>>from >>Around the globe, it's the cube with digital coverage of IBM think 2020 >>one brought to you by IBM. Hello everyone and welcome back to the cubes ongoing virtual coverage of IBM think 2021 this is our second virtual think and we're going to talk about what's on the minds of C. T. O. S with a particular point of view from the EMEA region. I'm pleased to welcome rasheed Parmer, who is an IBM fellow and vice president of technology for Armenia that region. Hello rashid, Good to see you. >>Hey David, great to see you. >>So let me start by by asking talk a little bit about the role of the C. T. O. And why is it necessarily important to focus on the C. T. O. Role versus say some of the other technology practitioner roles? >>Yeah. You know, you know, they as you look at all the range of roles of the got in in the I. T. Department, the CTO is uniquely placed in looking forward how technology and how digitization is gonna make a difference in the business but also at the same time is there as the kind of thought leader for how they're going to really you re imagine the use of technology reimagine automation, reimagining, how digitalization helps them go to market different ways. So the CTO is a unique unique position from idea to impact. And in the past we've kind of lost the C. T. A little bit but they're now re emerging as being the thought leader that's owning and driving digitalization going forward in our big plants. >>Yeah I agree. And it really has a deep understanding of that vision and can apply that vision to business success. So you obviously have a technical observation space and you also have some data so maybe you could share with our audience how you inform yourself and your colleagues and IBM on on what C. T. O. S. Are thinking about and what they're worried about. >>Yeah. So what we've done over the last four years now is gone out and interviewed Cdos and we do a very unstructured interviews. It's not it's not a survey in the form of uh you know, filling these uh these 10 questions and tell us yes or no. It really is a structured interviews. We asked things like what's top of mind for you, what are the decisions you're making? What's holding you back? What decisions do you think you shouldn't have made or you wouldn't have liked to make? And it's that range of a real input from the the interview. So last year we interviewed 100 CTO s um this year we're actually doing a lot more. We're working with the IBM Institute Business Value and we're gonna interview a lot more teachers but but the material we're gonna talk about today is is really from those 100 CTO interviews. >>Yeah. And I think that having done a lot of these myself, when you do those, we call them, you know in depth interviews, our I. D. S. You kind of have a structure and you sort of follow that but you learn so much and that it maybe does inform those more structured interviews that you do down the road. You learn so much, but maybe you could summarize some of the concerns in the region. What's on the minds of Ceos? >>Yeah. And you know, the the real decisions are made based around seven points. Right? So the first one is we all know, we're on a journey to the cloud but it's a hybrid multi cloud. How do I think about the range of capabilities and need to be able to unlock the latent potential of existing investments and the cloud based capabilities of God. So, so the hybrid cloud platform is one of the the first and foundational pieces. The second challenge is the C e O s want to modernize their applications and that modernization is a journey of moving towards microservices. That microservices journey has two parts. One is the business facing view and that's what containers is all about, choosing the right container platform at the same time. They also want to use containers as a way of automation and management and reducing the effort in the infrastructure. So, so that's kind of two parts of the whole container journey. So Microsoft, this has really become the business developer view and containers become the operational view At the same time. They want infused new data, they want to climb the ladder, they want to get the new new insights from that data that plugs into those new workflows to get to those workflows. There's a decision around how do I isolate myself from some of the services of using that? And we created a layer in the decisions around what's called cloud services integration. So cloud services integration is kind of the modern day E S B as we might think about it, but it's a way in which you choose which technology, which a P I is. I'm going to use from where and then ultimately, the CTS are trying to build what are the new, the new workflows, intelligent workflows and they're really worried about how do I get the right level of automation that managing that issue between what becomes creepy and valuable, Right? You know, the some workflows that happen, you think, why the hell did that happen? Right. That doesn't make sense. And and and and it really sort of nerves. The consumer, the user where some which are, wow, that's really cool. I really enjoyed that. To try to get the intelligent workflows right is a big concern. And then on the two big perils of that is how do we manage the system, the operational automation right from having the right data observe ability of all the infrastructure, recognizing they've got a spectrum of things from 30 40 50 year old systems to modern day cloud native systems, how to manage how operationally automate that keep that efficient, effective. And then of course protecting from the perpetrators, right? Business, a lot of people out there wanting to begin to the systems and, and, and and draw all kinds of, you know, a data from their system. So security, privacy and making sure that align with the ethics and privacy of the business. So those are those are the kind of range of issues right from the journey to cloud, through to operational automation, through through intelligent workflows, right into manage and protecting the services. >>It's interesting. Thank you for that. I mean I remember and you will as well some of the post Y two K you know, thrust and part part of the modernization back then was during that they had budget to do that. But a lot of times organizations would make the mistake that they would they're going to migrate off of a system that was working just fine. That was there sort of mental model of of modernization. And it turned out to be disastrous in many cases. And so when I talk to Ceos they talk about maybe, you know, I'd look at it is this this abstraction layer we want to protect what we have that works. Yes. Some stuff is going to go into the public cloud, but this hybrid connection that you talk about and then we want control and the way we're gonna get control is we're gonna use microservices to modernize and use modern A. P. I. S. And so very very sort of different thinking. And of course they want to avoid migration at all costs because