Rumors of SaaS’s death may be exaggerated As we return from a holiday break and jump headlong into a new year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the speed of change inside large organizations, and how it doesn’t usually match technology hype cycles. I’ve been around
Profiles
When Elevance Health head of security Sekhar Nagasundaram went to visit his son’s classroom in 2011, he struggled to describe what he did to a group of young school children. His kid kindly bailed him out when he said, “Dad, you help catch sketchy guys.” When it comes to
We are just a little over a week into the new year, yet we have already seen a flurry of data center announcements. The biggest by far was Microsoft’s plan to invest $80 billion in data centers this year alone. Not to be left out, AWS announced plans to
Commentary
As AI Agents Take Center Stage In 2025, Many Questions Remain It’s the time of year where everyone is making predictions, and I’ve got an easy one: Agents are going to dominate in the enterprise in 2025 as companies begin to try and understand how to best incorporate
Executives at large organizations often look to startups to inject fresh energy and innovative ideas into their companies. While there’s an inherent risk associated with working with young, unproven companies, the reward can be significant when it works. Over the past several months as this publication has come to
Profiles
At FastForward, we like to interview CISOs, CIOs and other technology strategists inside large organizations, but with Rinki Sethi, CISO at BILL, a financial operations platform aimed at SMBs, we found someone who is in charge of both IT and security. It’s a lot of responsibility, but in some
Commentary
Writer AI Leaders forum shows what's possible with GenAI in the enterprise It’s been another busy week for me. I flew out to San Francisco on Monday to attend the Writer AI Leaders Forum. The main event was on Tuesday where I moderated two panels and had
Back in the 1990s, cyber threats were really just beginning to emerge as a problem for companies, and an intrepid group set out to track down and understand the nuance behind these threats. In those days it was more likely the proverbial pimply-faced kid in his parents’ basement leading the
Commentary
While the AI hype machine rolls on relentlessly, the fact is that enterprise IT departments move much more slowly and deliberately when it comes to implementing new technologies. Last year, it felt like AWS was running behind when it came to generative AI, but even then it was clear that
AWS Returns To Its Roots, While Embracing The AI Future It was a busy week for me personally. I attended AWS re:Invent and also launched the FastForward blog and this newsletter. If you’re reading this today, thank you for subscribing! I made a few key observations as I
Every time a new technology comes down the pike, CIOs are urged to adopt quickly, but even if the tech looks compelling like, say GenAI, it seems there is always a corresponding level of complexity when it comes to actually implementing that latest shiny new thing. That is partly due
Times change, technologies change, and AI is just the latest thing. While CIOs clearly understand that to lead their companies into the future, it’s going to require them to focus firmly on AI, they have the same concerns around security, compliance and governance they have always had with any