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Jason Richardson is the chief digital officer of Serco Asia Pacific, which provides a wide array of services — including IT systems integration and management, engineering, and facilities management — to governments and private organizations throughout the region. In a recent interview, he described why his group is embracing a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI)–powered management platform and discussed its strategy for transitioning to a modern, agile environment. Q: What IT issues did your organization want to address? A: We deliver technology services at a hospital in Australia’s western state, which Serco Asia Pacific manages. We used to work in a traditional way. For example, we’d get a request to build a service, take inputs, and ensure we understood the requirements, and then we’d build. However, the waterfall method can be prone to failure, not through ill-intent but because it’s not a modern process. So, three years ago, we revamped our technology strategy under the principles of honoring our past achievements while transitioning to a modernized environment that can adapt to rapidly changing technology ecosystems. Our strategy focused on four key pillars: Embracing cloud technology without compromising our security posture Transitioning to a product-driven model that fosters cross-company collaboration Opting for a hybrid delivery model that emphasizes career opportunities for staff and cost-effectiveness Accelerating innovation through AI and automation Q: In what ways did you collaborate with BMC Software to modernize? A: BMC Helix goes well beyond just capturing tickets and monitoring volumes and availability. The platform employs predictive AI to predict potential issues before they happen and provides outcome-based solutions while enhancing interaction experiences with technology teams. The Serco technology team, in collaboration with BMC, has carefully crafted a “module” transition. Currently the teams are utilizing the core modules for operations and application monitoring. We’re already seeing the expected cloud benefits of increased reliability, and there are far fewer concerns about the solution’s availability compared to the previous on-premises managed solution’s. Our teams have more time to focus on delivering best-in-class technology service outcomes for clients at the hospital. And now that the core modules are in place, the team’s focus will shift to exploring the transformational benefits of AI. Q: How do you envision the future role of AI within your organization? A: Exploring and embracing AI is a cornerstone of our strategy. With our cloud foundation and product-oriented ways of working, Serco’s cross-company teams are actively engaging in AI trials. We’re assessing various generative AI platforms to enhance outcomes and productivity for government services and Serco teams. Successful AI adoption hinges on collaboration with different departments and stakeholders to ensure that our digital initiatives align with Serco’s overall strategic goals. The future of IT service and operations management relies on a solid foundation of cloud and AI. Discover how the BMC Helix platform powers this modernization, and contact BMC today for more information. source

Leadership and governance  Leadership is crucial in ensuring that AI initiatives align with business goals. CIOs and senior leaders must provide strong leadership, direction and, most importantly, supporting the roadmap. This is especially critical during the execution phase of the journey in order to navigate the bumps that are bound to arise at the business process, people and culture pillars. Effective leadership involves strategic planning and active engagement with AI initiatives, championing AI efforts, communicating their strategic importance, building a culture of alignment and ensuring they are integrated into the business strategy.  Most importantly investing in the right team of people to bring this vision to reality. For most of the 22% of AI leaders who have emerged, the time since ChatGPT went live in November of 2022 has been a period of AI incubation, investment, and focused effort. Much of that energy has been spent assembling the right team and fully backing them with robust leadership and change management. The dynamic nature of both AI and business environments warrants this approach because it requires continuous evaluation and adjustments of AI initiatives. That’s just the nature of this beast.  Governance starts with data and is then integrated into AI. Data-driven decision-making is at the heart of any successful AI implementation. Ensuring that data is used responsibly and compliantly is a prerequisite. As AI becomes more embedded in data processes, governance in AI encompasses data integrity and quality.  source

A new Deloitte survey shows ROI on gen AI is not coming as quickly as hoped, but interest and excitement remain high. Nevertheless, CIOs need to identify and overcome barriers to large-scale deployment. source

