Innovating at the Speed of DevOps - Guest: Ashish Kakran, Principal of Thomvest Ventures

08/31/22 • 43 min

This conversation is part of our Lead/Forward series, where we talk with technology leaders about the real stories behind the themes of innovation, talent, and experience. In this episode, we interview Ashish Kakran, Principal of Thomvest Ventures to find out how his organization nurtures the future of technology and advancement by investing in companies to help them become leaders in their fields. During the discussion we tackle the technology challenges related to multi-cloud, including infrastructure, security in DevOps, and continually scaling workloads. We delve into how covid played a big role in speeding up the digital transformation, and how CSOs and CIOs are working to enable innovation without inhibiting applications or compromising their companies.

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Time stamps:

01:00 Convergence of Security

05:15 View of the Market as an Investor

07:51 Multi-cloud Expansion and Usage

12:00 Multi-cloud logistics and security

15:30 Future dominance and structure of multi-cloud

18:00 AI and ML Impact on Customer Experience

23:00 Impact of Culture, Team Structure, and Tech on Customers

30:00 CIO and CSO Realignment Reservations

32:00 Transform or Die

34:00 CSOs with a Seat at the Table

36:00 Security Economics

37:00 What Companies are Doing Right and Wrong

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Links:

Ashish Kakran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kakran/

CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon
[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords:

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, IT, information technology, business, technology, cto, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, investment, cloud, multi-cloud, security, devops, devsecops, artificial intelligence, machine learning

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Time stamps:

01:00 Convergence of Security

05:15 View of the Market as an Investor

07:51 Multi-cloud Expansion and Usage

12:00 Multi-cloud logistics and security

15:30 Future dominance and structure of multi-cloud

18:00 AI and ML Impact on Customer Experience

23:00 Impact of Culture, Team Structure, and Tech on Customers

30:00 CIO and CSO Realignment Reservations

32:00 Transform or Die

34:00 CSOs with a Seat at the Table

36:00 Security Economics

37:00 What Companies are Doing Right and Wrong

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Links:

Ashish Kakran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kakran/

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Keywords:

Previous Episode

Having a Thick Skin in Executive Search is Critical - Guest: Martha Heller, CEO of Heller Search Associates

Nowadays, technology is a crucial part of every company. Technology leaders need to be capable of more than just supporting their business, they need to be able to help drive it. Heller Search is an executive search firm that places technology leaders in the right opportunity for them, nationwide, and across all industries.

In this episode we speak with Martha Heller, CEO at Heller Search Associates, to find out how her team excels at navigating the IT talent market while engaging with high level of candidates. Martha explains why working in executive search is so fascinating because she learns so much by engaging with different business models, cultures, and candidates. She sheds light on how the pandemic has changed the rules for recruiters and clients, including what companies have to do now to retain top talent. Martha describes what is required of technology leaders to be impactful, how they need to look at their career development, and how roles in technology are shifting.

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Key Quotes:

“If we are all in a company whose products and services are more and more dependent on software and on data, and we all are, that means we all need to be a little bit IT, a little bit data, a little bit business. We all have to be these cyborgs who can be our own data analysts, who can be our own technologists. So the dramatic shift that I'm seeing is CIOs recognizing that they need to get out of the business of delivering data and software unto their users who then consume it and they need to design an organization that democratizes IT and democratizes data.” - Martha Heller

“For a CIO to be considered a highly qualified candidate, they need to be a really good communicator. They need to demonstrate that they're not an order taker, executing on somebody else's strategy that they themselves are strategic thinkers, but it's not my way or the highway. They're really good collaborators, so that business partnership relationship piece is extremely important. They understand how to run a high performing IT organization, and they can prove that through metrics. That's what companies are looking for.” - Martha Heller

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Time stamps:

01:15 Approach to Executive Recruiting

04:45 Difference Between Prospects and Clients

07:45 Approach to Candidate Market

11:15 Impact of the Pandemic on Retention and Recruiting

13:45 Shifts in Technology Roles

17:45 Approaching Problems from a Technology Perspective

23:15 Eliminating the Distinction between Inside and Outside of IT

26:45 How Technology Leaders Should Look at their Careers

28:45 How to have an Impact as a CIO

35:15 Best Ways to use a Recruiter

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Links:

Martha Heller on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthaheller/
CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon
[Subscribe to the Podcast]
On Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cio-exchange-podcast/id1498290907
For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

Next Episode

Removing Silos: Why The Developer Experience Matters - Guest: Tihomir Bajic, CEO of LTSE Software

This conversation is part of our Lead/Forward series, where we talk with technology leaders about the real stories behind the themes of innovation, talent, and experience. In this episode, we interview Tihomir Bajic, CEO of LTSE Software to find out more about the evolution of DevOps, and his vision for overcoming siloed developer, ops and security teams for fast, consistent and scalable operations across environments. He explains the importance of developer lifestyle and flexibility, to ensure they can remain effective while working in a supportive culture while the barriers between teams are removed. During the discussion Tiho expresses what he considers to be newer and better ways of measuring developer productivity. He tells us what he thinks about the developer and operations relationship, shedding light on how best they can integrate and interact to be influential on productivity, progress, and profitability. Tiho also delves into how LTSE is innovating investment, experimentation, and scaling for companies, in an effort to help them find continuous success.

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Key Quotes:

“If you are a technology company, you're focusing your innovation on technology. One of the most important things that you can think about is speed of development, and how fast you can get new products or changes out in the market, into the hands of the customers. And, what matters there is the people who are creating that code, who are creating that content; their ability to do so quickly, their ability to do so reliably and to be able to troubleshoot, test, engage, and monitor how the customers are working with what's out there.”

“Software, writing code, it's a craft. You develop your own jargon, and you need to engage with people who are creating, who are craft people, who are creating this valuable thing. You need to really study and understand and appreciate what they do and what's needed for them to be successful in that craft.”

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Time stamps:

01:30 Importance of the Developer Experience

04:00 Evolution of the Developer Lifestyle

11:30 Building Companies that Support Developer Lifestyle and Culture

17:30 The DevOps Relationship, Culture, and Working Environment

24:00 Budget Authority and Responsibility

25:15 Innovation at LTSE

30:15 Developer Flexibility and Success

34:00 Developer Value

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Links:

Tihomir Bajic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tihomirbajic/

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Keywords:

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, leadership, DevOps, Developer, Developers, ops, operations, IT, information technology, business, technology, cto, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, investment