Copyright TechTarget - All rights reserved https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html Techtarget Feed Generator en Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:40:50 GMT https://www.theserverside.com editor@techtarget.com <p>Nvidia is now among the official adopters of OpenBao, an open source fork of HashiCorp's Vault secrets management software, according to recently released documentation.</p> <p>Nvidia’s involvement signals growing support for OpenBao, which so far hasn't received as widespread attention or adoption as its infrastructure-as-code counterpart, OpenTofu, a fork of HashiCorp's Terraform that amassed formal pledges of support from more than 140 companies and 600 individuals in <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/366552676/Linux-Foundation-ups-ante-on-HashiCorp-hosts-Terraform-fork">its first month</a>.</p> <p>That's begun to change recently, according to a regional leader for a UK-based consulting firm that began offering commercial support for OpenBao earlier this year, who told TechTarget that the project has gained momentum this year amid rising global <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/366642906/Red-Hat-AI-updates-target-mounting-cost-sovereignty-worries">concerns about digital sovereignty</a>, particularly in the European Union.</p> <p>"I can't say who they are, due to NDAs, but there's definitely a lot more enterprise interest, and some very, very big names," said Aiman Alsari, head of Asia Pacific for ControlPlane, in an interview this week. "Of our strong leads and current clients, I'd say it's about 75% outside the U.S."</p> <p>OpenBao was created in late 2023 by <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/366563095/IBM-engineers-hatch-Linux-Foundation-HashiCorp-Vault-fork">IBM engineers</a> who led the Linux Foundation's Open Horizon edge computing project, in response to HashiCorp's move to a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/366548016/HashiCorp-open-source-change-targets-competitors">business source license</a> that year. IBM declared its intent to acquire HashiCorp for $6.5 billion in April 2024; OpenBao reached a production-ready version 2.0 release in September 2024 and joined the Open Source Security Foundation as a sandbox project in June 2025. The paid version of HashiCorp Vault is now IBM Vault Enterprise; one IBM engineer remains listed as a core maintainer of OpenBao in <a href="https://github.com/openbao/openbao-nightly/blob/main/MAINTAINERS.md">GitHub documents</a>.</p> <p>Some companies are hesitant about whether OpenBao is really viable for enterprise use, according to Alsari, but the OpenSSF's backing has begun to change that. As a sandbox project within the foundation, OpenBao gets a separately maintained CVE disclosure mailing list, community security audits, transparency requirements, and integrations with supply chain security tools such as Sigstore.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Nvidia disclosed in <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.nvidia.com/nvcf/infrastructure" rel="noopener">publicly available documentation</a> that it uses OpenBao to inject secrets into Kubernetes pods managed by its Nvidia Cloud Functions (NVCF). That project, an auto-scaling, serverless GPU control plane, was <a target="_blank" href="https://blog.kubesimplify.com/nvcf-is-now-open-source-inside-nvidia-s-gpu-function-platform" rel="noopener">made available</a> under an Apache 2.0 open source license in April. Nvidia was added to the public list of OpenBao adopters <a href="https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/3155">on May 20</a>.</p> <p>The next release of OpenBao, version 2.6, due out in the coming weeks, will include server-side workflows that allow <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/366644443/Datadog-shops-AI-incident-management-needs-platform-engineers">platform engineering teams</a> to integrate the project with internal self-service portals.</p> <p>"Quite literally, it has been my job to help companies write their own thing [to put] in front of Vault for a long time," Alsari said. "We've done quite a lot of consulting work in that space. ... That's how we're starting to differentiate [with OpenBao]."</p> <p>ControlPlane also supports HashiCorp Vault customers and offers a tool to help them migrate to OpenBao. Further down the roadmap, the project will integrate short-lived secrets management for AI agents, he said.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="OpenBao still has far to grow to challenge Vault"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>OpenBao still has far to grow to challenge Vault</h2> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> OpenBao may not need to win on breadth alone. Its stronger angle could be open governance ... especially where clients are reassessing vendor lock-in or proprietary control planes. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Varun Raj</strong>Cloud and AI engineering executive </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>The OpenBao ecosystem is smaller than its higher-profile counterpart OpenTofu, an open source fork of HashiCorp's Terraform infrastructure as code software, which lists 163 companies, 12 open source projects and 791 individuals <a target="_blank" href="https://opentofu.org/supporters/" rel="noopener">among its supporters</a>. IBM does not report the number of customers or amount of revenue from what is now IBM Vault Enterprise, but HashiCorp reported more than 4,300 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hashicorp.com/en/blog/hashicorp-2023-year-in-review-customers-and-partners" rel="noopener">enterprise customers</a> in 2023.</p> <p>Still, digital sovereignty could be a new growth driver for the project, according to one industry expert</p> <p>"Sovereignty could definitely be an interesting growth wrinkle here," said Varun Raj, a cloud and AI engineering executive working on enterprise AI and cloud transformation initiatives. "The ecosystem is clearly not at IBM or HashiCorp scale yet, but OpenBao may not need to win on breadth alone. Its stronger angle could be open governance, portability, and control of secrets and keys in regulated or sovereign environments — especially where clients are reassessing vendor lock-in or proprietary control planes."</p> <p>For startups or small teams with static secrets, there are other alternatives to OpenBao, including the <a href="https://github.com/getsops/sops">open source SOPS project</a> and cloud providers' secrets management services, said Anuj Tyagi, a senior site reliability engineer at a communications company he requested not be named. <br><br>But OpenBao is potentially useful for organizations that need dynamic credentials, operate a multi-cloud environment, or manage secrets for many teams with isolation requirements.</p> <div class="imagecaption alignLeft"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/tyagi_anuj.jpg" alt="Anuj Tyagi, SRE, communications company ">Anuj Tyagi </div> <p>"It's similar to the Community version of Vault with free licensing for multi-tenancy," Tyagi said. "Although commercial services also provide options to store secrets in the EU region, for organizations that want to store secrets in their own environment … OpenBao is a strong option."</p> <p>Nvidia joined other OpenBao adopters, including Swiss open source service provider Adfinis, SAP's ApeiroRA, a reference architecture for sovereign clouds in Europe, and high-energy particle physics lab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Companies listed as OpenBao supporters include GitLab and collaboration suite maker Proton; integrators include OVHCloud and Sigstore.</p> <p>The project also now has eight companies offering commercial professional support to enterprises, including ControlPlane. Alexander Scheel, a core maintainer of OpenBao left GitLab to join ControlPlane in March 2026.</p> <p>Reps from OpenSSF and Nvidia were not immediately available for comment on the news as of press time.</p> <p><em>Beth Pariseau, senior news writer for Informa TechTarget, is an award-winning veteran of IT journalism. Have a tip?&nbsp;</em><a target="_blank" href="mailto:bpariseau@techtarget.com?subject=News%20tip" rel="noopener"><em>Email her</em></a><em> or connect on </em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethpariseau" rel="noopener"><em>LinkedIn</em></a><em>.</em>&nbsp;</p> </section> Nvidia's adoption is among the signs of growing interest in the OpenSSF-governed Vault alternative, amid mounting digital sovereignty worries globally. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/security_a244600171.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/366644831/Nvidia-adopts-OpenBao-open-source-fork-of-HashiCorps-Vault Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:04:00 GMT <p>Not even one in three cybersecurity professionals views their organization's cybersecurity culture as better than average, according to a new survey.</p> <p>That leaves plenty of room for improvement, concluded "The Life and Times of Cybersecurity Professionals." Now in its eighth year, the <a target="_blank" href="https://issa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Ebook-ISSA-Life-and-Times-of-Cybersecurity-Professionals-April-2026-final.pdf" rel="noopener">annual study</a> conducted by the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) and Omdia, a division of Informa TechTarget, gauged the opinions of 380 IT and security professionals about a variety of topics, ranging from job satisfaction to the quality of the work being done by their own teams.</p> <p>When asked to grade their organization's cybersecurity culture, only 29% rated it advanced, 50% called it average and 19% described it as fair.</p> <p>What did cybersecurity professionals say would improve the state of security at their organizations? At the top of the list was a preference for increased <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cybersecurity-training-budget-increases-ai-skills/822640/" rel="noopener">training for cybersecurity and IT staff</a> (42%), followed by investment in staff and tools (37%).</p> <p>Other actions included improved <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Cybersecurity-governance-A-guide-for-businesses-to-follow">governance and compliance</a> (36%); better <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/cyber-hygiene">cyber hygiene</a> (35%); better <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/5-tips-for-building-a-cybersecurity-culture-at-your-company">security culture</a> across the organization (34%); more security awareness training for nontechnical employees (33%); better capabilities to prevent, detect and respond to threats (31%); and more frequent testing to validate controls and identify weaknesses (30%).