addresses each of them.

“Our sovereign clouds are architected and built to deliver security and data access that meets the strict requirements of regulated industries and local jurisdiction laws on data privacy, access, and control,” Chan says. “We deliver this national capability for digital resilience while still enabling our customers to access a hyperscale cloud in another region for ancillary workloads or analytics. In this way, Malaysian companies can demonstrate to their customers that they value their trust and treat their personal data with the utmost care. Ultimately, this commitment will benefit all Malaysian citizens.”

Learn more about AVM Cloud and its partnership with VMware here.

Cloud Management, IT Leadership

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A 2020 report from McKinsey found that companies with stronger gender diversity numbers were 25% more likely to outperform their less diverse competition. Yet, while companies have placed a greater emphasis on addressing the gender gap of late, women remain largely underrepresented in IT positions.

Here, a number of factors are at play, not the least of which are IT workplace cultures that have a long way to go. A 2017 poll in the Pew Research Center report found that 50% of women said they had experienced gender discrimination at work, while only 19% of men said the same. The numbers were even higher for women with a postgraduate degree (62%), working in computer jobs (74%) or in male-dominated workplaces (78%). When asked whether their gender made it harder to succeed at work, 20% of women said yes and 36% said sexual harassment is a problem in their workplace.

While diversity still lags in the IT industry, McKinsey has found that organizations leading the way with DEI strategies are making significant gains over those that “have yet to embrace diversity.” Given the value diversity has for business outcomes, it’s more important than ever to have a serious strategy for creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, which has become a vital factor for recruiting, hiring, and retaining workers, especially women.

For IT organizations looking to make a difference on gender diversity, or for women seeking to develop rich IT careers, several nonprofits have been created to empower and uplift those who identify as women in IT, improving gender diversity in the industry, and closing the pay gap between men and women. Here are three of note.

Ada Developers Academy bridges the app-dev gender gap

Ada Developers Academy was started in 2013 as a nonprofit no-cost coding school to support women and gender-expansive adults who want to embark on careers in software development. The organization is focused on improving diversity in software development positions, of which only 25% are currently held by women, with only 3% of those women being Black and 2% Hispanic or LatinX.

The program starts with six months of training and educational courses and followed by a paid internship to gain hands-on experience. During the six-month training portion, students commit full-time to learning full-stack software development, including skills such as Python, SQL, JavaScript, and React.

The program also helps students prepare for what they may face in a male-dominated industry, and they are paired with mentors in the industry who are typically alumni of the program. Ada Developers Academy also offers training and support to corporate partners to help them build inclusive environments, retain diverse workforces, and foster a welcoming corporate culture.

Academy graduate Mariya Burrows says that she was surprised by the level of support offered during the program. She had access to a personal tutor, an industry mentor, and an Ada Developers Academy mentor.

“I was never stuck on anything for too long because I had multiple avenues of support. This amount of support really surprised me. I completed graduate school prior and didn’t have this level of resources and support. I am, and have always been, blown away by what Ada can offer students as a nonprofit organization,” says Burrows, who now works as a software engineer at RealSelf.

WIT Mentor-Protégé program empowers women in tech

To help advance the careers of women in IT, the Women In Tech (WIT) Mentor-Protégé program offers members access to women mentors in IT leadership roles. The program offers transitional help for women pivoting to tech careers from another industry or who are getting back into tech after taking time off. WIT aims to help women gain confidence when getting into or back into the tech workforce, which, given the the male-dominated of the field, can be a daunting transition, especially when women find themselves among the only women on an IT team.

Protégés who enter the program meet with mentors over the course of five months, rotating between four mentors. They also attend networking events, lectures, and smaller group sessions to work on career goals outside of the meetings with their mentors. Mentors and protégés are matched by program liaisons based on interests, goals, and experience and there’s no prescribed structures for the mentor-mentee relationship.

While mentorship is often thought of taking place within an organization, there’s a lot to gain having mentors who work outside your company. WIT offers this opportunity to connect with peers in IT who can offer unique insights, especially for women who may not have women mentors in their own company. The WIT Mentor-Protégé program ultimately offers more than mentorship — it’s about creating a community for women in technology to come together to inspire, support, and encourage one another.

“Having spent time overcoming biases and disproving stereotypes in my past, being with like-minded strong and resilient women made me feel as if I had found a home whose members understood my struggles as well as each other’s and supported one another to foster a temporary respite from the professional conflicts within the working environment,” says Ping McKenna, an electrical engineer at TRW.

WiSTEM: Inspiring young women to pursue STEM careers

Women in STEM (WiSTEM) is an international organization dedicated to empowering young women to pursue STEM careers. It offers two programs: one that connects high school–aged girls with professional or college-aged women who are working in STEM, and another that connects high school–aged girls from WiSTEM’s globally dispersed chapters to give them a sense of community with peers their same age.

WiSTEM is growing fast, having added 40 new chapters in 2020, including 381 new members in the US and four new countries. As the program grows, so does the alumni network, which serves as a resource for mentorship for young girls and women in STEM. A main focus of the organization is to promote an interest in STEM for young girls and teens, showing them early on that there’s a path forward and a place for them in the tech industry. WiStem works to break stereotypes and ingrained social attitudes that keep girls and young women from pursing STEM careers.

WiSTEM Director of development Laura Sabrosa started out as a WiSTEM ambassador as a high school student in Brazil, where there were not “many resources to encourage girls to pursue STEM.” After forming her WiSTEM chapter, Sabrosa began by giving lessons on STEM to underprivileged girls in her community, handing out educational materials, and leading by example to show girls that STEM can be fun.

Ambassadors of WiSTEM help create more interest for young girls and women who might not otherwise be exposed to STEM topics. As the community of alumni grow, the program continues to offer support and community to those who find themselves isolated in their STEM and IT careers.

Diversity and Inclusion, IT Training , Mentoring, Nonprofits, Women in IT

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Technology is changing how healthcare and life sciences organizations operate.  With more information and analytics to find the “meaning” from the data resource, these organizations are making breakthroughs in therapies, discoveries, and patient outcomes.  This blog details the key points from a recent podcast with Richard Kramer, Chief Strategist Healthcare and Life Sciences at Informatica.  The podcast detailed best practices and strategies for building a data layer in these vertical industries.

First and foremost, organizations are making substantial investments in managing data as an asset. Executives are focused on ensuring that the business has trustworthy fit-for-purpose data, and employees can make it useful. In addition, master data management and governance are necessary to reduce data friction. The idea of master data governance is all about getting accurate and useful data in place so that it can be used across the enterprise.

Some examples provide excellent illustrations of these goals.  Anthem is investing in an enterprise data catalog. They understand it is very difficult to manage data as an asset if they don’t know where it is, where it’s going, or what happens in between. Transparency and trust are mandatory.   Eli Lilly is investing in a data marketplace, a central place for data assets to be discoverable and consumable across a large, complex enterprise.

The benefits of these initiatives are substantial. The goal is to use data to break down silos.  Data becomes the common “language” in a global company, and it has tremendous value by providing consistency and coordination across the business.  Data is also essential to smoothing the processes between different entities, like providers and insurance carriers. With trustworthy, fit-for-purpose data, federated business processes work more effectively.  The data platform is an essential resource for every healthcare and life sciences organization. It will provide the foundation for modern operations that run on facts, not guesswork.

Data Engineering