Welcome to this week’s edition of CIOInfluence, where we cover the latest advancements in IT. Between November 18th and 22nd, several key developments emerged that have the potential to reshape the tech landscape for 2025 and beyond.
Cloud computing continues to evolve as businesses embrace more scalable and manageable solutions for their infrastructure needs. In data management, AI-driven innovations are streamlining processes, enhancing operational efficiency, and providing deeper insights. Cybersecurity remains at the forefront, as evolving threats push organizations to adopt more intelligent, proactive defenses. We’ll also take a look at upcoming IT events to watch and break down some of the key buzzwords that will define the coming year.
Whether you’re a CIO, IT professional, or simply interested in the latest in technology, this roundup delivers the critical updates you need. Let’s jump in.
Top CIO Trends to Watch This Week
The Week in IT Security: Trends and Updates
Obsidian Security Advances Security Capabilities for AI Data Cloud
Obsidian Security today announced the successful completion of the Snowflake Ready Technology Validation, and achievement of the Snowflake Partner Network Financial Services Industry Competency. These milestones mark significant progress in Obsidian Security’s product integration and collaboration with Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company. Through this integration, Obsidian Security customers can strengthen the security of their critical data and applications on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud.
Global, Cloud-Native Enterprise Architecture Leader Orbus Software Acquires Architecture Aolutions Provider Capsifi
Orbus Software, a leading global provider of enterprise transformation software, announced its acquisition of Capsifi, a leading provider of business architecture solutions. The transaction marks a strategic move to combine the experience and specialism of these two global SaaS leaders; to offer unparalleled capabilities for organizations trying to navigate transformation against a backdrop of increasing business and technology complexity.
“We are extremely pleased to be joining forces with Capsifi. This acquisition will create the most comprehensive, cloud-native enterprise architecture (EA) platform in our market,” said Gareth Burton, CEO at Orbus Software.
Breaking Down the Latest in Cloud Tech
Yellowbrick Expands Collaboration with Red Hat to Deliver OpenShift Integration for Hybrid Multi-Cloud Flexibility
Yellowbrick Data, the versatile SQL Data Platform for data warehousing and real-time analytics, today announced the expansion of its collaboration with Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open-source solutions, by formally supporting Red Hat’s OpenShift platform. Now, businesses can run Yellowbrick alongside other applications on OpenShift to deliver workload mobility across hybrid cloud environments.
Key benefits of the Yellowbrick Data platform with Red Hat OpenShift include:
- Data Warehousing and Real-Time Analytics: The Yellowbrick Direct Data Accelerator® technology enables petabyte-scale analytics with low latency and high concurrency.
- Hybrid Multi-Cloud Data Flexibility: Customers can manage workloads across multiple environments – public cloud, on-premises or at the edge – to meet data residency requirements, as the Yellowbrick Data Platform runs wherever Red Hat OpenShift operates.
- On-Demand Elastic Scaling: Yellowbrick’s elastic architecture with separate storage and compute allows customers to dynamically provision and scale compute clusters to meet workload demands.
Cloudflare Publishes Top Internet Trends for 2024
Cloudflare, the leading connectivity cloud company, today published its fifth annual Year in Review, exploring global Internet insights and security trends during 2024, accompanied by a deeper dive on the most popular Internet services.
“We rely on the Internet almost constantly, yet many still see it merely as a collection of web pages. But the Internet is everywhere, woven throughout almost all of the daily activities of modern life – how we interact and connect on social media, use our smart refrigerators and vacuums, travel from one place to another through rideshare apps, connect to our banks and more,” said Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder at Cloudflare.
The Future of Data Management: What’s Shaping It?
Peer Software Unveils Next-Generation PeerGFS: Redefining Data Synchronization
At Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2024, Peer Software announced a number of advanced capabilities found in the latest version of its flagship solution Peer Global File Service (PeerGFS). As a silver sponsor of the event, the company will highlight these enhancements during the conference.
This flexible modern distributed architecture provides:
- Optimized AI data workflows and orchestration
- Enhanced support for leading on-premises, hybrid and cloud storage platforms
- Resilience by eliminating points of failure to maintain uptime and speed recovery operations
- Improved performance in large data implementations
- Simplified compliance with international data sovereignty regulations
Acceldata Expands Enterprise Data Observability Platform with Advanced AI-Powered Data Reconciliation
Acceldata, the leader in all-in-one enterprise data observability, today announced expanded AI-powered data reconciliation capabilities that automate and scale data integrity for revenue growth, operational efficiency, and proactive compliance. Building on its existing reconciliation capabilities, these new features deliver unparalleled accuracy, consistency, and audit-ready data to address the complex challenges of managing data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
Top Articles on Today’s Leading Tech Trends
The Essentials of a Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)
This article explores the critical role of Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPPs) in modern IT security, particularly as organizations increasingly adopt cloud and hybrid infrastructures. It addresses the challenges traditional security tools face in protecting dynamic and ephemeral cloud workloads. CWPPs are designed to meet these challenges by offering real-time threat detection, policy enforcement, and improved visibility across cloud environments.