</p> <p>As for how to improve the working relationship between security and IT teams, 44% of respondents suggested embedding cybersecurity staff into functional technology groups, while 41% wanted automated processes that would require collaboration between security staff and their IT colleagues.</p> <p>Wanting greater collaboration across an organization is one thing. Achieving it is something else. That's where capable leadership and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Cybersecurity-soft-skills-to-elevate-your-career">soft skills</a> come into play, said Melinda Marks, cybersecurity practice director at Omdia.</p> <p>"Things like demanding a seat at the table when there are technology decisions being made. They should be saying, 'Hey, I want to look at the security features and weigh in on this and whether we should adopt this,'" said Marks, author of the Life and Times report. "Those take a lot of soft skills -- like communication and collaborating with the other teams -- that are different from just the technical skills in cybersecurity."</p> <p>Organizations with a healthy cybersecurity culture have security leaders and teams that are willing to find ways to avoid the "Team of No" impulse to dismiss every new idea as unsafe, Marks said.</p> <p>Successful companies also have constructive conversations about balancing risk and innovation, Marks said. "It's worth the investment for organizations that want to grow and scale to find those cybersecurity professionals who understand new technologies and know how to work with other teams to align on goals, put the right programs in place, put the right tools in place and then work to meet their goals. Those are different skills than in the past."</p> <p>Marks also noted that effective security requires employers to address the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.darkreading.com/cybersecurity-operations/triple-threat-burnout-overworked-unsatisfied-trapped" rel="noopener">ongoing pressures their security teams face</a>. The survey's job satisfaction scores were not good, with 20% of respondents saying they regularly consider leaving the profession.</p> <p>Companies need to pay more attention to this, Marks said, by investing in technologies as well as in the people who use them.</p> <p>Shawn Murray, distinguished fellow and past president of ISSA, said burnout is best solved by those at the very top of an organization. "If leadership doesn't believe in or prioritize security as a requirement for conducting business, it continues to be a struggle for the cybersecurity professional -- especially for CISOs when you're trying to negotiate budgets and get personnel in."</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/feature/CISO-burnout-How-to-balance-leadership-pressure-and-sanity">Addressing burnout</a> is a perennial problem that Murray said the industry has not been able to solve. Where he does see progress, however, is with CISOs being seen and heard by senior leadership and board members.</p> <p>"It's easier to get in front of the board today if you're a CISO," Murray said, adding that an encouraging trend is that a growing number of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Why-the-ideal-CISO-reporting-structure-is-highest-level">CISOs report directly to a CEO</a> rather than a CTO or CIO.</p> <p><i>Phil Sweeney is an industry editor and writer focused on cybersecurity topics.</i></p> 'The Life and Times of Cybersecurity Professionals' survey assessed how workers feel about defending against constant threats, as well as what's getting better and what is not. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/folder-files13.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/366644992/Most-security-pros-say-their-culture-is-just-average Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:57:00 GMT <p>ORLANDO, Fla. -- At the Society for Human Resource Management's 2026 annual conference, SHRM CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. exhorted attendees to be courageous in fighting for HR's continued relevance to business success at a time when their departments are being reduced or eliminated, their profession's value called into question and AI poses unprecedented challenges in engaging, retaining and developing employees.</p> <p>"We have to be willing to look ourselves objectively in the mirror and ask the profession, is it willing to change?" Taylor told an overwhelmingly female audience that numbered in the thousands for his Thursday morning keynote. "We absolutely, I believe, can unleash a revolution, a revolution that will open incredible new doors to the future of HR."</p> <p>Taylor began by recounting meetings where executives told him about their dislike for HR and skepticism about its value. In an informal poll he once took of 92 corporate leaders, 60% said they only tolerated HR, and 30% thought it had little value. Only 10% said they loved HR. But some told him privately that they found it indispensable.</p> <p>Taylor attributed the sharp negative swing to executives' COVID experiences. He said they loved how HR helped them deal with the employee retention challenges, including remote and hybrid work. "You all helped companies pivot overnight," he said. "You kept people informed, calm, connected and working during the most uncertain time that any of us ever lived through."</p> <p>CEOs followed HR's advice to "take care of people, and they will take care of you," he recalled. "But then the pandemic ended and a lot of employees quit anyway." The companies that had protected their people during COVID because of HR's guidance and assistance were met, he said, with mass resignations -- the Great Resignation, the "turnover tsunami," the fight over <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/What-successful-return-to-office-strategies-have-in-common">returning to the office</a>, static over vaccines and other workplace rules -- all while CEOs were trying to stabilize their businesses.</p> <p>Taylor said the attitude now, with employees once again fearing job loss -- this time from AI -- is that CEOs are asking why they should protect their jobs.</p> <p>He said HR must respond to the existential threat to the profession by augmenting its longstanding emphasis on people with a laser focus on work. "We need to become the experts not just on people but on work -- how it gets done, who does it or <i>what</i> does it. That's new for us." To do so, HR will also need to understand the tensions between technology and talent, and -- crucially -- the concepts of worker value.</p> <p>Business consultants have recently been advising companies to shift their AI strategies and gain a clear understanding of how work gets done so they can divide tasks between AI and humans and upskill employees for the new age of intelligent automation. Taylor implied that HR's new focus on work is motivated by AI's sweeping changes to how work is performed but did not explicitly link the two or attribute the changes entirely to AI.</p> <p>"Every former technology came with lots of new toys to make our lives easier and -- most important -- with tons of new, higher-paid jobs. But this time, the new technology -- AI -- is openly eliminating jobs with no promises to replace them," he said. Companies are no longer comparing people to technology; they're comparing the costs of investing in them. He urged HR practitioners to be less focused on performance reviews and employee satisfaction statistics and more on demonstrating the value of employees.</p> <p>"We need to fully understand and appreciate the friction between tech and talent, and then be able to explain the value and ROI for each and every one of our employees," he said.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="SHRM survey shows low AI adoption;"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>SHRM survey shows low AI adoption;</h2> <p>Taylor spoke a day after SHRM released results of an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/research/navigating-ai-in-the-workplace/full-report" rel="noopener">extensive survey</a> in which it asked 5,875 U.S.-based workers how they felt about how AI is used in their workplace.</p> <p>Among the findings:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Thirty-four percent of workers said they don't use AI at all, even for personal use.</li> <li>Less than half (47%) said they use it for professional reasons.</li> <li>Only about half of organizations had an AI policy.</li> <li>Forty-one percent of workers thought AI could perform their roles with minimal oversight.</li> </ul> <p>Despite the low adoption numbers, the survey nevertheless shows workers are generally proactive about adopting AI and hopeful about its implications for their careers, according to Kenny Pyle, SHRM's HR technology lead analyst, in an interview after his conference session on the findings. "People are using self-interest and trying to get this increased amount of work done. They're also wanting to make sure their skills remain relevant," Pyle said.</p> <p>In an alarming note, a third of respondents said they use AI tools that are prohibited by their organization, and many plan to continue the practice.</p> <p>"The fact that every organization has employees they are not aware of uploading data that they shouldn't be into a tool that's not approved -- every day, big organizations, every hour, every minute -- it's kind of terrifying," Pyle said.</p> <p>But he cautioned against overreacting to so-called rogue AI.</p> <p>"It's important, when you develop these policies, to listen to what your workers need and what they want. And when someone violates the policy, you don't just go and punish them. You learn from them."</p> <p><i>David Essex is an industry editor who creates in-depth content on enterprise applications, emerging technology and market trends for several Informa TechTarget websites.</i></p> </section> Keynote urging emphasis on work instead of people comes a day after HR association released a worker survey showing low AI adoption and an alarming incidence of prohibited AI use. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/chatbot_g1150454068.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/news/366644900/SHRM-CEO-gives-HR-needed-pep-talk-amid-bad-rap-AI-challenges Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:44:00 GMT <p>AI needs vast amounts of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/9-data-quality-issues-that-can-sideline-AI-projects">high-quality data</a> for training and operation. Unfortunately, that data is often siloed, meaning it's not centralized, properly organized or adequately vetted.