Within the renamed USDS, the order creates a temporary organization “dedicated to advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda.” The US DOGE Service Temporary Organization will cease to exist on July 4, 2026. Across government, each agency head will be required to establish a “DOGE Team” consisting of four or more employees within 30 days. The teams will typically consist of a team lead, an engineer, a human resources specialist, and an attorney, and will be expected to coordinate with USDS on implementing the DOGE agenda. As for that agenda, the USDS is expected to “commence a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems,” and to “promote inter-operability between agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization.” source

The public cloud turns 23 this year, and enterprise migration of on-premises workloads isn’t just continuing — it’s speeding up. According to the Foundry Cloud Computing Study 2024, 63% of enterprise CIOs were accelerating their cloud migrations, up from 57% in 2023. When organizations migrate applications to the cloud, they expect to see significant benefits: increased scalability, stronger security and accelerated adoption of new technologies. But CIOs have significant, well-founded concerns around costs. Specifically, CIOs worry about controlling costs (51%) and how much costs will add up in the long term (49%), according to the Foundry study. Much of that concern may be rooted in the conventional wisdom that migrating to the cloud does not cut costs. Which can be true if your efforts end with migration. Certainly, no CIO would try to migrate a mainframe or a traditional monolithic application directly to the cloud. But a VM or a containerized application also isn’t going to provide the full benefits of the cloud without modernization. As AWS points out on the company’s blog, “On-premises applications aren’t commonly designed to take advantage of the capabilities that the cloud offers, such as elasticity, resiliency, automation, and such.” What’s the solution? Modernization. “From the standpoint of the cloud, a containerized or virtualized application is usually still a monolith,” said Matt Leising, managing director of engineering at Solution Design Group (SDG). “You need to break that application down into its parts, because some parts are utilized more than others. Once you break it apart into a collection of services, with cloud capabilities, you can allocate fewer CPU and storage resources to those services that aren’t used often to bring those costs down.” By rearchitecting applications so each component functions as a separate, but connected service, organizations can avoid paying for unnecessary cloud resources. In fact, if infrequently used services are deployed in a serverless cloud environment, the cloud will only allocate CPU to them when they need to run, which can significantly cut costs. Cost savings are far from the only advantage of modernization, however. Modernization can also enable enterprises to cost-effectively scale applications as their businesses grow. As AWS writes, by refactoring an application, a coder’s aim is to “modify its architecture by taking full advantage of cloud-native features to improve agility, performance, and scalability. This is driven by strong business demand to scale, accelerate product and feature releases, and to reduce costs.” “We had a customer that migrated a large application to the cloud without modernizing,” Leising said, “resulting in the need for an enormous amount of compute resources. To scale the application to their other regions, they would have had to buy the same amount of compute capacity for each region, which would have been far too expensive. We helped them modernize the application, enabling them to scale efficiently and cost-effectively.” In another case, SDG partnered with Cargill to modernize an agricultural commodities trading platform for the cloud. The results are a good example of the benefits of modernization, including:   Cost reduction: Reduced administrative costs through improved infrastructure and processes. Improved user experience: A modern, mobile-friendly interface increased usability and reduced errors for users. Greater business agility: The AWS cloud-hybrid platform allows Cargill to rapidly build and deploy new capabilities as user needs evolve. Scalable performance: The platform can handle high-volume, globally distributed transactions while maintaining flexibility and adaptability. SDG is an employee-owned business and technology company with deep expertise in cloud migration, application modernization, and DevOps automation. Learn how SDG can help maximize your organization’s investment in the cloud. source

Eighteen countries, including the UK, Canada, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, are exempted from the AI export caps. The Biden administration had previously banned the export of some powerful AI chips to China, Russia, and other adversaries in rules from 2022 and 2023. But other countries friendly to the US, including Mexico, Israel, India, and Saudi Arabia, would be subject to the quotas. The export limits would take effect 120 days from the Jan. 13 order, and it’s unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will amend or rewrite the rule, although Trump has targeted China as a primary economic competitor of the US. The cost of AI In addition to cutting off most of the world from large AI chip purchases, the rule will force countries such as China and Russia to pump up their own AI capabilities, ultimately reducing US AI leadership, claims Aible’s Sengupta. source

