Trillion Dollar Cloud Upside | Seven Deadly Automation Sins | Why You Should Treat Coding As A Craft | And More

Plus: Okta Acquires Fellow Identity Management Company Auth0 In $6.5 Billion All-Stock Deal

Hi there, and welcome to the latest issue of the Forbes CIO Newsletter.

Without the cloud, many companies would have struggled to adapt to the chaos triggered by Covid-19. By tapping cloud services, CIOs were able to swiftly move millions of workers to remote work, spin up new digital channels for connecting with customers and keep exploring new growth ideas.

But just how big is the opportunity that lies ahead for companies who aggressively embrace the cloud? McKinsey’s answer: at least $1.2 trillion. That’s the amount the consulting firm thinks America’s largest companies can collectively add to their run rate EBITDA by 2030 by more aggressively embracing the cloud for things such as cost optimization and new product development.

The consulting firm believes the potential gains could be even bigger if the cloud spurs faster adoption of new technologies such as blockchain and augmented reality. Of course, consultants have a self-interest in playing up the cloud’s potential. But even if the number was half that trillion-dollar-plus estimate, it would be worth focusing on.

There are more details about how McKinsey arrived at its estimate in its report. Over two thirds of the potential upside it sees comes from the cloud’s ability to help companies scale fast and spur innovation-driven growth.

Cloud providers are innovating like crazy themselves in areas such as cloud-native workloads and the use of open source technologies (though the latter can sometimes be controversial). If the trend continues and CIOs take full advantage of the advances cloud providers come up with, then this could turn out to be one of those rare occasions when management consultants have actually underestimated a technology’s upside.

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Technology & Innovation

Virtual reality: Still worried about going into the real office? Then perhaps you can hang out with your team in a virtual one. Microsoft just unveiled Mesh, a mashup of virtual and augmented reality tech that runs on its Azure cloud platform and lets users collaborate in virtual spaces. Such efforts are worth noting but there’s a long, long way to go until we get to Star Trek’s Holodeck!

Cybersecurity: Microsoft confirmed that hackers believed to be affiliated with China have been targeting Microsoft Exchange server installations since January. The attacks, which use multiple exploits that have not previously been revealed, could allow the attackers to read email and install additional malware.

Leadership & Strategy

Data handling: The standard approach here is summarized by the acronym ETL: extracting data, then transforming it before loading it into target data stores. Here’s an argument for why it might make more sense to switch the approach around to ELT.

Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin still feels like it could implode at any moment, but investment bank Citi has just released a report that claims it could now be at “a tipping point” in its evolution towards becoming “the currency of choice” for international trade.

Talent & Careers

Diversity and inclusion: Black women and other women of color have long been marginalized in the tech industry and STEM field. Forbes contributor Brenda D. Wilkerson examines the lack of diversity, equity and inclusion in the industry and outlines key actions she thinks are needed to redefine traditional pathways into tech. By shining a light on unconventional routes into the industry, Wilkerson hopes more women will be encouraged to pursue careers in technology.

CIO moves: IBM announced a new CIO. Kathryn Guarini, who comes from IBM Research, will replace Fletcher Previn in the role. Capri Holdings, whose fashion brands include Versace, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, named Alejandro Martinez-Galindo, the former CIO of Walgreens, as its new tech leader. And Macy’s announced that Laura Miller, previously CIO of InterContinental Hotel Group, will succeed Naveen Krishna in the role at the retail giant.

"Suppose you have a doctor who hasn’t studied medicine. You’re not going to allow them to touch your body. Yet we [in the software industry] have a lot of people who don’t understand anything about technology, but they are leading technology."

Amir Arooni

CIO of Discover Financial Services

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