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/data-silo">Data silos</a> are isolated repositories of information that are separated from each other and from the departments and systems across the enterprise. Isolation typically means that data in one silo isn't readily accessible to other systems or users outside the immediately related system or department. Think of data silos as <i>islands of information</i>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/9-top-applications-of-artificial-intelligence-in-business">Businesses that deploy AI</a> regularly grapple with data stores that are isolated, fragmented, poorly integrated, inadequately curated and outdated. The result is lackluster AI performance, reduced accuracy, limited effectiveness and diminished value for the business. Avoiding AI data silos should be a boardroom priority.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What makes AI data silos problematic?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What makes AI data silos problematic?</h2> <p>Data silos aren't new in enterprise IT. However, AI has brought new attention to them. The same isolation that stymies data sharing between traditional applications and departments also prevents AI platforms from accessing, training and using siloed data. While silos are a disadvantage to any traditional business infrastructure, they're especially <a target="_blank" href="https://www.informationweek.com/machine-learning-ai/how-data-silos-impact-ai-and-agents" rel="noopener">detrimental to AI systems</a>.</p> <p>The power of AI lies in its ability to establish relationships, find patterns and spot trends, letting it make accurate predictions and sound decisions. This fundamental capability is based on the relationship between different data sets, such as quarterly or annual marketing, sales and manufacturing data. It's the relationship between these varied data sets where nuance and patterns emerge. When an AI system can't access siloed data, it's unable to get a complete picture of the situation and can't deliver accurate analyses and predictions.</p> <p>Data silos prevent AI from working properly, and the consequences can be significant for the business. They include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Limited AI accuracy or performance.</b> AI can't make predictions or render decisions at a level the business requires. For example, a sales projection might not be accurate or a medical diagnosis wrong. This quickly translates into poor UX and less user engagement with the AI platform.</li> <li><b>Waste and operational inefficiency.</b> Inaccurate or incomplete AI decisions or recommendations can lead to financial and material expenditures that don't translate into revenue or enhance business efficiency.</li> <li><b>Stagnant innovation.</b> Because data silos prevent a full picture of a situation, missing data can cause an AI system to miss relationships or opportunities that might otherwise be found, creating a serious roadblock to business innovation.</li> <li><b>AI platform failure or abandonment.</b> In extreme cases, consistently poor UX might adversely affect the organization's reputation. This could lead a business to stop using or putting resources into maintaining an AI platform.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Causes of AI data silos"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Causes of AI data silos</h2> <p>Why do data silos still exist, given the sophistication and importance of AI for modern businesses? The reasons are varied, but they follow many traditional causes that have gone unresolved due to rapidly changing business and technology environments. The most important causes of AI data silos include the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Unclear business leadership.</b> Technological mastery is vital for modern business, but it's hardly quick or easy. The road to technical success starts at the top with clear leadership and direction. Data silos thrive where AI vision is lacking and when leadership doesn't properly address them before starting an AI project.</li> <li><b>Technical issues.</b> Businesses often yield to the path of least resistance to quickly implement tools, platforms and systems, leading to interoperability and integration problems. When systems don't communicate well, data silos form, trapping data that AI projects can't readily access.</li> <li><b>Diverging organizational goals.</b> Managers often make technical decisions that are well-suited to their department's needs but don't prioritize broader interoperability with other business units' data. A manufacturing department might collect and retain data in radically different detail and formats than sales and marketing departments without regard for each other's data practices. This quickly leads to technical issues that perpetuate data silos detrimental to AI initiatives.</li> <li><b>Regulatory demands.</b> Differing approaches to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/Data-governance-for-AI-requires-a-cross-functional-approach">data governance</a>, data quality, data retention and regulatory compliance can lead to divergent data management practices across business units. For example, data stores containing highly sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) might be isolated from other systems by design or intent -- the need for security often takes precedence over data interoperability.</li> <li><b>Business growth.</b> Data silos can arise as the business grows and changes, and new technologies are brought in. For example, a merger might force the acquired business unit to adopt its parent company's tools and data standards, leaving older data siloed and less accessible.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="How to find AI data silos"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>How to find AI data silos</h2> <p>Finding AI data silos is a challenge. Each siloed instance might work perfectly for its associated workflow, but difficulties arise when an AI system tries to use multiple data sources together. These best practices can help AI teams identify data silos that might be affecting AI systems:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Inventory AI data sources.</b> This typically involves a detailed audit of all applications and data sources in use, correlating which departments or business units use specific applications and corresponding data sources. Knowing what's there is key to determining what the AI system can use and how readily it can be accessed. This often requires IT support. In many cases, AI teams will discover overlooked enterprise applications and data stores.</li> <li><b>Find isolated applications.</b> Modern businesses use centralized data systems that are far more versatile and interoperable than local workspace data, such as an Excel spreadsheet or SQL database. When local applications are used within a business workflow, a data silo is almost guaranteed, and an AI system is unlikely to be able to access that data.</li> <li><b>Look for duplicated data.</b> Isolated applications might use varied copies of data that can exist in different formats in different business units. These duplicate data stores can quickly fall out of sync, resulting in different content for the same entries or references. Using duplicate data can confuse an AI system, so it's important to reconcile duplicate data before AI uses it.</li> <li><b>Check data metrics.</b> It's common for different applications and unique data stores to generate similar business information. For example, sales and finance teams might use their own unique data stores and applications to calculate common metrics, such as quarterly marketing budgets. Reconcile these data silos to avoid applications reporting different results for the same query.</li> <li><b>Identify data access delays.</b> Multiple applications can access centralized data sources throughout the workflow with little, if any, delay. If data access is delayed because the data must first be requested, reformatted or transferred between stores -- especially if this manipulation is a manual effort -- a data silo is present. AI can't operate effectively in the face of these sorts of delays, so they should be remedied before AI accesses the data.</li> <li><b>Consider system integration and compatibility.</b> Data silos can arise from poor system integration and interoperability, such as vital legacy systems operating alongside state-of-the-art enterprise platforms. These disconnects often create data silos that AI systems can't effectively use. Business leaders might need to invest in new technologies, such as updating legacy systems to use a common data source, before AI teams can fully use the data.</li> <li><b>Recognize data access restrictions.</b> Some data stores might be deliberately inaccessible because of security measures that restrict access to sensitive data or PII. These data stores might not be made available to AI projects without safeguards, such as data anonymization or synthetic data generation. Proper access to restricted data requires careful collaboration between IT, business, AI and governance teams.</li> </ul> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Overcoming AI data silos"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Overcoming AI data silos</h2> <p>Finding AI data silos is one challenge. Fixing those data silos for adequate AI access is another problem entirely. Once AI data silos are identified, there are several strategies for correcting them:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Modernize data storage technologies.</b> <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/data-lake">Data lakes</a> and data warehouses can support centralized data storage for both structured and unstructured data. This offers a single repository that AI platforms can access and process. Other technological choices can include a data fabric environment that uses a virtual data management layer to create a unified data view while enabling data to remain in its original storage locations. Similarly, APIs can enable disparate systems to communicate and exchange data without modifying or migrating the information.</li> <li><b>Perform regular data storage inventories.</b> Data inventories aren't a one-time tactic; they should be a regular practice that can prevent new data silos from emerging over time. Regular inventories make it easier to find, clean and delete duplicate or outdated data. This helps maintain high levels of data quality for AI training and optimization.