July 05, 2024
Kannan Subbiah
FCA | CISA | CGEIT | CCISO | GRC Consulting | Independent Director | Enterprise & Solution Architecture | Former Sr. VP & CTO of MF Utilities | BU Soft Tech | itTrident
The cumulative effect of AI washing is that it leads both the public and the technology industry astray. It fuels the delusion that AI can do things it cannot do. It makes people think AI is some kind of all-purpose solution to every problem — or a slippery slope into dystopia, depending on one’s worldview. AI washing incentivizes inferior solutions, focusing on “magic” rather than quality. Claims that your dog-washing hose is “powered by AI” doesn’t mean you end up with a cleaner dog. It just means you have an overpriced hose. AI washing warps funding. Silicon Valley investment nowadays is totally captured by both actual AI and AI-washing solutions. Even savvy investors may overlook AI-washing exaggeration and lies knowing that the AI story will sell in the marketplace thanks to buyer naiveté. The biggest problem, however, is not delusional selling by the industry, but self-delusion. Purveyors of AI solutions believe that human help is a badge of shame, when in fact I think human involvement would be received with relief.?People actually want humans involved in their shopping and driving experience.
Since AI technology has advanced and medical device security lags, the ease of attack and the potential reward for doing so have made healthcare institutions too tempting to ignore. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at Health and Human Services (HHS) is investigating the Change Healthcare attack to understand how it happened. The investigation will address whether Change Healthcare followed HIPAA rules. ... The financial impact of cyberattacks on healthcare providers can be devastating. The Change Healthcare breach led to significant cash flow disruptions, with providers losing millions daily. In response to this crisis, industry leaders and political figures have called for federal funding to support healthcare providers and ensure the continuity of essential services. The Senate majority leader and the American Hospital Association (AHA) have urged the federal government to provide financial assistance to mitigate the impact of the cyberattack, including accelerated and advanced payments to hospitals, pharmacies, and other affected entities. This federal funding can help healthcare providers adopt advanced security measures and recover from the financial impact of cyberattacks.?
The anticipated productivity gains and cost savings have not materialized, for the most part. The promised efficiencies did not translate into significant improvements in operational productivity for many organizations, and cloud platforms cost at least twice as much as traditional systems. The sharp decline in the costs of on-premises computing and storage servers during the past decade exacerbated the situation for public cloud providers. This threw a monkey wrench into the savings that the cloud promised over traditional on-premises systems. ... Cloud providers are now faced with “cloud exit” issues while focusing on AI growth. Their market continues to stagnate as enterprises find that a mix of on-premises and cloud platforms is perhaps more cost-effective, considering the operational costs of AI. In other words, AI is delaying the reality they would otherwise likely face in the short term. ... The days of enterprises buying cloud systems in haste left too many to repent at leisure. Vendors must better understand what enterprises should pay to find value and thus reduce the exodus to colocation providers, managed service providers, and enterprise data centers.
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Banks are fully aware of the need for digital transformation and shifting legacy applications to the cloud in order to remain competitive, but enacting it across the entire banking value chain in a unified manner is not a simple task. Omdia’s 2024 IT Enterprise Insights Survey, for instance, shows that most retail banks have made some inroads into digital transformation, with respondents most likely to have made progress in adopting cloud services, but just 29% state that they have made significant progress. Many banks have taken a phased approach to digital transformation, often working with multiple product vendors. But there is a growing recognition that this approach brings its own challenges in terms of managing numerous vendors and roadmaps. ... Modernising the core banking system can be costly, time-consuming, and complex. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that banks are spending 85% on maintaining their existing core banking tech and the remainder on launching new products, which can be flipped once they have fully modernised their core, providing them with enormous scope to innovate.
The type of dark fiber available varies between locations. So-called metro dark fiber, typically found in built-up urban areas, tends to comprise larger cables with a higher fiber count, which means they offer more flexibility and different types of connection, such as point-to-multipoint, where a cable can service multiple destinations. Long-haul dark fiber, in contrast, is often constructed using single-mode fiber which has a smaller glass core, and as such is likely to only offer more simple, point-to-point, connections. However, there are no significant distance limitations on dark fiber, meaning it can be used to connect sites in locations many miles apart. Dark fiber can be an alluring solution for businesses with rapidly evolving or highly variable networking needs. Users can choose when and how to scale up bandwidth to meet the demands of their organization without having to wait for their ISP to carry out this process. It also avoids the limitations of a contract with an ISP, which will likely dictate the available data transfer rates and impose fees for network upgrades.
In an IT hero culture, individual accomplishments are celebrated over teamwork, with a high value placed on swift responses and constant availability. This type of workplace includes a small group of individuals who bear a disproportionate responsibility for critical tasks and decision making. Typically, this culture appears in organizations lacking formal processes, requiring these so-called heroes to work extensive hours to maintain operations. ... IT hero culture —despite its immediate benefits—often proves to be a short-term solution with significant long-term drawbacks. When these indispensable individuals are absent, organizations face bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Transitioning to a process-driven culture enhances organizational effectiveness and efficiency, addressing these challenges. This transition, usually prompted by external stakeholders such as bankers, shareholders, and customers, as well as internal forces such as the board and senior management, moves away from overreliance on individual heroics to a more sustainable, team-oriented approach.