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GOLD COAST, Australia, September 12, 2023

Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2023 APAC: Day 2 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place this week on the Gold Coast, Australia. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference. You can read the highlights from Day 1 here.

On Day 2 of the conference, we are covering sessions on sustainable IT, secure digital workplaces, getting AI right in government and the business value of IT.

Key Announcements

A Net Zero Roadmap for Sustainable IT

Presented by Kristin Moyer, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner

Most current sustainable IT programs represent a great start, but are barely scratching the surface of getting close to net zero. CIOs in enterprises with big sustainability ambitions will need to significantly up their game to achieve net zero in IT, and likewise, act in support of the wider enterprise. In this session, Kristin Moyer, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, outlined steps organizations can take to achieve net zero.

Key Takeaways

  • “Keep an eye on innovations that will help you bend the curve to net zero, whether it be new processor architecture, energy proportional processors, optical computing, or even potentially quantum.” 
  • “Determine how much to invest in sustainable IT. Invest more when your net zero goal has been set and IT intensity is high. Invest less if your main objective is regulatory compliance or if sustainability isn’t a top business priority.”
  • “Focus on extreme efficiency. Data center capacity and efficiency is already becoming a constraint.”
  • “Drive the best renewable energy strategy for your enterprise and your most carbon intensive suppliers.”
  • “Take responsibility for cloud sustainability. Use a cloud operating model and turn off compute instances when possible. Work with cloud providers committed to sustainability, or host your cloud powered by renewable energy.”
  • “Optimize demand placed on data centers. Start the journey from always-on to always-available. Innovate and collaborate on energy-efficient architectures and software.”
  • “Extend the life of digital workplace assets and reduce device intensity. Employee education and engagement are key.”

Shift Left to Deliver a More Secure Digital Workplace (and Receive a Bonus Impact to Corporate Culture)

Presented by Richard Addiscott, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

Too often employees are seen as the weakest link when it comes to cybersecurity breaches. But is it fair when they virtually have no influence over the security of the systems they use daily? In this session, Richard Addiscott, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, discussed how taking a more holistic approach to securing an organization’s internal digital supply chain delivers a secure workplace and fosters a security conscious culture.

Key Takeaways

  • “For too long, there’s been a legacy view that the employee is the weakest link, resulting in them being the focus of security awareness efforts.”
  • “Consider your employees at the far end of your organization’s digital supply chain, with no choice on the tools and applications they are required to use to do their jobs."
  • “In traditional security awareness efforts, organizations are far more likely to miss the vulnerabilities being introduced along the entire internal digital supply chain by focusing purely on employees.”
  • “Shift your gaze left, focusing on vulnerabilities being introduced elsewhere along the internal digital supply chain to optimize your ability to foster a more secure digital workplace."
  • “Implementing a security behavior and culture program helps foster new ways of thinking and embed new behavior, with the intent to provoke more secure ways of working across the organization.”
  • “Establishing a more secure set of DevOps processes is the first shift left back up the internal digital supply chain."
  • “Undertaking human-centered security design will help reduce any unnecessary cybersecurity induced friction into operational environments, ultimately ensuring greater value from security investments.”
  • “Implementing a security champions program effectively penetrates messages deeper and resonates more with teams because they’re being delivered by people who work alongside them every day."

Government: Get AI Right, or Fail, in a Post-Digital Era

Presented by Dean Lacheca, VP Analyst, Gartner

It’s time for governments to mature their approach to AI. Getting assurance, ethics and engineering right is essential to any CIOs success, but in government, failure can have catastrophic impacts on society. In this session, Dean Lacheca, VP Analyst at Gartner, outlined the key actions that government CIOs must take to get AI right.

Key Takeaways

  • “AI use cases continue to emerge across government, ranging from chatbots and fraud detection, to police evidence management and traffic management.”
  • “Government AI success will not be measured by pilots but through trusted, sustainable adoption and targeted mission impact.”
  • “While there are significant benefits to using AI in government, controlling access to data, privacy and a structured approach are critical to adoption.”
  • “Traditional engineering-based quality assurance processes will not address government risk factors.”
  • “Government AI oversight will be defined by continuous vigilance. You need to know when AI is doing something wrong, who is accountable, and what to do when AI falls outside of acceptable guide rails.”
  • “Build out a strategic blueprint for AI including responsible AI guidelines and metrics. Develop a roadmap that demonstrates where AI technologies are directly contributing to improved outcomes.”
  • “A structured approach toward understanding, using and implementing responsible AI practices is essential for government organizations leveraging the technology.”
  • “Pilot narrow AI use cases with a quick ROI that rely on proven models, tracking progress and lessons learnt along the way.”

How Can CIOs Communicate the Business Value of IT?

Presented by Sid Sahoo, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

CIOs constantly struggle to communicate the business value of IT. Why? Because it's the wrong question. The right question to ask is: "how does digital information and technology contribute to business outcomes?" In this session, Sid Sahoo, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, outlined new techniques for demonstrating how IT initiatives enable multiple, inter-related business initiatives that collectively deliver enterprise outcomes.

Key Takeaways

  • “IT demonstrates value when we enable business outcomes, not when we report effort expended, resources consumed or work done.”
  • “Highlight the impact technology can have on business outcomes, so the value in the investment is recognized and IT gets the funding it needs.”
  • “As you focus on value, think from a perspective of value being an outcome. Inputs and resources are great, but they don't communicate value; they're just efforts and work.”
  • “Identify and engage with decision makers so they become the value owner. If they understand the value, they will help prioritize and provide ongoing funding stability for projects.”
  • “When communicating value, focus on being relevant to your audience and use language that is understood by them. Don't teach them to think and talk like a technologist.”
  • “Identify the top outcomes that technology can improve for your organization, and tell executives how it can impact what they care most about.”

Tune back in tomorrow for more updates from the conference.
View coverage from Day 1

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