By Bryan Kirschner, Vice President, Strategy at DataStax Insight, expertise, and know-how. Discernment, comprehension, and adeptness.  Acumen, sagacity, and skill. Judgment, shrewdness, and savvy. These words all capture variations on a theme: Applying knowledge is how people create value. Two of the most important levers for creating superior value arise from the “insight” domain (coming up with better ideas) and the “know-how” domain (delivering better execution). Today, for example, anyone who uses their iPhone to place an order for Amazon Key In-Garage Delivery is enjoying the result of organizations and their leaders who aced creating superior value during the last two decades of digital transformation. I have no doubt that as consumers, we’ll soon enjoy new generative AI (genAI)-driven experiences that move the needle on delightfulness, efficiency, or both. But if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you, your colleagues, your team, or all three are in the business of coming up with ideas for and figuring out how to deliver valuable genAI-driven experiences. Making the most of any new technology depends on shifting the mindset of people and retooling processes. (We cover this topic in the white paper: From Productivity Paradox to Abundance Agenda: Jobs, growth, and inclusion with GenAI.) In this first of a short series of articles, we offer a way to inspire individuals to take a growth mindset toward the opportunity genAI presents. Augmentation excellence and excellent augmentation Because this dynamic is just as relevant when acting altruistically as individuals as it is when mobilized at massive scale in pursuit of profit in a Fortune 500 corporation, we’ll use a story that is (literally) close to home: a parent and child. Google’s “Dear Sydney” 2024 Olympics-themed ad for its Gemini LLM-powered chatbot was controversial. That’s a shame, because its first half sets the stage for a great introduction to the potential of genAI. Let’s begin with how the ad started and where it rubbed people the wrong way, and then get into a revised ending. The setup of the ad-as-aired is a father and daughter. The daughter wants to write a fan letter to her favorite athlete: Olympian world-record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The pivotal moment of the father’s lead-in is: “She wants to show Sydney some love, and I’m pretty good with words, but this has to be just right.” Just after that point (at the 33 second mark), he proceeds to tell Gemini to “help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is and be sure to mention that my daughter plans on breaking her world record one day.” Critics attacked that bit for reasons we won’t rehash here. Instead, let’s imagine a different version of the ad. In this one, the father still opens with “She wants to show Sydney some love, and I’m pretty good with words, but this has to be just right.” But then after that, what he says to the AI is: You are an experienced, patient, caring elementary school English teacher. I am a caring father. My 10-year-old daughter wants to write a fan letter to her favorite athlete. It is very important to my daughter that the letter be “just right.” She wants to fully convey her admiration and how the athlete inspires her. Think step by step. First, suggest 3 to 5 tips for helping young people with writing in general. Second, suggest 3 to 5 tips for making a fan letter heartfelt and engaging. Finally, suggest 3 to 5 tips for reducing my daughter’s anxiety about getting the letter just right and making this into a fun shared experience between us. This story demonstrates two broadly applicable principles. We call the first “augmentation excellence.” That means having the skills to put genAI to good use and caring to put in the effort to use them. Our dad shows some solid prompting skills. And while it’s beyond the scope of this article, the applicable knowledge gained through our hands-on experimentation with genAI was head and shoulders above simple web searches (e.g., “how to help a child with writing”). The second is what we call “excellent augmentation.” By this we mean a savvy or delightful use of genAI: something that causes a team to say, “we’re so glad we did that,” or a customer to say, “that was amazing.” In our testing, the prize went to noting that if the daughter would be helped by being able to read other fan letters, a dad with augmentation excellence skills could quickly generate a couple dozen diverse simulated ones. If she sat down to write her own, inspired by passages about which she says, “I really like the way they expressed…” or, “this really reminded me of something I like about Sydney,” that’s excellent augmentation. Augment your excellence If you’re committed to being your best self at anything from coaching direct reports, making client presentations, or even doing something fun with your kids, we hope genAI is a bigger part of your plans than before you read this vignette. You might even be in a position to catalyze or lead an organization-wide genAI journey. For you, we’ll tackle how to adapt processes to scale the use of genAI, foster alignment, and get on a path to organizational excellence above and beyond personal know-how in our next article. Learn more about DataStax. About Bryan Kirschner:Bryan is Vice President, Strategy at DataStax. For more than 20 years he has helped large organizations build and execute strategy when they are seeking new ways forward and a future materially different from their past. He specializes in removing fear, uncertainty, and doubt from strategic decision-making through empirical data and market sensing. source