</li> <li><b>Use data management tools.</b> The use of data management tools ensures data quality and keeps data organized for AI training. For example, extract, transform and load (ETL) tools can be used to automatically handle data extraction, transformation and loading to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/How-to-preprocess-different-types-of-data-for-AI-workloads">keep AI data prepared and organized</a>. As another example, data management tools can be used to establish and maintain shared data structures. This helps ensure consistent, properly structured data for AI training.</li> <li><b>Implement comprehensive data governance. </b>Create, deploy and regularly update data governance policies that apply across the business. This defines data ownership and lines of data responsibility. It also sets guidelines that define data access, change and sharing among users and business units. It requires careful leadership and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/feature/AI-regulation-What-businesses-need-to-know">regulatory clarity</a> to balance compliance with data interoperability for AI projects.</li> </ul> <p><i>Stephen J. Bigelow, senior technology editor at TechTarget, has more than 30 years of technical writing experience in the PC and technology industry.</i></p> </section> Data silos impede successful AI operation. However, there are practical ways to connect data stores and improve AI outcomes. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_g1183318665.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/How-to-keep-data-silos-from-damaging-your-AI-projects Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:47:00 GMT <p>Everpure, formerly known as Pure Storage, is shifting from a storage-centric to a data-centric enterprise architecture, with new tools and updates to its Unified Data Plane.</p> <p>Following its rebrand in February, Everpure is pivoting from its traditional storage focus to pursue a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/news/366639989/After-rebrand-Everpure-extends-high-availability-to-files">data management strategy</a>. This week, the vendor unveiled &nbsp;what it calls a data primacy architecture, shipped a new product offering, Data Intelligence, based on its May 2026 acquisition of 1touch.io and a set of updates to its cloud platform to optimize data management for AI workloads. Everpure also unveiled <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/everpure-announces-data-stream-to-expand-ai-ready-data-offerings-302803093.html">another product, DataStream</a>, a pipeline tool for converting unstructured enterprise data into an AI ready format.</p> <p>Everpure's data primacy model aims to unify data from different application silos by embedding governance, context and semantics directly on the data layer. This gathers metadata and context into one location on the Everpure platform, as opposed to requiring organizations to copy or relocate data into each application that requires it for AI context.</p> <p>"We see the world moving toward more of a data-centric view," said Prakash Darji, general manager of digital experience at Everpure. "Largely for the last 40 years, data and context have been encapsulated behind apps. In the world of agentic [AI], semantics are sprawled and encapsulated in apps that also fragment infrastructure. And as you fragment further, you end up with scale and manageability problems."</p> <div class="imagecaption alignRight"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/darji.jpeg" alt="Prakash Darji, general manager of digital experience at Everpure.">Prakash Darji </div> <p>One analyst said it’s a good start for Evepure, but still questioned the company’s appeal to new customers.</p> <p>&nbsp;"I think Everpure will have a really good shot within its storage portfolio to achieve primacy at the data layer," said Rob Strechay, an analyst at TheCube Research and Smuget Consulting. "Once you get outside of Everpure's gear, it becomes a bigger question mark."</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Data intelligence and Everpure’s data management goals"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Data intelligence and Everpure’s data management goals</h2> <p><a href="https://blog.everpuredata.com/perspectives/ai-data-intelligence-rob-lee/"></a>Everpure Data Intelligence focuses on finding, cataloging and classifying enterprise data and applies governance and security controls. Its three core capabilities are: universal discovery for visibility into structured and unstructured data; automated governance to scan systems to track compliance; and AI-ready context for mapping data and creating semantics knowledge graphs for agent querying.</p> <p>"We've seen [instances] where extraneous data actually leads to poor outcomes versus focusing on data inputs," said Darji. "So largely for the last 40 years, data and context have been encapsulated behind apps."</p> <p>Data Intelligence puts Everpure in competition with vendors such as Databricks, which have far more capabilities in areas such as automated governance. Databricks, for example, has a new offering called <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/news/366644813/Databricks-intros-new-Genie-data-management-tools-to-aid-AI">Genie Ontology</a> for this purpose.</p> <p>"Universal Discovery is very interesting," Strechay said.&nbsp;"Everpure will get a lot of people to use it, but when you start to look at other multi-cloud, multi-system, multi-vendor type hybrid tooling, that's very ambitious."</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What is Everpure missing?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What is Everpure missing?</h2> <p>While Data Intelligence is a meaningful push toward data management for Everpure, the company still faces several gaps before it can compete with other data management organizations.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> Largely for the last 40 years, data and context have been encapsulated behind apps. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Prakash Darji</strong>general manager of digital experience at Everpure </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>One missing link is Everpure’s absence as an official member of the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/news/366631576/New-consortium-to-aid-AI-by-standardizing-semantic-modeling">Open Semantic Interchange (OSI), </a>&nbsp;an open source consortium that is building a shared standard for metadata and data catalog interoperability. It is backed by other data management companies such as Databricks, DBT and Snowflake.</p> <p>"Everpure should be a part of that," Strechay said, noting that membership would put Everpure on equal footing with already established data management companies and give it easier access to the metadata context that it is pursuing.</p> <p>"If they're really going down this path, they should be part of OSI with Snowflake and everybody else who's in there." Everpure also lacks its own database management system (DBMS) and the query and compute engine capabilities of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/Hadoop-vs-Spark-Comparing-the-two-big-data-frameworks">Apache Spark, Strechay noted.</a></p> <p>Discovering data is only part of the challenge, Strechay said. Being able to catalog that data like competing data management companies is another; the context needs to live somewhere for agents to use it.</p> <p>"This is a statement of the direction Everpure's going in," Strechay said. "But it's significantly behind others that are in that DBMS layer… Everpure has a lot of dots to connect between its heritage clients and 1touch.io," he said. "There's a gap."</p> <p>An Everpure spokesperson said the company does not intend to add a DBMS. Instead, it plans to provide a semantic knowledge graph as agentic middleware that works with multiple sources of data, including databases, lakehouses and unstructured data repositories.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Unified Data Plane and Evergreen//One Overdrive"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Unified Data Plane and Evergreen//One Overdrive</h2> <p>Everpure is making several other moves to help build out its new approach, includinga series of performance improvements and efficiency updates to its existing Unified Data Plane enterprise storage platform.</p> <p>"Our unified data plane is focused on supporting all workloads continually with better and more performance as [AI agents] become more demanding," Darji said.</p> <p>Another Unified Data Plane update adds support for the EverGreen//One Overdrive storage-as-a-service feature. This is an extension of its existing consumption model, enabling users to set storage reserves and pay for capacity on demand. EverGreen//One Overdrive can absorb traffic spikes up to 25% above a set baseline without requiring a permanent subscription upgrade.</p> <p>The updates reflect a broader effort from Everpure to ensure its existing storage infrastructure can keep pace with the requirements of agentic AI workloads, as part of its overall data management shift, according to Strechay.</p> <p>"What Everpure's trying to do there is reduce people feeling like they have to significantly over-provision systems… I think it's a smart thing for Everpure," Strechay said.</p> <p><i>Alexander Gillis is a Technical Writer and Editor at Informa TechTarget, with more than 8 years of experience writing about technology.</i></p> </section> Everpure is shifting its strategy to become more data-centric, releasing new tools and features to better meet the data needs of AI workloads. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/storage_g1224968439.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/news/366644759/Everpure-grows-into-data-management-with-Data-Intelligence-update Thu, 18 Jun 2026 13:44:00 GMT <p><i>ORLANDO, Fla. -- The legal risks of </i><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/feature/Challenges-of-AI-in-recruitment"><i>using AI in HR processes</i></a><i>, such as bias in hiring, performance management and promotions, are well known. But organizations face a bewildering array of other risks from AI, from data privacy litigation to loss of trade secrets and contractor disputes. Regulatory environments are numerous, vary widely by jurisdiction and change often.</i></p> <p><i>Attorney Deepa Menon helps organizations and their HR departments understand the nuances of the legal risks they face when applying AI to their workforces. While many problems predate AI and tread familiar legal territory, the technology adds new complications with which most organizations are unfamiliar.