The article covers:
- CWPP’s Role in Cloud Security: How CWPPs complement other security solutions like Cloud Detection and Response (CDR), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), and Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP).
- Comparison with Other Security Tools: Key distinctions between CWPPs and other cloud security solutions, highlighting their unique focus on workload protection.
- Top CWPP Solutions: Notable CWPP platforms such as AWS GuardDuty, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud.
- How CWPPs Work: A breakdown of CWPP functionality, including workload discovery, vulnerability assessments, security controls, and threat mitigation.
Why Data Architects Are Key to Modern Enterprises: In-demand Skills and Career Insights
The article delves into the pivotal role of Data Architects within modern enterprises and their growing significance in supporting AI, big data, and advanced analytics. It explores various aspects of the profession, from core responsibilities to evolving skill sets necessary for the future. Here’s a comprehensive summary of the topics covered:
1. The Role of Data Architects
Thought Leaders’ Perspectives
CIO Influence Interview with Dheeraj Pandey, CEO and co-founder of DevRev
In the interview, Dheeraj Pandey, CEO and co-founder of DevRev, reflects on his journey from building Nutanix to founding DevRev, driven by the need to overcome fragmented enterprise software. He explains how DevRev’s AgentOS platform enhances product development by converging product, customer, and operational data, ultimately improving collaboration and reducing customer churn. Dheeraj discusses the future of AI in SaaS, highlighting how customizable LLMs will drive SaaS 2.0, enabling adaptive, agent-driven workflows that enhance efficiency. He also shares upcoming features in DevRev, like the no-code Conversational AI Builder, Insights Agent, and Incident Management solutions, designed to simplify workflows and boost productivity. On data privacy, he emphasizes integrating security by design to balance innovation with trust. Finally, his advice to entrepreneurs is to focus on solving meaningful problems and building customer-centric solutions.
CIO Influence Interview with Boaz Gorodissky, CTO, XM Cyber
In this interview, Boaz Gorodissky, CTO and Co-founder of XM Cyber, shares insights on the evolving challenges of enterprise cybersecurity and the importance of continuous exposure management. He discusses his transition from a 30-year career in government technical leadership to founding XM Cyber to address critical cybersecurity gaps. Boaz highlights how XM Cyber’s platform helps enterprises visualize and remediate attack paths across hybrid environments like AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-prem infrastructure by identifying vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and identity exposures.
He explains why identity-based attacks are often overlooked and how compromised credentials pose significant threats. Boaz emphasizes the need for strategies like automated identity management and privilege escalation prevention. On cloud security, he stresses that continuous exposure management is vital to combat the dynamic nature of hybrid environments, ensuring critical exposures are addressed efficiently.
Tech Buzzwords Explained: What You Need to Know
Cloud Sprawl: Refers to the uncontrolled and inefficient expansion of cloud services within an organization, often leading to management challenges and wasted resources.
Hypervisor: A layer of software that enables the creation, management, and running of virtual machines (VMs) on a physical host. It allows multiple operating systems to run concurrently on a single physical machine.
Blockchain as a Service (BaaS): A cloud-based service that allows businesses to build and host their blockchain applications without needing to manage the underlying infrastructure.
The Brand to Watch This Week
Netskope is a global leader in cloud security, providing advanced solutions that help organizations secure their data, users, and applications in the cloud. With a comprehensive suite of security tools, Netskope empowers businesses to gain deep visibility and control over their cloud environments, ensuring protection against data breaches, threats, and compliance risks. Known for its cutting-edge technology, Netskope offers real-time cloud security posture management, enabling organizations to detect, prevent, and respond to security incidents across a wide range of cloud services. Focused on continuous innovation, Netskope helps businesses adopt and scale cloud technologies securely while minimizing risk and maintaining compliance.
CEO – Sanjay Beri
Recent Launch – Netskope Introduces Next-Gen Cloud Security Platform for Advanced Threat Prevention and Data Protection
The Future of IT: Must-Watch Events for 2025
NANOG 93
Date: Feb. 3-5, 2025
Location: Atlanta, GA
NANOG is, and always has been, dedicated to the people who make up our community. Meet with hundreds of individuals from network engineering, operations, and architecture, who gather in major cities across North America.
Customer Success Austin
Date: Feb. 11-12, 2025
Location: Austin, TX
Join leading CS experts in Austin as they showcase real-world case studies, essential strategies, and innovative tools. Dive deep into key trends and success stories that will help you refine your onboarding, crush churn, and increase adoption, loyalty & expansion.
Deep Learning & Advanced ML Summit
Date: Feb. 11-12, 2025
Location: San Jose, CA
Discover advances in deep learning algorithms and methods from the world’s leading innovators. Learn from industry experts in speech & pattern recognition, neural networks, image analysis and NLP. Explore how deep learning will impact healthcare, manufacturing, search & transportation.
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