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, organizations are under constant pressure to adopt new technologies quickly, manage costs effectively, and maintain robust security and compliance standards. They’re also under tremendous pressure to build, manage, and scale IT automation across the organization. The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, available as both self-managed and fully managed solutions, is available through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace, enabling streamlined access to the solution, quick deployment and integration within existing AWS environments, flexible and scalable pricing options, and unified governance and compliance capabilities. The Benefits of Procuring Through AWS Marketplace   Organizations are bogged down by lengthy vendor negotiations in traditional procurement methods, complex billing, and decentralized purchasing processes. AWS Marketplace, however, enables an environment in which organizations of all sizes can find, try, buy, deploy, and manage solutions from AWS Partners within the AWS ecosystem. Procuring through AWS Marketplace has a number of benefits. For example, companies can optimize time-to-value with standardized contracts and flexible payment options, allowing them to test software, pay as they go, negotiate custom terms, and save with volume pricing. “Dealing with one vendor for your procurement versus dealing with potentially 5,000 is a major benefit,” says John Walter, senior partner solutions architect at AWS. Organizations procuring through AWS Marketplace reduce risk with centralized governance and control. Users can launch third-party solutions that meet their security and compliance standards. Businesses can also optimize costs by consolidating third-party spending with AWS billing. This enables companies to simplify invoicing, track spending, and manage budgets. “You’re able to negotiate pricing with these partners, and having a single bill is a major benefit to customers,” Walter says. The Advantage of Red Hat and AWS Marketplace The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, available from the AWS Marketplace, offers customers all the benefits of Ansible automation, deployed on their AWS cloud. This solution, available as a self-managed or fully managed solution, provides organizations the tools they need to deploy enterprise wide automation. The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform integrates with native AWS services and the full Ansible collection for AWS, making it easier and faster to provision. Users get the complete Ansible Automation platform, including the full Ansible collection for AWS, as well as integration services such as EC2, CloudFormation, VPC, ALB, AMI, Security Groups, key pairs, EFS, EBS, S3, RDS, Lambda, AWS Secret, and more. Customers also have unlimited access to experienced technical support engineers. Though customers of both the self-managed and fully managed solution can expect these same features, there are key differences: The Ansible Automation Platform Service on AWS is a managed service that Red Hat deploys and fully manages. Upgrades, patches, and ongoing maintenance of the platform are performed by Red Hat, enabling customers to focus on automation. The Ansible Automation Platform is a self-managed version of the Ansible Automation Platform. Customers are responsible for deploying the platform via a simple, streamlined processes. Customers are also responsible for performing ongoing maintenance and upgrades to the platform. Both the fully managed and self-managed offerings integrate seamlessly with both AWS infrastructure and services, as well as hybrid cloud resources, Walter says. “The key benefit to deploying either a self-managed or fully managed version of Ansible is you’ll be able to get up and running faster,” Walter says. “You don’t need to spend time on the deployment, and you’ll be able to take advantage of working within an ecosystem you’re comfortable and familiar with.” For more Red Hat information, click here. To view Red Hat offerings on AWS Marketplace, click here. source