EDITOR’S COMMENT
Digital mantras
for CIOs
Hans Nipshagen, Regional Sales Leader, Akamai Central and Eastern
Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Hans Nipshagen at Akamai argues that
CIOs need to deliver on digital security,
digital infrastructure, digital support,
and innovation.
I
n an era of almost permanent connectivity and endless
possibilities, CIOs become challenged to maximise business
productivity and growth potential of the Internet. To
successfully meet this challenge, the CIO needs to focus attention
on three areas: digital security, infrastructure and digital
customer support.
We are in a new age of information security. The traditional
moats and castles model that businesses have relied on for
decades – surrounding the castle of enterprise data, applications,
and networks with the moat of a secure perimeter and firewalls –
is becoming outdated and increasingly irrelevant.
Applications, data, and users have moved outside the firewall
and into the cloud, and they are traversing the public Internet.
They have jumped the moat and traditional security systems are
largely left guarding an empty castle.
Digital attacks are getting more numerous, bigger in size and
more advanced. According to statistics revealed by the UAE’s
Telecommunications Regulations Authority, there was a total
of 561 cyberattacks against government, semi-government and
private sector entities in the first half of 2017 alone.
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98% of all organisations are victims of web application
attacks annually. In addition, bots often with bad intentions, are
responsible for half of the web traffic. Companies can no longer
rely on security from their own network or local provider.
The UAE also tends to face higher cyber threats than its
regional neighbors due to the high internet penetration, according
to the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. With Internet
penetration already exceeding 90% according to the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, as well as the UAE
being a global leader in smartphone penetration, the nation has to
take extra steps when it comes to cyber security.
Cloud security is therefore a prerequisite for tackling threats.
The priority for the CIO is to ensure both the organisation’s
security and its information, taking into account constantly
increasing connectivity, growing data and GDPR.
Today, every business is a digital business, and the Internet is
a critical part of the information infrastructure. It is the primary
connector between cloud-based workloads and on-premise data
and applications. It is the connector for millions or even billions of
connected devices that compose the Internet of Things.
Transforming digital transformation requires an infrastructure
that can be quickly adapted to changing circumstances. In
addition, operational efficiency requires an infrastructure that is
fast and effective. The task of the CIO is to provide a scalable and
agile infrastructure. In order to meet these conditions, companies
choose massively for cloud-based services. The UAE recognises
the importance of the development of a cloud computing
strategy – one notable example is the country’s eGov strategy that
facilitates eGovernment operations. Enterprises have to be in the
cloud for a variety of reasons:
1. To deliver fast and engaging digital experiences to customers.
Their expectations for speed, reliability, and customisation of web
and mobile experiences continue to escalate. That is why we say
slow is the new down. In this digital economy, there is always an
alternative, and impatient customers will quickly go elsewhere.
2. To enable employee productivity. Today’s employees need to
work from home, from the road, and from customer locations,
and they may need access to their systems and applications from
around the world and while in transit.
3. To coordinate with business partners. It is a global digital
community of suppliers, partners, and contractors — all of
whom need secure, fast, and reliable access to portions of an
enterprise’s applications and data.
4. To drive digital business transformation. To digitise and
accelerate business processes, enhance products and services
with technology, launch new digital applications for customers,
open new markets, and globalise their brands, enterprises have
to leverage resources in the cloud.
Only CIOs who take on these three levels – digital security,
infrastructure and digital customer support - and dare to
innovate, are organising their business for a successful future.
Issue 16
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS