Four Things CIOs Must Be Able To Do

Cisco East Africa Regional Manager and Country Manager, Kenya, Sally Kimeu outlined four things CIOs must be able to do in a keynote speech she delivered during the Down To Earth (DTE) Tech Day on Friday.

According to her, CIOs are under increasing pressure to deliver because of increased cybersecurity threats, changing workplace models with the introduction of remote and hybrid models, and increased demands from customers downloading and using applications. With increased applications downloads, Sally says CIOs must ensure that their platforms are not only secure for the end-users but also offer a seamless experience.

The four things CIOs must be are discussed in detail below:

Reimagine their applications: Applications are the heart of a business. Therefore, CIOs must ensure that their applications serve their customers well and give them a consistent experience. Also, they must understand how their applications are working.

Power a hybrid workforce: CIOs must ensure that employees that come to work and those that work from somewhere else are able to get the same services that they would if they were in office. Work is no longer a place we go to it is what do. The future of work is hybrid and this is what CIOs must contend with.

Transform their infrastructure:  CIOs must ensure that their infrastructure supports the needs of their organisations. They need to have networks that can perform at the speed of user needs.

Secure their enterprise: Right now, someone is trying to get into your network. As a CIO, you need to be successful 100 per cent of the time but a hacker needs to be successful just once. The pandemic has increased heightened the increase in cybersecurity investment. Moreover, CIOs must shift from cybersecurity to cyber-resilience because cyber-resilience is what gets you from a bad situation to a better situation.