</i></p> <p><i>Menon is a partner based in the Washington, D.C. office of Eversheds Sutherland, a global law firm. She was interviewed right after giving a presentation on the topic at the 2026 annual meeting of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The interview was edited for length and clarity.</i></p> <div class="imagecaption alignRight"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/menon_deepa.jpg" alt="Deepa Menon, Partner, Eversheds Sutherland">Deepa Menon </div> <p><b>Why are the legal risks of AI so important right now?</b></p> <p><b>Deepa Menon: </b>In the United States, it is very important for multiple reasons. One is that we have a patchwork of laws. AI implicates so many different laws on so many fronts, each of which has a patchwork of laws associated with it. The compliance framework gets that much more complicated. The second reason is the kind of litigation risk we're seeing with AI. The minute you've removed the human component, there is more of a litigation risk. It raises the bar because trying to defend something that runs in an automated way is definitely harder than defending something where human beings are involved and specific directives are being given and risk assessments are done.</p> <p><b>Can you summarize the risks?</b></p> <p><b>Menon: </b>When you think about AI and HR, the first risk is that of litigation -- claims based on bias or discrimination: This tool has an inherent bias, it was deployed and therefore I was adversely impacted because it had nothing to do with my qualifications or objective criteria that could have been at play.</p> <p>The second risk is to a company's information. We live in a time where more AI tools are accessible, so if the enterprise doesn't have its own AI tool, employees are likely to use public tools. That means potential leakage of confidential information or trade secrets. AI models are often trained using data, and if you're using my company's data to train another company's model, there's potential leakage. This happened. We saw this with the <a target="_blank" href="https://mashable.com/article/samsung-chatgpt-leak-details" rel="noopener">Samsung case</a> where an engineer put some code into a public GPT platform.</p> <p>Companies are afraid their data is being used to train other models. Is data getting mixed up, or are vendors able to keep it separate? How does the company know the data is being kept separate?</p> <p>There is also intellectual property risk. If companies are developing their own AI models and bringing contractors in, it accelerates the risk. What if a contractor's data is being used to train the AI model? Does the contractor now have rights to the model itself? Can they say their data was used to train this model, and therefore they have IP rights over it?</p> <p>Lack of documentation then becomes a real risk, whether it's lack of contract documentation or policies that clearly tell employees how to use AI.</p> <p><b>In your presentation, you called HR leaders' attention to a huge number of risks. Is it possible to name two or three to tackle first?</b></p> <p><b>Menon:</b> The thing that makes this a little complicated is it could be sector specific: small company versus big company versus nonprofit versus publicly traded company versus which sector they sit in and the kind of data they tend to deal with.</p> <p>That said, the first risk to look out for is any automated system that completely removes the human component. You want to ensure there is a human component in there somewhere, because that will be your biggest defense if there is a claim.</p> <p>Second is the risk that HR is simply not involved when an HR AI tool is adopted. We have seen that go south very quickly because of tech innovation that doesn't take into consideration the real-world implications of deployment in their workforce, and the communication, disclosures and compliance that have to go with it. We've generally seen companies run into major challenges when HR was not in the room.&nbsp;</p> <p>This is one place where legal counsel and HR have to work together. There are so many legal ramifications to every AI rollout. It could look like it's just an employment issue, but there could be an IP issue or unfair trade practice issue behind it. There could be so many other implications because the data that's being used and the far-reaching impact of the AI output could go beyond just the contours of employment.</p> <p><b>Given the patchwork of regulations at the U.S. federal, state and even city level, plus in other countries, should organizations take a wait-and-see approach? For example, in the federal government, there's been a lot of back and forth and a lot of question marks.</b></p> <p><b>Menon:</b> Two things. One, this is not an area where you want to be a trailblazer and the first to have implemented something. The second is that 100% compliance with every single global AI and privacy law is impossible. It's true of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/General-Data-Protection-Regulation-GDPR">GDPR</a> and U.S. laws. You can only do so much. You have to pick the big battles and comply with specific pieces to the greatest extent you can.</p> <p>There are upsides and downsides to the wait-and-see approach. Where you have an unsettled area of law, you probably want to see how things go before you pour a lot of money into AI implementation. That said, the risk -- and this is especially true in the U.S. -- is if there is an impact on the employee, it could be fodder for litigation.</p> <p>It's almost a risk-benefit analysis. I've had companies say there's a DSAR [Data Subject Access Request] in California and we know this employee is going to sue us. Do we comply with <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/California-Consumer-Privacy-Act-CCPA">CCPA</a> [California Consumer Privacy Act] or give this person free discovery? Which penalty is greater?</p> <p>There is a constant risk-benefit analysis of whether to comply and make immediate disclosures. Or do you limit your disclosure and wait and see how much disclosure will be required in the particular jurisdiction? There are risks associated with over-disclosure and under-disclosure.</p> <p><b>HR historically has been reactive to AI and blocked things IT wanted to do because they were too risky. You say HR's role has drastically changed and should change, and the new model is for HR to work with legal counsel and IT to create a framework before implementing anything.</b></p> <p><b>Menon:</b> When new technology comes out, you're going to have either joy or disgruntlement in how employees react to it. We often forget when we do AI rollouts, especially in the workforce, that these are people, and people have people reactions to things.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> We often forget when we do AI rollouts, especially in the workforce, that these are people, and people have people reactions to things. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>HR is the first line of defense for a company when there are people reactions. HR must be able to explain why, but also how a tool works and what the benefit is. HR must first be convinced that a tool is important. It's a human trait to have to understand the technology and be convinced about it before you can defend it in front of an employee. When HR is not in the room when these workforce AI tools are being adopted, it is put at a disadvantage because the line of communication with employees is impacted.</p> <p>It especially becomes an issue with a global rollout because we don't live in a world where people are siloed by jurisdiction. Organizations have to realize that they have cross-border sharing of information between employees on what tools are being deployed and their impact.</p> <p><b>Your presentation mentioned reductions in force (RIFs) and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices companies must give about layoffs. Legal issues aside for the moment, what is the role of HR in helping employees with their fears about job loss? Part of their role is to train people to use AI and help them move into roles that AI could free them to do. At the same time, HR is the people you never want to see in the room when a big, unexpected meeting is called. HR is in all sorts of difficult positions here.</b></p> <p><b>Menon:</b> With most of the job loss or reskilling issues it comes down to one single factor: trust. Do they trust the company? It's not very different from when you have an investigation and ask an employee if you can have their phone for forensic investigation. If trust exists, the employee will say take my phone; I know you're not going to do anything with it.</p> <p>When there's an AI tool rollout, if trust exists, there is less concern among employees because there is an innate understanding the company is trying to make things better for them. Often, when employees raise concerns, it's because that underlying trust is already fractured. It could come down to things like whether pay equity exists in the company and decisions are fair and objective, or whether there is a clear path to employment decision making and the complaint process is clear.</p> <p>If there's an issue with AI, it tells you there is a cumulative trust deficit. When companies are able to work on the trust deficit, we see these issues start to reduce.</p> <p><b>Bringing legalities back in, if employees suspect layoffs are AI-driven, what are the potential legal issues?</b></p> <p><b>Menon:</b> It's less of a problem when you have a whole plant closing, but if you have selective mass layoffs and AI has been deployed, you have clear litigation risk because the question is whether the AI tool is somehow selecting or not selecting people in a protected category.</p> <p><b>How about when certain tasks or jobs were clearly automated with AI? Are there legal implications if employees suspect they were replaced with AI?</b></p> <p><b>Menon:</b> Say there are two departments that do similar things, and AI is only deployed in one department that just happens to have more women. They might ask: Why did you deploy it here and choose us for termination?</p> <p>It's case by case. Anything could be a litigation risk if it's not implemented uniformly.</p> <p><b>Care to make any predictions about where this is going at the federal level?