April 2023 Newsletter

CIO Newsletter

CIOs have a fascinating - albeit challenging - role, managing and owning technological initiatives and setting a digital transformation strategy. When performed successfully, this role holds high promise for businesses looking to grow and maintain a competitive advantage. In this newsletter, we delve into the various CIO milestones, from getting started to implementing digital transformation and SASE, as the platform to connect and secure your cloud infrastructure.

In this month’s newsletter:

• Milestone 1: Getting to Know SASE
• Milestone 2: Planning - 5 Strategic Projects for Strategic CIOs
• Milestone 3: Talking SASE to Your Board: A CIO’s Guide to Getting to ‘Yes’
• Milestone 4: Implementation - Practical Strategies for Addressing the 4 Use Cases of Digital Transformation
• Just Getting Started as a CIO? Your First 100 Days as CIO: 5 Steps to Success

Milestone 1: Getting to Know SASE

Ever since SASE was introduced by Gartner, it has raised a lot of questions about its consolidation of Networking and Network Security. To help, Cato gathered FAQs from IT managers, analysts and journalists and answered them one-by-one. If you’re a CIO, these questions might resonate with you as well.

Read this eBook to get answers to questions like:

• Should SASE be top of mind for CIOs and if so, why?
• What is SASE exactly?
• What’s the difference between SASE and SD-WAN?
• Can SASE replace VPNs?
• What are the most compelling (business) arguments in favor of SASE and SD-WAN?
• And many more

Find your answers.

Snippets:

• Compare SASE to legacy solutions and discover if you live in the upside-down world of networking and security.
• Learn 5 things SASE covers that SD-WAN does not.

Milestone 2: Planning - 5 Strategic Projects for Strategic CIOs

Technology has become the defining pillar of business transformation. CIOs who leverage this insight can lead a strategic project and enable the business to work in better efficiency. But where to begin? This article lists 5 strategic projects CIOs can introduce and lead to drive innovation and help to uncover revenue impact.

Strategic projects include:

1. Migrating MPLS or SD-WAN to SASE
2. Building Cloud-native Connectivity
3. Implementing a Full Security Stack in the Cloud
4. Enabling Access to All Edges
5. Optimizing Routing with Global Connectivity

Start planning.

Snippets:

• See how to plan for a hybrid workforce. Seamless user experience between working from the branch and the home-office is key.
• What is driving SASE? Here are 8 projects: enable the office of one; vendor consolidation; adopting Zero Trust, digital dexterity, and more.

Milestone 3: Talking SASE to Your Board: A CIO’s Guide to Getting to ‘Yes’

When discussing any transformational change with the board, CIOs must take an innovative approach. Network and security changes need to be positioned effectively to address board-level concerns. This conversational guide to engaging the board on SASE will take you through the strategic value, risk-mitigation value and the financial impacts of SASE, so you too can get the board, on-board.

Snippets:

• Ensure success with SASE with this RFP/RFI template. Use it to define your needs when approaching SASE vendors.
• Take these 4 considerations into account before renewing your SD-WAN to better cope with network security, cloud optimization, global access, and remote access challenges.
• Get insights into the TEI of Cato SASE cloud and get a sense on the ROI you can expect from implementing SASE.

Milestone 4: Implementation - Practical Strategies for Addressing the 4 Use Cases of Digital Transformation

Let’s get practical. Digital transformation requires preparing the infrastructure and ensuring ut addresses use cases like mergers and acquisitions, global expansion, rapid deployments and cloud migration. This eBook provides practical examples that detail the IT challenges when managing these use cases, the practical strategies required to address them and where SASE fits in.

Snippets:

• Learn how to adopt SASE in 6 easy steps.
• Determine how to choose the right SASE vendor and which questions to ask them.

Just Getting Started as a CIO? Your First 100 Days as CIO: 5 Steps to Success

New to the role? Congratulations! Follow these five steps to ensure you don’t find yourself putting out fires instead of leading the organization’s technological strategy. Start by getting to know the organization and team, then learn the IT infrastructure and setting your strategy and goals. What else should you do and how should you implement these steps? Find out inside!