Introduction

Every time I read an analyst report or speak with the C-Suite on the digitization of enterprise IT and the role of the CIO today, I’m left with this thought—the evidence for this tectonic shift in businesses today is staggering, and yet there isn’t a single anthology of real-world testimonials from their peers to help guide CIOs as they embark on this journey.

After a multitude of discussions with several industry leaders and enterprise CIOs, the concept for this book, a real-world collection of best practices for secure digital transformation, was born. This book captures the stories of more than a dozen pioneers in enterprise digital transformation as told by CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs of many Fortune 500 companies. They come from a broad swath of industry including Fannie Mae, Siemens, Microsoft, and General Electric.

From these innovators’ stories a common thread emerges, one of early discovery of how digitization and a move to the cloud provides distinct advantages, be they financial or in extending capabilities through greater IT agility, a faster pace of innovation, and lower costs. This shift to the cloud leads to competitive and financial gains for all of the IT visionaries you will find in this book.