</b></p> <p><b>Menon:</b> I think we're going to see more of a hands-off approach. That said, the Title VII protections against discrimination continue to exist. Say there's an AI tool that scrapes the internet for background information and gives you all the things an individual has done or pulls all their social media. There's a huge question whether that is a background check bound by the FCRA [Fair Credit Reporting Act]. At the federal level, they've said they're probably not going to pursue it, but there is litigation being advanced based on that exact same theory.</p> <p>The federal government has always stepped away from privacy law, and not just this administration. We've always kind of left it to the states to regulate. Pending state legislation is on a huge uptick. While the federal piece might not exist, companies will essentially end up in the same place if the litigation risk and state privacy statutes continue the way they have.</p> <p><i>David Essex is an industry editor who creates in-depth content on enterprise applications, emerging technology and market trends for several Informa TechTarget websites.</i></p> In this Q&A, employment attorney Deepa Menon explains the legal risks of using AI for workforce decisions and why lawyers, HR and IT must agree on a framework before implementing AI. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/legal_g941378956.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/news/366644954/HR-must-have-a-say-in-AI-policy-to-forestall-legal-risks Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:51:00 GMT <p><i>ORLANDO, Fla. -- </i>Bettina Deynes, Global CHRO at Carnival Corporation, says she understands young workers' fear of AI because if AI had arrived when she was more junior in her own career, she would have been "petrified."</p> <p>"I know all that it takes to be where I am today, and what would that journey mean now in the era of AI?" she said. "It would probably be very different. But I think you've got to embrace it -- but not use it to replace who you are [and] the intrinsic value of what you bring to the table."</p> <p>Deynes and Njsane Courtney, vice president of HR for the American Bureau of Shipping, discussed AI's role in HR during a panel titled "The ROI of AI: How HR Leaders Are Using AI as a Value-Add," which was hosted by Growth Institute faculty member Mo Fathelbab at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla., and recorded for the SHRM podcast <i>People + Strategy</i>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/Will-AI-replace-HR-The-answer-is-complicated">HR can lead the way on AI</a>, as the department does on many other topics, because of the flexibility HR employees must bring to their jobs, Courtney said.</p> <p>"HR is uniquely positioned to handle almost everything, because being able to pivot, having to influence, having to direct people who are four or five levels above us -- we call that Thursday, right?" he said.</p> <p>Courtney said he came to believe AI has benefits in the workplace after the technology helped him with an HR-related problem. When he was driving to work, he asked AI to help him create a response to the work situation, omitting confidential information when he described the details to the AI.</p> <p>"By the time I got to my parking garage, I had a working theory," he said. "[I asked myself], what would this mean for our HR administrators who spend 30% of their time doing repetitive tasks?"</p> <p>For Carnival's AI journey, Deynes said that owning AI technology was a must because if, for example, another company charges 10 cents per candidate, the cost would climb quickly for Carnival, which has 10 million candidates apply every year.</p> <p>"We are putting the money upfront, the investment, because we're going to own it and we're going to build it ourselves," she said.</p> <p>One AI use case for Carnival is reducing <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/Top-AI-recruiting-tools-and-software-of-2022">work for recruiters</a>, with the company currently building a platform that can filter resumes.</p> <p>"It's making the job of the recruiters a lot easier," Deynes said.</p> <p>A current struggle for many recruiters is distinguishing between AI-generated and human-generated resumes, as well as making sure that job applicants themselves are human.</p> <p>One finding Deynes says she learned from Carnival collaborating with Gartner is that companies will need to implement a step in the hiring process where candidates prove they possess the right skills.</p> <p>"You're going to have to start doing assessments when you hire to make sure that the people you're hiring know what they're telling you that they know and they know it without the AI," she said.</p> <p>Many companies are currently dealing with <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/will-ai-benefit-or-harm-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">employee concerns</a> over what AI will mean for their future.</p> <p>Communicating about AI in the right way is crucial to alleviating employees' AI fears, Courtney said. He said an HR administrator at his company came to him worried about losing her job, and he asked her to write down five tasks that needlessly took up her time and that AI could potentially carry out.</p> <p>"It does not mean that what she wrote is going to be exactly what we did," he said. "It's not a democracy, and I'm not trying to paint it as though it is. But when you do that and you just take those three minutes…. She is now one of our top champions."</p> <p><i>Molly Clancy is the senior site editor for Informa TechTarget's SearchHRSoftware and SearchERP sites.</i></p> At the SHRM Annual Conference, HR leaders discussed the reality of how AI is playing out at their organizations during a panel. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_a199952058.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/news/366644882/HR-leaders-weigh-in-on-the-reality-of-AI-initiatives Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:36:00 GMT <p>Unified communications remains crucial to enterprise workforce optimization strategies, yet disparate Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS devices produce inconsistent functionality, draining resources and reducing <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/feature/Guide-to-building-an-enterprise-unified-communications-strategy">UC's collaboration and communication capabilities</a>.</p> <p>Coupled with growing expectations for seamless <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/tip/How-DEX-metrics-help-build-a-better-digital-workplace">digital employee experiences</a> and the rise of mixed-OS environments, these challenges create a roadblock to organizational opportunity and agility.</p> <p>This article explains the costs of these challenges and details how to achieve cross-platform UC parity. It also provides standard success metrics to enable continuous improvement.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The cost of cross-platform UC gaps"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The cost of cross-platform UC gaps</h2> <p>Gaps in cross-platform UC deployments incur costs and introduce friction, creating challenges across the environment.</p> <p>The first challenge is parity problems across platforms, including:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Missing or different features and capabilities across Windows, macOS and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchEnterpriseDesktop/feature/Why-2026-might-bring-more-Linux-desktops-to-the-enterprise">Linux</a>.</li> <li>Inconsistent user experiences across mobile and desktop platforms.</li> </ul> <p>These differences incur various operational consequences, such as:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Increased deployment, configuration and support burden.</li> <li>User frustration and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/tip/potential-costs-of-shadow-IT">shadow IT</a> workarounds.</li> <li>Hybrid and remote work frustrations.</li> <li>Reduced adoption of strategic communications platforms.</li> </ul> <p>Yet, the concerns do not just center on user convenience and comfort; gaps in the UC deployment also lead to significant risks and costs, including:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Hidden costs of supporting separate tools for <a target="_blank" href="https://syscomgs.com/en/blog-legacy-os-sec/" rel="noopener">different OSes.</a></li> <li>Increased operational complexity.</li> <li>Reduced security posture with disparate security controls across clients and OSes.</li> <li>Impact on regulated industries and associated compliance obligations.</li> </ul> <p>Many IT leaders acknowledge these challenges but lack a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchUnifiedCommunications/tip/Designing-UC-platforms-for-seamless-collaboration-anywhere">plan to address them</a>. Use a two-phase approach to generate a rational, data-driven outcome. Start by understanding the current environment and then transitioning to an infrastructure that provides parity.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Phase 1: Assess and rationalize the UC environment"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Phase 1: Assess and rationalize the UC environment</h2> <p>First, assess the current UC environment to identify working components, pain points and parity opportunities with the following steps:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Identify platforms, clients and supported OSes.</li> <li>Identify platform-specific feature gaps.</li> <li>Prioritize business-critical capabilities that require parity.</li> <li>Reduce unnecessary client proliferation and overlapping tools.</li> <li>Establish a baseline parity score.</li> </ul> <p>Gather information from business units to identify friction and wish-list items.</p> <h3>Governance and ownership</h3> <p>Establish governance early to define ownership of the parity initiative and identify executive sponsorship requirements. Likely ownership teams are UC, endpoint, digital workplace or end-using computing groups. The governing body provides guidance, metrics and centralized reporting to speed decision-making.</p> <h3>Vendor evaluation criteria</h3> <p>Develop <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchUnifiedCommunications/tip/UC-stack-evolution-Integrated-vs-best-of-breed-considerations">vendor evaluation criteria</a>. Begin with questions UC decision-makers should ask to assess a vendor's current parity status, future commitment to parity, transparency and the business value of achieving a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/tip/Strategies-to-boost-DEX-scores-and-employee-productivity">consistent UX</a>. Ask vendors to clearly state:</p> <ol class="default-list"> <li>Which features are fully supported across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, and what gaps among them still exist?