Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

The Big Themes:Advice for early talent: Pat says that high schoolers and their parents should at least consider options other than college, like trade schools and apprenticeships. He recommends reading "The Millionaire Next Door" to get inspired.Advice for college graduates: First, differentiate yourself during the interview process by doing research. Second, once you're hired, find "your assets" within the company, because you can't just assume you'll have advocates.Advice for people taking job interviews: Don't be afraid to ask tough questions about a company's financial status and solvency, given the economic climate we're in today. This is one step in making sure you end up at the right place.The Big Quote: "A lot of early talent is making a huge mistake in their career by actually moving from one job to another from one company to another after 12 months, because the next company offers them something worth more money. My advice is, don't. That's a mistake." Want additional insights to help you win the war for talent? Connect with Pat on LinkedIn. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:An issue of legacy: Related to the concept of "legacy" tech companies, huge companies are often held back by what Christian calls "the mindset legacy," that narrowly defines what the business does and how it does it, with no room for evolution.The importance of culture: Christian says that a company's culture can't just be part of its overall strategy, an intellectual and emotionally agile culture needs to be the core strategy itself.Walking the walk when it comes to people: The only thing worse than working at a company that doesn't want to invest in people is working at one that doesn't want to invest, but claims publicly that people are its most important asset.The Big Quote: "You're never ever, ever going to build a high-performance team by having anything other than a radical candor and an ability to understand and accept criticisms, especially when they're well deserved." Want more leadership inspiration from Christian?Connect with him on LinkedIn. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Data modernization: Wayne says that a "modern data strategy" completely changes a company's ability to compete, by helping C-suite executives make better decisions and avoid very expensive mistakes.Wayne's 5 rules of data modernization: Collect more data and do it earlier, clean and validate the data, store it securely but accessibly, make it widely available, and provide employees with powerful analytics capabilities.Oracle CloudWorld 2022: Wayne observes that of the 1,200 sessions at Oracle's big global conference last week, the biggest topic was not databases, but cloud infrastructure, illustrating how Oracle has dramatically evolved its positioning to keep up with customers.The Big Quote: "[Data modernization] is not about how you buy it and who you buy it from and how you glue it together. This is a business imperative. And it's cultural, besides technological."Want more of the CIO and CTO perspective?Connect with Wayne on LinkedIn or through his Analyst page. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The Task Force Tribute journey: In September, the group arrived in Washington, D.C., having traveled 8,500 miles in 23 days, with dozens of stops to connect with veterans and family members, including many Gold Star families.TFT is collecting stories for a virtual memorial: Next up for the group is to help create an unprecedented, high-tech virtual memorial composed of the hundreds of stories shared by military members and their families. To contribute a story, please visit the TFT website.The impact of sharing stories: Christian says that a common thread emerged in many of his conversations during the journey, which is the deep need among these service members and their families to talk about their experiences and their loved ones.Addressing mental health challenges as a community: The VA and other government agencies are not doing enough to support the mental health needs of members of the military, and Christian says that there's a great need for everyone around servicemen and women to step up themselves to help.The Big Quotes:"This model that we're in in our country, where our media, you know, 'you have to enrage to engage,' right? And it's driven by business models. It's driven by self interest. But that doesn't mean that it's driven by reality. And, folks, it's incumbent upon all of us to not get lazy and be cynical because cynicism is lazy. If you think something isn't right, productively, proactively, and constructively try and fix it.""If you do know a military member, actually, please don't thank them for their service—actually say, 'hey, you know, if you ever ever need someone to talk to, you can talk to me. And if you think I don't understand, you're probably right. But I'm willing to try. I'm willing to try.' And that, folks, could save a life. And it could save a life of an American that really risked their all for us." More about Task Force Tribute:Learn the backstory, make a donation, and get involved via their website. You can also get to know the non-profit group behind TFT, Project RELO. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Employee experience and Skills Academies: The concept of employee experience has been buzzy for many years, but the focus is shifting from perks to career advancement, reskilling, and equitable pay.Tech as an enabler for change, not a leader of change: Transforming businesses, business models, and employee experiences should be driven by process and change management, with tech playing a supporting role.Big fish want to swim in small HR ponds: Leading HR vendors like Oracle, Workday, and SAP are starting to evolve their offerings to appeal to mid-market customers, in addition to their traditional huge enterprise clients.The Big Quote: "Customers were giving a lot of grace to vendors for getting through, making do, being really creative, helping them out of really challenging situations... That was 2021. The year of grace is over." Connect with Bonnie on LinkedIn or send a message via her Acceleration Economy Analyst page. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The need for speed: scaling a business is more difficult than ever, because the rapid pace of change across industries requires leaders to make big decisions more quickly than ever before—and still get the decisions right.The primacy of customers: Tony channels Walter White of Breaking Bad, and says that today, customers are "the ones who knock," meaning they're dictating the terms of deals and services to vendors, not the other way around.The upside of friction: Generally, friction is seen as an impediment to scale, but Tony says that some forms of friction are good, in that they remind leaders to take a breath, look around, and be sure things are working well.The Big Quote: "In a funny way, it's such an obvious observation of 'oh, okay, the customer is in control.' ... It is truly profound, Bob, and I think if I was to point to one thing that can help in the scale on the seller side for technology companies—if I can point to one thing that could hold some of those companies back—it's a lack of understanding of that profound shift." Looking for more insights to transform your business? Connect with Tony on LinkedIn or through his AE Analyst page. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Balancing partnerships and full-service: Mike says that Oracle is thrilled to work with partners to fill "last-mile solutions" and regulatory-specific needs, but also that Oracle is looking to fill vertical edge cases with its own solutions.HCM in healthcare shows Oracle's differentiation: The gig economy is impacting hospitals and other care settings, so Oracle is stepping up with a suite of tools including HCM and more to help business leaders in a holistic way.The cloud shifts conversations to velocity over function: Thanks to the cloud, Oracle can help customers stay on the bleeding edge of technology through regular releases and updates, delivering greater speed to customers' businesses.The Big Quote: "The ability to speak in the language of the business—because you're delivering the technology that our customers are using to engage with their customers—is a core differentiator." Interested in Oracle CloudWorld 2022?Get an Oracle TV pass for live coverage, or register to join in person. This episode is sponsored by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Customer demand for multi-cloud: Oracle has been focused recently on partnerships with Microsoft and Amazon that allow mutual customers to pick and choose the cloud services they get from each vendor, and Jae says that big-name brands are very hot on this idea.Cloud @ Customer offers even more flexibility: For customers in highly regulated industries or that prefer more control and security, Oracle's Cloud @ Customer offering provides all the benefits of a fully managed cloud region in an on-premise environment.What customers can expect at CloudWorld: Jae says that if customers can come to the event with a clear understanding of their business goals and desired outcomes, they'll find a plethora of information about how Oracle's cloud solutions can help achieve them.The Big Quote: "These are more multi-cloud-type solutions that are making it simpler and advantageous for our customers to use. We have a lot of customers who are excited about it—AT&T, Marriott, and Veritas to name a few—who have really voiced their interest and excitement about what this can do for them... getting that flexibility and optionality so they can get the best cost, best performance for their cloud business."Want to learn more about Oracle CloudWorld 2022?Explore content, speakers, and registration options.This episode is sponsored by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Tech's "cancel first" policy: From Amazon to Twitter and beyond, tech platforms seem to be far too quick to remove accounts, content, and products without asking any questions about the rule that's allegedly been broken.Brands are abandoning customer service: Trying to reach a human to discuss a customer question is nearly impossible these days. Christopher points to Southwest as a remarkable exception to this rule, and encourages companies to get humans involved again.The limitations of AI- and ML-driven regulation: Bots don't get sarcasm yet, and users across many platforms are dealing with account suspensions for posts that do not actually break any rules.The Big Quote: "We have asked these major platforms for their free speech policy... They send a link, you read the link. And here's what you discover when you read the link: the word free, the word speech, or the two together don't appear in the document."Want more from Christopher Lochhead and Category Pirates?Explore his podcasts, blog, and books, including the new "Snow Leopard." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The "fourth phase" of Match Group's business: Following the launch of Match.com in the 90's and the breakaway of Tinder in the 2010's, a new phase is coming that's heavily focused on video, AI, augmented reality, language translation, and more.Eliminating manual work and "cycles of death": Trey shares some of the struggles his team had before installing Workday Financials, and the impact that those challenges had on employee morale.Helping the accounting teams demonstrate value: Generally, accounting is a cost center, but Trey says that the implementation of game-changing software like Workday is an important way to highlight his department's value to the larger business.The Big Quote: "We believe that adding technology and adding the right people can provide that value, so [employees] get to spend more time with their families. So we've more or less revolutionized where we were, to provide that better value."Get more from Workday Rising through on-demand content. This episode is brought to you by Workday. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Enhancing the developer experience: This is a major focus for Oracle, and many CloudWorld sessions will focus on work that's been done to help developers use Oracle DBs, including Autonomous Database.Oracle Exadata: Along with database and cloud, Juan says that Exadata is one of three core initiatives for the event.Oracle Database 23c release: CloudWorld will feature the very first preview and discussion of Oracle's next major DB release, called 23c.The Big Quote: "We're also talking about what we're doing for distributed apps, like micro-services and events. We're building a lot of this technology directly into the Oracle database to make it dramatically simpler. We'll be talking about things we're doing with documents and document databases—that's going to be a really big deal."Want to learn more about Oracle CloudWorld 2022?Explore content, speakers, and registration options. This episode is sponsored by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Road to Oracle CloudWorld 2022 Oracle Cloud Analytics EVP T.K. AnandThe Big Themes:Fusion Analytics showcases what makes Oracle Cloud unique: T.K. argues that Oracle stands out among the competition as the only full-stack enterprise cloud vendor, since Oracle is both a cloud platform and application provider.The next wave of analytics transformation: Following the self-service and the SaaS revolutions in analytics, now the industry is moving exploring AI and machine learning and natural language. T.K. will be talking about this in his CloudWorld keynote.Multi-cloud and customer choice: Granting flexibility to customers has been a major theme within Oracle recently, and T.K. says that Oracle Analytics has a strong multi-cloud perspective and can