it's so expensive and risky. I wonder if you could talk about, are there any patterns in terms of where people get started and the kinds of outcomes that they're working towards that they can measure? >>Yeah, we we kind of lumped the learning from the work into three broad patterns, right? Um one pattern is primarily around survival. They recognize that this journey is very complex. The pandemic has created tremendous challenges. The market dynamics means they've got to try and really be thoughtful in in taking cost out and making sure they survive some of these issues. And so the pattern is really around cost reduction. It may start with a hybrid cloud, it may start with intelligent workflows but it's really about taking costs out of the systems. The second pattern is what is referred to as a simplification pattern and this is about saying but we've got we've got so much complexity because of technical debt because of you know systems that we've half migrated and half done things with. So how do I how do I simplify my I. T. Landscape from applications through infrastructure for data and make it more consistent, manageable and and effective. And then the 3rd 1 is their city is saying look we've got a really pick the time when we super scale something, we've got something which we are unique and effective on and I want to take that and really super scale that very quickly and make that consistent and really maximize value of it so that the pattern is really fall into three categories of driving, driving, cost reduction and survival, simplification and modernisation transformation. And then those that have got something which is unique and special and really super scaring up. >>Yeah. Right, right, doubling down on those things. That unique competitive advantage in the, in the studies that you've done over the years. You use this term ADP architectural decision points and some of them are quite compelling. Maybe you could talk about some of those. Were there some anxieties from the cdos that you uncovered? >>Yeah. You know, the, the NDP s talk about the 70 Gps and it starts from the higher ability crowd through to two intelligent workflows and so on. And the NDP s themselves are really distilling the client's words and the clients way of thinking about how they're going to drive those, those technologies, um and also how they're going to use those techniques to make a difference. But if we went through those interviews, what became apparent is, see us do have some anxieties as you refer to, and those anxieties, they couldn't necessarily put words on them and their anxieties. Like, are we thinking enough about the carbon footprint? Are we are we being thoughtful in how we make sure we're reducing carbon footprint or reducing the environmental impact of the infrastructure? You've got, we've got sprawling infrastructure um ripping out rare metals from the earth. Are we being thoughtful in how we reduce the amount of rare metals we have water consumption right through to is the code that we're producing efficient, secure and and fit for for the future. Are we being ethical in capturing the data for its right use? Um Is the ai systems that we're building? Are they explainable? Are they ethical? Are they free from bias or are we kind of amplifying things that we shouldn't be amplifying? So there was a whole bunch of those call anxieties and what we did along with the architectural decision report. A point after decision report was was identify what we call a set of responsibilities. And and we've built a framework about around responsible computing which is which is a basis for how you think through what your responsibilities are as a as a Ceo are as an I. T. Leader. And we're right in the process of building out that that kind of responsible computing framework. >>You know it's interesting a lot of people may may think about they think about the responsible computing and and and the sustainability and they might think that's a 1 80 from Milton Friedman Economics, which is the job of businesses to make profits. But in fact responsible computing, there's a strong business case around it. It actually can help you reduce costs that can help you attract better employees. Because young people are passionate about this. I wonder if you could talk about how how people can get involved with responsible computing and lean in. >>Yeah, so what we're about to publish it is actually manifesto for responsible computing. So I think everybody wants to get that published. I'm hoping to do that in the next two or three months. We're working with a few clients. So there's actually three clients that have chosen through your client cts from the ones that we interviewed were very keen to collaborate with us in laying out that that manifesto and the opportunity really is from anybody listening. If if you if you find this of great value, please do come and reach out to me more than happy to collaborate. We're looking for more insights on this. We've also had some competitions. So in in in a media we've had a competition with business partners, looking for ideas of how we can really showcase examples or exemplars of being responsible computing provider, whether it's at the level of responsible data center, whether it's about responsible code data, use Responsible systems right through the responsible impact. And obviously a lot of our work around things like your tech for good is tied directly to responsible impact. And of course, if you want to see what we have never been doing are responsible responsibility report, which we've been voluntarily publishing for the last 30 years, provides a tremendous set of insights on how we've done that over the years. And and that's a that's a great way for you to see how we've been doing things and see if there are people in your business. >>Yeah. So there's so there's the, the ADP report is available. You can check it out on on linkedin. Um, go to, go to Russia linked in profile, you'll find it. There's a blog post that talks about the next wave of, of digitization, uh, you know, the learnings that you just talked about. So there's a lot of resources for for people to get involved. I'll give you the last word. >>Yeah. And look, this is this is what I call job big and it's not job done that the whole ADP responsible computing is a digitization journey where we want to balance delivering business value and making a difference to the organization, but at the same time being responsible in making sure that we're thoughtful what's needed for the future and we create impact that really matters. And we can feel proud that we've put a foundation for digitization which will which will serve the businesses for many years to come, >>love it, impact investing in your business and in the future. Russia, thanks so much for coming on the cube. Really appreciate it. >>A pleasure. Thank you. >>Okay, keep it right there for more coverage from IBM think 2021 this is Dave Volonte for the Cube. Yeah, yeah.