</li> <li>When new capabilities are released, what is the typical lag between platforms?</li> <li>Request a feature matrix showing functionality, release timing and roadmap commitments across all supported platforms.</li> <li>What measurable outcomes do customers achieve after improving cross-platform parity, such as support-ticket reduction, adoption rates and tool consolidation savings?</li> </ol> <p>UC evaluation also includes parity commitments in contracts and vendor support. Require vendors to define these commitments clearly.</p> <p>AI-supported features are also crucial to purchase decisions. Evaluate whether <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/tip/AI-meeting-assistants-to-consider">AI assistants</a>, meeting summaries, transcription and copilots are available equally across OSes.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Phase 2: Implement a practical parity strategy"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Phase 2: Implement a practical parity strategy</h2> <p>To achieve cross-platform UC parity, standardize and consolidate where possible. Reduce exceptions and one-off options that don't support the larger UC strategy. Browser-based access can close feature gaps, so use it as a fallback option when application deployments lack the required parity.</p> <h3>Apply phased rollouts</h3> <p>Use a phased rollout approach, targeting high-impact user segments or tool gaps.</p> <ol class="default-list"> <li>Deploy a pilot program with representative user groups.</li> <li>Expand across OSes in stages.</li> <li>Validate feature consistency before a broader deployment.</li> </ol> <h3>Measuring success: KPIs that matter</h3> <p>Measure deployment success, starting with pilot programs. The governance team should set continuous improvement expectations for the deployment.</p> <p>Introduce measurable outcomes, such as:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Feature consistency score across OSes.</li> <li>Support ticket reduction rates.</li> <li>User satisfaction metrics.</li> <li>Cross-platform adoption rates.</li> <li>Percentage of users receiving equivalent functionality regardless of device.</li> </ul> <p>These metrics demonstrate progress and support executive reporting.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Financial optimization opportunities"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Financial optimization opportunities</h2> <p>Expect specific financial benefits once UC platform parity, governance and optimization are in place. Results include:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Reducing <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/tip/How-CIOs-can-tackle-subscription-sprawl-and-costs">license and support costs</a> by consolidating overlapping communications tools.</li> <li>Reducing support and training costs for multiple tools across platforms.</li> <li>Improving ROI through higher platform adoption.</li> <li>Aligning licensing strategies with long-term parity goals.</li> <li>Improving productivity using more effective collaboration tools.</li> </ul> <p>Financial optimization relies on treating UC parity as a continuous improvement standard.</p> <p>Achieving UC parity across disparate platforms can't be a one-time project. Maintaining success relies on continuous monitoring and tracking vendor roadmaps, particularly as new OS versions arrive, and new platforms are adopted to support future business requirements.</p> <p>The combined benefits of improved digital employee experience, reduced support complexity and stronger technology ROI make UC feature parity crucial to enterprise strategy.</p> <p>Achieving cross-platform UC parity isn't just a technology initiative -- it's an employee productivity strategy. IT leaders who prioritize consistent experiences across every OS and device will better position their enterprise to drive adoption, reduce complexity and maximize the value of communication investments.</p> <p><em>Damon Garn owns Cogspinner Coaction and provides freelance IT writing and editing services. He has written multiple CompTIA study guides, including the Linux+, Cloud Essentials+ and Server+ guides, and contributes extensively to InformaTechTarget Editorial, The New Stack and CompTIA Blogs.</em>&nbsp;</p> </section> Unified communications helps companies optimize their workflows, but disparate OSes and user devices pose roadblocks. A practical parity strategy can help. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/wfh_a382773067.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/tip/Achieve-cross-platform-UC-parity-in-mixed-OS-environments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:31:00 GMT <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Executive summary</h3> <p>Key AWS news from FinOps X 2026 includes the following:</p> <p><b>FinOps Agent.</b> A new public preview tool that lets users analyze cloud spend using natural language, investigate anomalies and surface optimization recommendations within engineering workflows.</p> <p><b>Bedrock attribution.</b> Expanded cost visibility for Amazon Bedrock with granular attribution linking AI usage and spend to models, applications, agents and users.</p> <p><b>Cost management updates.</b> Enhancements to Savings Plans target planning, automated cost and forecast explanations, and expanded idle-resource recommendations.</p> <p><b>Credit controls.</b> New credit-level sharing and transparency features that improve visibility into cloud credit usage across workloads and accounts.</p> </div> </div> <p>SAN DIEGO -- AI has become both a challenge and an opportunity for FinOps teams, and AWS used this year's <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/news/366644142/linux-foundation-announces-tokenomicon-at-finops-x">FinOps X conference</a> to showcase a series of product updates that align closely with that reality.</p> <p>AWS introduced the AWS FinOps Agent in public preview, an AI-powered tool designed to automate cloud cost analysis, anomaly investigation and reporting, while surfacing optimization recommendations. AWS also expanded cost visibility for Amazon Bedrock with granular attribution capabilities that help organizations <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/How-to-apply-FinOps-to-optimize-agentic-AI-costs">track AI spending</a> at the application, agent and user level.</p> <p>Additional updates included new cost management capabilities for optimization, forecasting and financial controls. The announcements show how AWS is applying AI to traditional FinOps processes and building tools to track AI spending.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="FinOps Agent moves into public preview"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>FinOps Agent moves into public preview</h2> <p>AWS introduced the AWS FinOps Agent in public preview as an AI-powered system that analyzes cloud spend, investigates anomalies and surfaces optimization recommendations within engineering workflows.</p> <p>The agent lets AWS users ask about cloud costs using natural language, said Bradford Lyman, director of product management at AWS, in his portion of the keynote. It can detect anomalies, generate custom reports and identify optimization opportunities.</p> <p>The agent integrates with tools such as Jira to route findings and recommendations directly to the teams responsible for <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/feature/Cloud-cost-management-strategies-for-upcoming-volatile-decade">resolving cost issues</a>. Users can run the agent on a schedule, trigger it when specific events occur or use it on demand through natural language queries.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize=" https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_screenshot-f.jpg "> <img data-src=" https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg " class="lazy" data-srcset=" https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w, https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot from AWS FinOps Agent's UI." data-credit="AWS" height="306" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>AWS FinOps Agent traces cost anomalies to their root causes. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p>The tool was presented as part of AWS's vision to make FinOps more agent-first.</p> <p>"We think FinOps should be effortless, intelligent and autonomous," Lyman said in the keynote.</p> <p>However, the system does not currently execute infrastructure changes or apply optimizations automatically.</p> <p>The agent instead surfaces recommendations and investigation summaries, which are routed into tools for engineering follow-up. Customers decide what the agent looks for, what organizational context it uses and where it sends its findings.</p> <p>The system draws on AWS Cost Explorer, Cost Anomaly Detection, Cost Optimization Hub and Compute Optimizer then uses CloudTrail activity to trace cost changes back to the AWS users or roles that triggered them.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_finops_agent_screenshot-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_finops_agent_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_finops_agent_screenshot-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/aws_finops_agent_screenshot-f.jpg 1280w" alt="A screenshot from AWS FinOps Agent's UI." data-credit="AWS" height="192" width="559"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The FinOps Agent setup process includes permissions configuration, workflow integrations and organization-specific context settings. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Bedrock gets granular cost attribution for AI usage tracking"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Bedrock gets granular cost attribution for AI usage tracking</h2> <p>AWS also announced new granular attribution capabilities within Amazon Bedrock to help organizations <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/Tokenmaxxing-How-CIOs-extract-maximum-value-AI-tokens">track AI spending</a>. The update shows which model was called and the cost associated with each session, and can attribute usage to specific applications, agents or users.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> This is the foundation of tokenomics. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Bradford Lyman</strong>Director of product management, AWS </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>"This is the foundation of tokenomics," Lyman said in the keynote.</p> <p>The cost attribution feature maps usage to identity and access management (IAM) roles or users, which then appear in AWS Cost Explorer and the AWS Cost and Usage Report.