work with data regardless of where it lives.The Big Quote: "The world has changed dramatically, as you know, but Oracle's been executing relentlessly on its cloud strategy. And we're seeing tremendous success in the market. My team has been busy building the next generation analytics platform, and integrating it with all our cloud applications."Want to learn more about Oracle CloudWorld 2022?Explore content, speakers, and registration options.This episode is sponsored by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Looking beyond the walls of IT: As the CIO and VP of IT, Samantha obviously fills a specialized role at Smith, but she says that her "team" is everyone at the college, and that achieving the IT department's goals requires input from many other departments.Continuous iteration as a North Star: Samantha shares a favorite quote of hers, which comes from the center for teaching and learning on campus but that she applies to IT: "There are many ways to teach well, and all teaching is improvable."Prioritizing user experience with Workday: Students today have high expectations for digital experiences, and many academic platforms do not meet those expectations. Samantha talks about how Workday's UX tools are helping her deliver for Smith students.The Big Quote: "I think I and my team are seen as partners in a much stronger way. Partnership isn't just delivering utilities. Partnership is being in conversations, it's bringing people together. It's calibrating, is this a big problem or a small problem? Will this solve something that's been bothering us for three years? So I think that has helped me be positioned as a strategic partner."This episode is sponsored by Workday. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The biggest enterprise tech M&A in history: The planned $61-billion acquisition of VMWare by Broadcom has implications for Goya Foods, says CIO Suvajit Basu, and many other large global firms, because of VMWare's omnipresence in data centers.The cybersecurity side of the deal: When a company that powers data centers is taken over, questions must be raised about access to the data centers and the data within them. The "risk profile" of VMWare is raised by this acquisition.The responsibility of CXOs in these situations: The Broadcom-VMWare deal has generated a lot of FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Whether these feelings are valid and have merit or are unfounded and distracting, is a question that CXOs must focus on answering, ASAP.The Big Quote: "The importance of VMWare permeates to every industry. I'm in food and beverage. Healthcare is running VM. Wall Street finance is running VM. Military is running VM. There is no single industry that I can think of that is not running VMWare today. And that is the cyber threat. We're talking about a heightened level of risk." Want to hear more from Suvajit? Connect with him on LinkedIn and catch highlights from his talk at Cloud Wars Expo 2022. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Investing in vertical solutions: Oracle's deep engagement in healthcare through the acquisition of Cerner has provided a strategic framework for how the company will invest and expand into other industries, including with new HCM solutions.New platforms and tools: Chris previews the award-winning employee-experience platform Oracle ME, the evolved Oracle Recruiting Cloud, and new offerings that power upskilling and reskilling demands.CHRO priorities in 2022 and beyond: Based on his many conversations with HR executives, Chris outlines what is top of mind for CHROs, including creating inclusive workforces, internal mobility, and more.The Big Quote: "We're going deep in healthcare, obviously, with the Cerner acquisition... In HCM, we're making investments around scheduling, optimization, skills, making sure we can hire and support and schedule nurses at the right time, the right shift, the right bed, all of those things, but we're taking that strategy across multiple industries." Want to learn more about Oracle CloudWorld 2022?Explore content, speakers, and registration options.--This episode is sponsored by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Cloud technology supercharges startups: New companies must focus on scalability, by bringing on new customers, building new features, hitting new markets, and more. The cloud is a game-changing tool in how it helps CXOs scale up and scale down as needed for certain things.The "aha" moment: Each panelist shared stories about how and when they realized that the idea behind their company had legs and could truly address an unmet need or longstanding challenge for customers.The benefits of being a startup amid established competitors: Startups face unique challenges, but can also be more nimble and flexible than large enterprises. The panelists speak about how they've leveraged the startup mentality to connect with customers and grow their businesses.The Big Quote: "First is to understand my role as the CEO. I am the chief everything officer." - Min Chen, WisyWant to learn more about Cloud Wars Expo and the Innovation Path?Check out our plans for Expo 2023. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Summit NA: Community Summit North America, the largest independent gathering of the Microsoft business applications ecosystem, is taking place October 10 through 13th in Orlando, Florida, featuring 500+ sessions and 300+ speakers.How to compare cloud vendors: They have different revenue streams, distinct customer bases, and come in a wide range of sizes, but cloud vendors can best be understood in three dimensions, Wayne says: their layers, their origins, and their coverage.Advice for the cloud buyer: Know what you're buying. Know when you're buying it. Know why you're buying it. And take full advantage of what you bought.The Big Quote: "Remember, digital transformation is driven by technology in two ways: what I can do with my technology, or what somebody else can do with their technology against me. That's what drives the digital transformation. And the cloud products are perfect for that." This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:"The moment of truth" in retail execution: Wisy is not focused on inventory management issues, but rather on helping brands and retailers optimize the display and pricing of products through AI-powered computer vision analysis and predictive analytics.Reaching a tipping point: Tech solutions that leverage AI for retail execution have existed for a while, but have been overly clunky and thus under-utilized. The Wisy platform, by contrast, is optimized for use by human beings in all sorts of environments.Offline analysis: Wisy just announced a major breakthrough—users will now be able to get instant results and analytics, even if they don't have an internet connection or their cloud has gone down. This will save time and lots of money in terms of