AI, Cloud, Platform Engineering, Sustainability

Artificial intelligence, security, sustainability: the three challenges of today’s CIOs

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is one of the key players within the company, custodian of IT infrastructure, both in terms of choice and efficiency.
The subject, in recent years, of a real metamorphosis, which has advanced along with technological evolution, today his figure becomes even more central and it is essential to support it.
Over the years, the role of technology has changed: from an engine of efficiency, it has become the enabler of a transformation that goes beyond efficiency and aims at the liberation of ideas and new business models.
Hand in hand, the figure of the CIO has also changed: he is the facilitator of change and the catalyst of innovation, the necessary bridge between different functions and departments, the mediator between technological and corporate culture.
A path as gradual as it is sustained, as the very acronym of CIO shows, in which the “I” gradually evolves from information to innovation.
And today, innovation cannot ignore three factors, three major challenges that all CIOs must address:artificial intelligence, security, and sustainability.
How can they best do this to propel their companies into the future?

Seizing the potential of AI

The first challenge is that of artificial intelligence, which, with its capabilities for optimization, efficiency and speed, will increasingly become an indispensable tool for all kinds of companies.
Indeed, those who do not know how to exploit its potential will risk being penalized compared to their competitors.
The most recent edition of theArtificial Intelligence Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano (February 2024) records that six out of ten large companies have launched at least one AI-related project.
However, this percentage drops dramatically among small and medium-sized companies: it does not go beyond 18 percent.
Moreover, 90 percent of the Italian AI market is fueled by large enterprises, while the rest is divided equally between smaller companies and the public administration.
Yet, SMEs also need to benefit from the innovation triggered by AI, but they often lack the IT infrastructure to manage large amounts of data.
From this perspective, the cloud can open up new opportunities even for smaller companies, enabling the use of platforms that are able to create and take advantage of standardized or made-to-order templates.

On the other hand, artificial intelligence is not only limited to optimizing business processes, but also fosters the efficiency of cloud operations and services both from the perspective of applications and the development of new models.

The Platform Engineering provides devops teams with tools and capabilities to improve efficiency and automate the process of developing and releasing new solutions.
The principle behind this approach is to hide from users the increasing complexity of the underlying infrastructure, which reacts to requests by delivering the necessary resources quickly and flexibly.
Artificial intelligence contributes to this system by providing developers with innovative, customized solutions based on data analysis and user preferences.
A cloud provider such as Deda Cloud, which can make such a platform and approach available, thus enables its customers to reduce the development and production time of new software and minimize costs and potential errors.

Spreading a culture of information security

The second challenge facing today’s CIOs is security.
Faced with cyber-attacks that, according to the October 2023 Clusit Report, have quadrupled over five years in Italy, cybersecurity is a priority and requires constant management of risks, which continue to evolve, and adequate systems oversight.
Especially since the new NIS 2, the European directive on network and information system security that replaces the previous NIS 1, is moving toward a regulatory tightening that contemplates possible criminal implications if companies fail to comply.

Here, too, the role of the CIO is crucial: for cybersecurity is not simply a matter of tools to be equipped with, but rather a matter of culture, which must pervade the entire company and integrate with processes.

The figure of the CIO then often evolves into that of CISO – Chief Information Security Officer – unifying IT and cybersecurity skills into a single role to take the company’s security leap forward.
That’s why Deda Cloud has developed a Virtual CISO, which can provide companies that do not have one, in an as-a-service mode, with all-around consulting on the culture of innovation and security.
The team dedicated to this service, made up of about 30 specialized people, defines the most suitable intervention strategy for the client starting with a penetration test, which tests the company’s defenses for 15-20 days in order to verify its vulnerabilities, as well as its strengths.
The goal is to develop a well-thought-out approach to cybersecurity that pervades all business functions, based on which to then choose the most appropriate technologies capable of supporting it.

Mitigating the impact of new technologies

The digital future will increasingly be based on cloud and artificial intelligence.
But these technologies, far from being ethereal and intangible, have a physical match made up of computational capacity and hardware with ahigh energy impact.

The issue of the environmental cost of AI cannot be ignored.
Companies must learn to select, store and use quality data that is truly useful in achieving their goals, so as to mitigate the amount of energy required to process it.
But not only that.
Even the digital factories that store data-the data centers-must and can espouse a more environmentally conscious approach.

Public-private partnership works in this direction Trentino Data Mine to create an underground data center, the first in Italy and among the very few in the world.
The project will be implemented by a company owned by Dedagroup, the group to which Deda Cloud belongs, together with the University of Trento, Covi Costruzioni, GPI and ISA.
The geographic location of the data center is strategic from an environmental and circular economy perspective, because it allows the preservation of the territory thanks to the use of space obtained from the exploitation of an active dolomite mine, the reduction of emissions thanks to natural cooling, and the security of the infrastructure thanks to the protection of the rock from solar storms and electromagnetic attacks and controllable access.
The data center will also be energy efficient because it will use renewable sources.
On the other hand, paying attention to one’s impact in terms of sustainability is not only a matter of ethics and social responsibility for companies.
In fact, regulation and finance are also pushing firmly in this direction.
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) rating is becoming a criterion for investment and corporate credit scoring.
And, even though, under pressure from various business and industry sectors, the European Union has recently had to slow down the introduction of some regulatory obligations for companies, the path toward combating and mitigating climate change is irreversible and necessary.
This intersection of issues creates complexity and fragmentation.
Therefore, engineering expertise is no longer the only fundamental requirement for a service provider to support the work of a CIO.
Today, governance capability is also required, which also depends on knowledge of regulations and availability of systems information.
On these issues we at Deda Cloud have been working for a long time developing skills and evolving processes.
Therefore, today we are ready to accompany customers to their new goals as well.