processing.The Big Quote: "We don't think AI is going to replace humans. On the contrary, we still need humans for a lot of things. But we want humans to be more productive and do what is more rewarding... We see this as a transformation of a whole industry with a new set of tools." Want to learn more about Wisy and founder Min Chen?Explore Wisy in the Acceleration Economy DirectoryConnect with Min on LinkedIn Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Big announcements at recent flagship event in Amsterdam: Toni and Mitch talk about the new "vertical product strategy" SAP Fioneer unveiled at its Financial Services Forum, including three new platforms for banking and insurance customers.Trends in the larger insurance industry: At their recent mega-event, the SAP and SAP Fioneer teams gained a ton of insight into what is top-of-mind for banking and insurance customers in this time of massive change.What's next: With recent technological advances—including the cloud, AI, IoT, 5G, and more—insurance is moving towards a focus on the individual, a shift that has the potential to dramatically change how consumers engage with insurers' products.The Big Quote: "We announced our platform strategy from an SAP Fioneer perspective... Over time, what you're going to see is specific vertical solutions deployed within each one of these three different platforms from us." - Mitch Bouchard This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Speaking the Same Language: Decision-makers accelerate change by embracing industry and vertical cloud with vendors who can understand the transformation of their industries to co-create to grow the business.Buyer Motivations Are Shifting: Vendors need to understand the expectations of today's companies to fulfill promises to ensure they can deliver on the benefits to customers.Features and Function, Not Pricing: Not a new concept. However, decision-makers in the marketplace are experiencing a level of change behind technology-driven features for their P&L.The Big Quote: "…I do think if there's a shift in…who actually sits around that, that boardroom table, I think there's a substantial shift there today, and an exciting one actually for a lot of companies, as long as they can adapt to it."This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Events evolved: As attendees adapt to hybrid shows, understanding what changed enables people to leverage both in-person and online benefits of industry shows.Get creative, opt for flexibility: Hospitality resources may be short-staffed, travel could be affected, or speakers might not be able to attend in person. Event organizers can help vendors increase visibility by going online, conference speakers into the event, and holding virtual meetings.Do your homework to lay the proper groundwork: Outline plans on which vendors to see, sessions to attend, and how to divide and conquer with other colleagues attending. Have you thought of social media to amplify your presence as a leader?Bring it home and take it forward: Vendors look at the opportunity to connect with customers in high-quality conversation and seek feedback to achieve solutions and understand experiences while engaging with business leaders.The Big Quote: “It’s those pure insights that are equally as important to watching and making sure that feature function during a software demo is what you need…certainly the vendor relationship is important, but the experience of your peers is going to speak volumes about if that is real.“This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Three priorities for hiring: Pat says that the best hires (1) are able to do the job well, (2) help diversify the organization in terms of background, ethnicity, etc., and (3) are a good fit culturally for the company and the role.Recruiting today is too passive and too focused on ops: To find the right person for the role you need to fill, companies need to embrace active recruitment done by a talent attraction leader.The most successful companies combine recruiting ops with talent attraction: Hard data about candidates is important to help HR managers make their assessments, but you also need a talent attraction leader who understands soft skills, culture, and other factors like that in order to find the best possible hire.The Big Quote: "You've got a brilliant sales leader focused on customers, customer success, big-deal strategy, how to develop account executives, how to attract them... If you take that person out and put in their sales ops person, that's the same analogy as what's happened to recruiting to talent acquisition leadership over the last several years."This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:A new POV on recent Microsoft announcements: Wayne talks us through his understanding of some key points made by CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood on the company's latest earnings call, and how CIOs and CTOs should interpret them.Microsoft's full-stack offering is key competitive advantage: Purportedly lowering costs for customers is part of how MSFT is working to stay ahead of AWS and others, and the gamut of services they offer is essential to their efforts.The win-win-win of embracing WFH: It's time for boards to accept that WFH is here to stay—sustainability is important for the world and our future, ESG is good for corporate perception, and employee satisfaction is critical to both businesses and workforces.The Big Quote: " When you talk about lowering the customer's bill, I don't think [Satya Nadella] is trying to lower the dollar spent with Microsoft. He's trying to raise the value of what you get. If I spent $1 and got a server, what did I get? If I spent $1 and got a place to run a modern, secure application that's automatically on my phone, what did I just get for that dollar? Yeah, I think Microsoft is saying I'm gonna give you a lot more for your money, because of our unique approach." This episode is brought to you by BMC. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Some background on SAP Fioneer: Falk and Mitch explain how the partnership came to be and offer details about how the two organizations work together while maintaining independence.What makes SAP Fioneer unique in the market: by building the backbone for "the end-to-end business process," SAP Fioneer is more than a point solution or even a vendor, it sees itself as a partner to customers.Looking to the future of financial services: Falk and Mitch each share what they expect to be the next big trends and transitions in FinServ, from making a cashless economy more accessible and equitable to AI to the metaverse.The Big Quote: "It will be more and more important that these systems integrate with each other, speak the same language. This is where you get the economies of scale. This is where you standardize, automate and harmonize your landscape. And if you're able to do that, you will be good for your customers. And what's good for your customers is actually then good for your business, as you can imagine." - Falk Rieker This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Introducing Task Force Tribute (TFT): Inspired by a group of military veterans in Chicago who walked 13 miles to honor 13 service members who died during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, TFT comprises a small group of people who are traveling 7,054 miles together, to all corners of the country, one mile for every service member lost during the Global War on Terror.Creating a virtual memorial to those we've lost: During the cross-country trip, TFT will be raising awareness around its intent to collaborate with leading tech companies in the U.S. to build what Christian calls "the first highly inclusive and encompassing virtual war memorial."How listeners can get involved: Christian suggests three actions to take. First, just spend some time learning about the effort and following the journey. Second, make a donation of $70.54, or any amount, to help support the trip and the memorial. Finally, anyone who is a military member or family of a military member, reach out to the TFT team to share your stories.The Big Quote: "So many people don't want to talk about this kind of stuff, because they don't want to talk about themselves. We want to make it clear that this is an opportunity for our military members to talk about the other great women and men that they served with, and the great examples that they saw, and candidly, and provide a ground truth, if you will, to the history that they were all part of making."This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Project success depends on preparation: About half of enterprise software and digital transformation initiatives fail, and Raven Intelligence data points to the fact that many companies simply don't have their ducks in a row before getting started.Inside the Readiness Tool: Bonnie explains that the tool is both free and easy to use. Anyone on the project team can complete it by answering 14 questions about stakeholder support, team leadership and roles, change management, and planning and prep.The benefits of assessing readiness: The tool will provide a score, one through 100, that will help companies gauge where they are on the spectrum in terms of readiness. It's essentially a litmus test for, should we start this project now?The Big Quote: "You'd be surprised how many customers go through the motions—they select a software, they select the partner, and they truly aren't ready internally to start the project. And lo and behold, they choose a great software, they choose a great partner, and it still fails."Curious about your transformation readiness? Try the new, free tool on the Raven Intelligence website. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The buyer-seller relationship has changed: Customers are claiming more power than ever before, and Jonathan says that companies need to earn the title of "strategic partner," not just throw it around.Telco is transforming around 5G: While recent years have left many telcos in turmoil, the advent of 5G technology is getting the industry its "mojo" back, according to Jonathan.Banks are moving to the cloud: Recent geopolitical upheaval has raised a ton of questions for the banking industry, but at the same time, Jonathan says banks are ready for a "generational leap" in technology.The Big Quote: "I think that's quite fundamental, because that focus on enabling our customers through technology and through partnerships, is key to trust between us. And trust is the foundation of our relationships with our customers."This episode is brought to you by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The embrace of vertical approaches is bigger than go-to-market: companies are looking to software not just to address functional problems, but to solve business challenges and transform business modelsMassive internal reorganizations are coming: in addition to new and surprising partnerships like Microsoft and Oracle on multi-cloud, Tony expects both customer and vendors to deeply evolve their structures and operationsMerger of supply and demand chains is a key example: Professor Luyi Yang in his fireside chat at Cloud Wars Expo talked about "demand distortion events," and the need to knock down silos to better serve today's customers.The Big Quote: "Oftentimes, market transitions are sort of so obvious, they're happening before your very eyes, and then you wake up and you go, 'Oh, I should have paid attention to this.'" Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:What CXOs need to know about hybrid cloud: Wayne walks us through a number different, equally valid hybrid cloud models and explains key security implications when moving to hybrid cloudLook out for "fake cloud" models: CXOs need to be on guard against terms like "virtualization" and "hyper-converged," tactics that might make sense for their company but which are definitely not cloudThe pros and cons of becoming a software creator: amid all the talk about co-creation models between cloud vendors and customers, Wayne offers some critical advice based on his past experience working on both sidesThe Big Quote: "If you get something listed in the Microsoft Store, or the Oracle store, or the Google Store, or the IBM store, and it is a solution for a problem others have and your software is good, your scalability of that product is almost infinite." This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Great software alone isn't enough: For success in a digital transformation project, choosing the right partner to help implement software is just as important as choosing the right software itself.Partner-project fit: The most important factor to consider in picking an implementation partner is project fit, and making sure that the team members assigned to work with you are well versed in the software, in your industry, etc.Why being a "preferred partner" matters: Bonnie estimates that the top 25% of software vendors get around 80% of the opportunities and projects.The Big Quote: "To the extent that you can tell them something they did not know... or you have a level of expertise or intelligence that competitively they could take advantage of, if you can be that person to them, that trusted advisor, that's really key." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Innovation inspired by disruption: From early 2020 today, the world looks completely different. Boards of directors and other leaders are responding by interrogating the way they've always done things and looking for new, more agile systems.RISE gives customers a team behind them: One of the biggest things SAP has heard is that customers love that the RISE program makes clear what everyone on the team's responsibilities are, including SAP, its hyperscaler partners, and the customers themselves.Finding differentiation thru technology: Brian says that every company needs to be a tech company, and to lean on the cloud to help them reimagine and differentiate their business to stand out from competitors.The Big Quote: "What we want to allow customers to do is focus on the build, focus on the innovation, focus on the things that are going to really differentiate themselves from the competition, as opposed to focusing on the run." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Retail supply chains and OODA loops: Fighter pilots are trained to Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act when engaged in fast-moving environments. Retail business leaders should adopt the OODA approach for supply chain planning.Sustainability is key to supply & demand chains: We should not be looking at sustainability in a vacuum, but rather as integral to the efficient production of goods.Invest in connecting IT and OT: Let's talk less about carbon-neutral data centers and more about optimizing physical processes, which improves quality, saves money, and lowers emissions. (NB: keep an eye on strong cybersecurity!)The Big Quote: "If I've observed and oriented and have the tools to decide, then in a supply chain environment, I can act. I can take the shot and I can win the engagement. And that's what companies have to be thinking about in the modern supply chain." This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Differentiate in the market: Reflect on business operations. Make decisive moves and decisions, and act in an agile fashion for the future.Supply chain transparency is essential to stay ahead of the curve: Integrated processes from the quotation down to cash management to facilitate those processes are crucial. Companies need to be able to explain the delay and provide alternative solutions to deliver quality outcomes to customers.Sustainability and getting to a circular economy: Embed sustainability throughout the processes and data models natively. Infrastructure complemented with additional applications, like the sustainability control tower, brings all of the ESG KPIs together to measure the progress, product footprint management, and carbon footprint into an auditable session.The foundation of success for the future: Bring together vertical and horizontal integration to how companies solve problems and establish industry networks to optimize supply chain and for sustainability purposes.The Big Quote: "The new normal is about constant crisis management. That’s the reality we need to face, and you need to be prepared. That’s the reason why an agile enterprise architecture is essential – software is a key ingredient to succeed."Connect with Thomas on more ways to drive sustainable supply change in the digital revolution. This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The Yext promise: Josh describes the platform as a place for "ingesting data, structuring it, and then delivering it as in the form of answers everywhere that it's needed."Keeping public data in sync: Yext customers want to help their consumers easily find information like hours of operation, product availability, and more, wherever they're searching. Yext helps structure that data, then automatically syncs it across various websites.Working across multiple clouds: Part of the reason that Yext and Redis work so well together is that both can operate in multiple clouds. Redis serves as a back-end system for Yext anywhere it has a point of presence.The Big Quote: "As a SaaS platform, we're continually evolving. If a new place appears where consumers are looking for data, we will build an integration with them. If a new use case comes up, we will be able to satisfy it. And we're always adding new features." This episode is sponsored by Redis. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The stats, yet with so little scrutiny: Machine, also referred to as bot-related ad revenue, was $81 billion in 2022 with projections to increase to 100 billion in 2023.Machine or bot accounts inflate financials: If Twitter or Facebook decided to take down all of the fake accounts, they would have to restate their earnings.Dealing with a completely different mindset: Companies and executives realize they will be judged by their ability to harness technology to transform their businesses.Thought of the day: We are now hitting an inflection point based on the unbelievable power of cloud infrastructure, applications and tools and the agility that it gives these companies. What is technology enabling us to do to dazzle the customers and make more money?The Big Quote: "I think the part that analysts are probably missing that links directly to the market is, I think you need to go upstream as an analyst and understand how companies are deploying modern technology today, as a part of your analysis of their financial performance." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Three tips for the precarious present: As the coronavirus continues to evolve and spread, Wayne says that business leaders need to be realistic about people returning to work (or not) and think creatively about how best to move forward.The CXO Lounge at Cloud Wars Expo: Wayne previews this unique feature of next month's conference, a dedicated space for conversations, debates, and jam sessions between and among C-level execs and Acceleration Economy Analysts.Looking beyond a potential recession: This year, the tech industry is going to invest $20 or $30 billion just in innovation. So while it's good to think about a downturn in spending, leaders need to have courage to make key investments now.The Big Quote: "Have the courage to invest in technology. Invest in your manufacturing, your supply chain, your fulfillment, your customer during a slowdown... There's going to be opportunities at the end of that that we can't even envision today. Be ready to seize them. And the cloud gives you that opportunity." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Balancing conflicting responsibilities: Christian's first story takes place during an operation by the Marine Corps when he was a young platoon commander.Reflecting and preparing for big life changes: The second lesson Christian learned came to him after he left active duty, and was struggling with the loss of community and camaraderie.Staying vulnerable and open to input: Lastly, Christian recounts a period in his business career when he got himself trapped in tunnel-vision on a project—and the results were quite bad.The Big Quote: "I don't always want people to hold my hands. When I make a mistake, sometimes I want somebody to go, you made a mistake. There's something really powerful about direct and even near-immediate feedback, when delivered with good intent, with the purpose of correcting something that maybe needed to be corrected." This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:ERP as a Service: In the past, business transformations and ERP transformations took years to complete. Today, customers need to get up and running on new platforms much more quickly—so Infosys developed an ERP as a Service offering, a bundle that simplifies and accelerates the process.Industry cloud solutions: Part of how Infosys guides clients through business transformation is through industry-specific "templates" that help customers envision what their new processes will look like.Clients save 30 to 40% on TCO: Infosys helps its customers get up and running on S/4 HANA cloud more quickly, but also at a reduced cost thanks to increased efficiencies.The Big Quote: "We are very thrilled to take the partner-managed cloud approach for RISE with SAP. We're seeing a lot of successes and clients are loving it. Clients are saying that the whole adoption of S/4 HANA cloud is simplified even more with Infosys ERP as a service."This episode is sponsored by Infosys. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The trap of vanity metrics: certain statistics you hear all the time, like "we have 96% customer satisfaction," are not telling the full story. These metrics are easy to come by and make us feel good, but in the end they do not really help us.Metrics that actually matter: in a digital transformation, the stats that you need are those that tie back to business objectives. This means revenue improvements, cost reductions, and working capital improvements.Trust but verify: Raven Intelligence can help with choosing a vendor or partner by helping you verify the metrics you're hearing from salespeople. It's important to confirm the source of the stat, and its relevance to your business and goals.The Big Quote: "You hear a statistic like 'on-time delivery.' But how is that defined? Because if on-time delivery is 96%, and it's based on a date that's moved eight times... Well, it's easy to have an on-time delivery for a moving target. And so in those types of cases, when you hear numbers like that, you always want to sort of peel back the onion." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Massive changes to cloud marketplaces: Amazon and Google Cloud are transforming the ways that companies buy software through their cloud MPs, and DoiT is helping customers respond to those changesGrowth requires agility: the standard locked-in discounts of the past aren't working for software companies anymore, so DoiT is taking on the lock-ins with cloud partners and delivering flexible, growth-oriented benefits to ISV customersTrusting customers to know what they need: DoiT’s ISV Program and products like FlexSave, GTM Funds, and Agency selections, reflect its belief in trusting customers to know best what they needThe Big Quote: "It's this fundamental shift from the old way of thinking, which was 'if I spend a million dollars, will you give me 5% off?' And this new way of thinking is, 'because I'm spending a million dollars with you, how can you help me grow?'" This episode is brought to you by DoiT. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The "cradle to grave" approach: Pat and Pam worked together for many years to develop creative, advanced programs for talent acquisition and retention. One of their initiatives was to increase the collaboration between talent acquisition and talent management teams.Planning a culture vs. letting one happen: Companies should be in the driver's seat when it comes to HR and company culture. This requires focused, pointed culture development.Assessments and candidate data: The information gathered about candidates through formal assessments or otherwise should be shared throughout the organization to help develop their training and path.The Big Quote: "I think a lot of organizations think of assessments as being punitive, but in fact, the data is so rich and can really help you think about somebody's career plan, somebody's career growth opportunities, and help to align that with somebody's own aspirations." - Pam Seplow This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Netflix's disruptive start: Tony had an "inside baseball view" of the early disruptions Netflix made to the entertainment industry in the early 2000s, and he reminds us of just how innovative the company wasA myopic focus on customers matters more than ever: when companies start to "over manage the equity markets" and fail to put the customer at the center of everything they do, that's when things go southLet's talk about business growth at Cloud Wars Expo: join us in San Francisco June 28-29-30 to explore critical questions about how to unlock, manage, and accelerate growth in today's world.The Big Quote: "Somehow, one of the world's most valuable and and most scalable companies ever created lost touch with customer sentiment and customer needs. And I think that's the real story here." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Episode 20 The Big Themes:Change management and change agility are often overlooked: Raven Intelligence research shows that customers' most frequent regret after completing digital transformation projects is that they didn't dedicate enough time and resources to change management processes.The Six Es of Operationalizing Change: From a presentation by Josh Bersin, these six steps are absolutely essential to change management, Bonnie says.Change agility: With how fast technology evolves, change management is always an ongoing project, so companies need to commit to cultivating a culture within their organization that is change-agile.The Big Quote: "It's not just an idea, it's something that you need to budget for during a digital transformation. It's sort of a box that you need to sort of put around all of these things. And I will tell you, it's not a cheap box."--This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:How silos impede product innovation: Ray describes "a chasm" that has traditionally existed between product teams and their counterparts working in sales and marketing. Given that every person in those departments has a hand in bringing a product to market, closing that gap is necessary to make better products, and make them faster.Industry-specific solutions are the future: Customers' expectations are higher than ever before, and they expect their vendors to understand their specific needs, pain points, and goals. As such, companies like Propel need subject-matter experts to help design software and solutions tailored to customers' industries.The tailwinds driving growth for Propel: The way businesses work is changing rapidly and in countless ways. As leaders rethink their business and revenue models, internal structures, and more, Propel is the perfect partner to help them design a "whole office" solution for product development.The Big Quote: "It used to be that we as product people and product managers thought, 'We understand what the customer needs. We're gonna design it. If we build it, they will come.' It was kind of a Field of Dreams mindset of how products were designed and launched. But it's not the case today, because people have way too many choices."--This episode is sponsored by Propel. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:How Ulta grew 40% amid Covid-19 disruptions: Omar talks about the company's innovation department and the remarkable 4-week turnaround it achieved for introducing curbside pickup at all physical locations.Merging the physical and digital: Ulta aims to dazzle customers with a seamless experience, no matter where they're shopping. Omar describes what that would look like from the customer's perspective and what Ulta's doing in terms of increasing personalization.The power of data and Redis: In addition to making Ulta's backend systems faster and more efficient, Redis has helped simplify the entire process of upgrading Ulta's technology platform. The Big Quote: "What we don't want to do is just put something out there because Omar wanted it, but millions of customers don't even care about it. So data is key. Data helps us make the right decisions, data helps us to make the right investment. With data we can be sure that we're actually delivering what our customers are looking for."--This episode is brought to you by Redis. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:An update on the sale of Thomas to Xometry: Tony describes how the two companies are fitting together and creating a new kind of on-demand manufacturing marketplace.What's the true ROI of technology these days? Following the acquisition, Tony's been on a bit of a listening tour, having lots of conversations with other business leaders, and a theme that's emerged is uncertainty around the real impact that new technology can have on a business. Tony has some important ideas about this.The role of CXOs in tech implementation: It's essential that business leaders work to demystify new technology for employees, and help their teams understand how they fit into the new structure and processes it creates. The Big Quote: "Technology is about growth. Yes, you might create something more efficient. But if that increased efficiency doesn't allow you to reallocate resources and push growth, then frankly, I don't know that your shareholders are going to be dazzled."Want to be part of Tony's listening tour?Connect with him on LinkedIn and fire away. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Data-first modernization: the return of the Chief Data Officer in many organizations goes hand-in-hand with an increasing effort to streamline data landscapes and eliminate technical debt.Opportunity at the edge: compute power at the edge has strengthened, allowing companies to push real-time analytics out of the edge with a relatively small footprint and transforming how businesses think about it.Industrialized data supply chains: like at a car plant, Matt says that end-to-end automation is needed in data supply chains, which means lots of new software and tools and lots of new skills training.The Big Quote: "The early adopters have figured out that cloud is not a cost savings, it's an agility and velocity engine, right? It's profit centers. It's the ability to address our customers in new and different ways." This episode is sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Modernizing without compromise: every customer is going to have vastly different needs and different use cases, but HPE is adamant about meeting the specific requirements of each one.Putting the platform next to the data: giving customers the ability to access their data in its native form helps them avoid running through hoops in terms of compliance, governance, operations, and more.What's next for HPE GreenLake: look for more in the realms of protected infrastructure, data set management, and exploring what it looks like to separate database administrator roles, the classic IT roles, from the data operation roles.The Big Quote: "HP GreenLake's fundamental problem proposition is to bring in what you've been buying before... and then have our GreenLake managed services organization take care of it for you, so that you don't have to worry about it anymore. And it scales up and down based on your needs." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• President Zelensky of Ukraine's heroic example: Leaders are force multipliers for the people that they lead, and to do that, they have to communicate, compel, and inspire. Zelensky is doing all of those things, while refusing to flee his country in the midst of war. It's inspiring.• The sacrifices of leadership: Being a leader is an exhausting occupation. Because you are constantly having to put other considerations before you yourself. True leaders are always last in line, and that is difficult.• We deserve better leaders in the U.S.: From both a business and political perspective, Christian says that the United States is really lacking in true leadership. "The great resignation" is as much about leadership as it is about anything else.The Big Quote: "Yes, companies need to make money in a profit in order to continue, but that profitability does not need to supersede the demand the leader should have on them to ensure the longevity of the organization and the care and feeding of the people that work there."--Explore more in the Cloud Wars series - https://accelerationeconomy.com/cloud-wars/Listen to more episode of Cloud Wars Live - https://accelerationeconomy.com/tag/cloud-wars-podcast/Connect with Christian on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiananschuetz/--This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Watch "Sadin on Digital," a monthly series that explores the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business and what approaches CEOs and boards must take to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. A series by Cloud Wars Live.The Big Themes:• The new Future CXO and Board channel from Acceleration Economy: Wayne is helping to lead a new content stream, and his tagline is "two minutes of tech talk for top executives." See more here - https://accelerationeconomy.com/future-office-of-the-cxo/• Technical debt and what CXOs need to know: there are 3 main danger areas when it comes to technical debt and cybersecurity, and Wayne explains each of those and why non-technical CXOs need to understand them.• "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is wrong: in tech, being proactive is the only way to stay ahead. Ignoring problems you can't see in front of you is going to cause massive problems, so CXOs must invest now.The Big Quote: "The acceleration economy is accelerating, whether you are or not. And that's the message I want to give to the CEO, to the CFO, to the CMO, to the board executive: you've got to understand what this stuff can do for you, or do to you."--This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.