</p> <p>If organizations assign separate IAM roles to individual applications, agents or teams, Bedrock costs can be tracked at that level through existing cost management tools. The Cost and Usage Report also includes input and output token usage at the line-item level, enabling more detailed analysis of AI consumption within existing billing data.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="AWS updates cost management capabilities"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>AWS updates cost management capabilities</h2> <p>AWS also introduced updates across existing tools for optimization, forecasting and financial controls.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> Everywhere within our consoles, you're able to push a button and see any kind of unexpected cost, [and] an immediate root cause investigation and analysis. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Bradford Lyman</strong>Director of product management, AWS </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>It added target planning for Savings Plans, which lets organizations set coverage goals directly in the AWS console and receive recommendations aligned with those targets. It also introduced automatic cost and forecast explanations that provide root cause analysis for unexpected spending and forecast changes.</p> <p>"Everywhere within our consoles, you're able to push a button and see any kind of unexpected cost, [and] an immediate root cause investigation and analysis," Lyman said in the keynote.</p> <p>AWS also doubled the number of idle-resource recommendations available through its optimization tools to help customers identify unused or underutilized resources.</p> <p>In addition, the company introduced credit-level sharing controls that let organizations determine which workloads and accounts receive the benefits of cloud credits. It also expanded credit transparency with a new console view that shows earned credits, remaining balances and the workloads to which credits were applied.</p> <p><em>Tim Murphy is a site editor and writer for the IT Strategy team at TechTarget.</em></p> </section> At FinOps X 2026, AWS announced updates across FinOps tools, including an AI agent for cost analysis and new Bedrock attribution features for tracking AI spending. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/cloud_g1135435124.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/news/366644897/aws-launches-finops-agent-expands-bedrock-cost-tracking Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:56:00 GMT <p>New dynamics, if not a structural shift, have been revealed in Assurant’s latest quarterly analysis of the smartphone trade-in market in the US, finding that rising memory costs are starting to reshape smartphone unit economics, while the first quarter of 2026 showed record Q1 revenues.</p> <p>The <em><a title="https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/pFHfC2kg95i6mQ8P9h2sJc5ricS?domain=urldefense.com" href="https://www.assurant.com/news-insights/infographics/q1-trade-in-upgrade-data-trends">Q1 2026 mobile trade-in and upgrade industry trends</a></em> report found that after a record 2025, smartphone trade-ins, protection and a strong pre-owned smartphone market were helping consumers get more value from every device upgrade. It also showed how “simple” choices across the device lifecycle – such as trading in a smartphone instead of discarding it or leaving it in a cupboard – can create meaningful value for consumers.</p> <p>Assurant said the data also highlighted a broader shift, whereby rising demand for <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366548572/Average-US-trade-in-value-for-smartphones-increases-for-fifth-consecutive-quarter">refurbished smartphones</a> is strengthening trade-in values and device condition is playing a larger role in determining value. It said protection plans were helping consumers maintain higher resale value and trade-ins were becoming central to how consumers upgrade.</p> <p>Fundamentally, the survey showed that the first quarter of 2026 was the industry’s most active on record, based on volume of devices traded in and total value returned to consumers. In all, the data found that US consumers received $1.63bn from mobile trade-in programmes in the first quarter of 2026, up 31% compared with the same period in 2025. This was a market high for a first quarter, attributed by Assurant to higher device prices driving greater reliance on trade-ins and refurbished handsets.</p> <p>The average age of traded-in devices held steady at 3.81 years, compared with 3.83 years for the full year of 2025. The <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252506741/Apple-unveils-iPhone-13-product-line">iPhone 13</a> remained the&nbsp;most traded-in&nbsp;Apple model, while the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/news/365530223/Samsung-seeks-bigger-role-as-a-business-mobile-provider">Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra</a> led among Android devices. </p> <p>Looking specifically at the issue of memory, the study observed that the sharp rise in DRAM and NAND costs was pushing device prices up by 7% to 10% – in some cases, flagship devices were between $100 and $200 higher – with the net result of lengthening upgrade cycles, tightening affordability and accelerating demand for refurbished devices.</p> <p>Devices in better condition were typically&nbsp;qualifying&nbsp;for higher trade-in values, with many consumers receiving up to 50% more than those with excessive wear or damage.</p> <p>In response, Assurant reported that carriers were rethinking how they bundle protection, trade-in and upgrades to better manage cost and customer retention. One example cited was <a title="https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/J2qECYEQMGig9XAE4I0f5cx3WWC?domain=urldefense.com" href="https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/xfinity-mobile-launches-mobile-plus-select-plans">Xfinity Mobile’s new Plus Plan</a>, which builds device repair and replacement directly into the monthly rate to deliver more predictable costs.</p> <p>Assurant added that this also aligned with broader consumer demand, as shown in its latest <em><a title="https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/wN0TCZ6wWJfxjYQrpsjhwcBA0oc?domain=urldefense.com" href="https://azure-na-assets.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt87461b8270f4f92b/blt0de28453a5317c87/2026-global-connected-consumer-report">Global connected consumer trends report</a>,</em> with 85% saying they were more likely to purchase devices with customisable coverage.</p> <p>“As smartphone prices continue to rise, consumers are looking for smarter ways to manage upgrade costs – and trade-ins, especially when paired with protection, are playing a bigger role,” said Biju Nair, executive vice-president and president of Assurant’s global connected living business unit, commenting on the report.</p> <p>“This data shows trade-ins are doing more than helping consumers save on a new device. They’re also&nbsp;supporting&nbsp;a growing market for high-quality refurbished smartphones, giving more people access to newer, reliable devices at a lower price&nbsp;and making it easier for consumers to access the full connected experience offered by premium device brands.”</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Read more about smartphones</h3> <ul class="default-list"> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366618231/How-smartphones-are-transforming-global-health">How smartphones are transforming global health</a>: Shyam Gollakota, winner of the 2024 Infosys Prize in Engineering and Computer Science, is bringing medical care to underserved communities through with smartphone-based diagnostic tools.</li> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366636183/Consumers-trade-up-smartphones-for-AI">Consumers trade up smartphones for AI</a>: Quarterly study of US mobile trade-in arena finds&nbsp;46% growth year-on-year driven by accelerated adoption of AI-enabled devices and expansion of the secondary market, with the third consecutive record-breaking period.</li> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366632925/Viasat-unveils-smartphone-connectivity-via-satellite-first-in-Mexico">Viasat unveils smartphone connectivity via satellite first in Mexico</a>: Satellite operator demonstrates the potential of D2D networks to bridge the connectivity gap in areas where traditional wireless comms services are unreliable or non-existent.</li> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366643081/BlackBerry-doubles-down-on-secure-communications">BlackBerry doubles down on secure communications</a>: Having sold its Cylance endpoint security portfolio to Arctic Wolf, the former smartphone pioneer is doubling down on military-grade encryption and post-quantum cryptography to shield critical infrastructure.</li> </ul> </div> </div> Smartphone trade-in market data reveals new dynamics as higher device prices drive greater reliance on trade-ins and refurbished units https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/ComputerWeekly/HeroImages/Apple-iPhone-14-colours-PR-hero.jpg https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366644895/Rising-memory-costs-reshape-smartphone-economics Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:45:00 GMT <p>Making decisions based on <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/consumer-data">customer data </a>can help customer experience teams understand market trends, customer needs and pain points that affect the customer experience.</p> <p>One challenge in customer data collection is ensuring that the methods and types of data collected comply with applicable privacy laws, industry requirements and internal data governance policies. The best-known example is the European Union's <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/General-Data-Protection-Regulation-GDPR">GDPR</a>, but organizations might also need to account for U.S. state privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/California-Consumer-Privacy-Act-CCPA">CCPA</a>) and California Privacy Rights Act, Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act and Colorado Privacy Act, among others.</p> <p>Privacy requirements do not prevent organizations from collecting useful customer data. However, they do require organizations to be transparent with customers, collect only what they need, protect the data they collect and give customers appropriate notice, choice and control.</p> <p>Learn about seven ways to collect customer data while reducing privacy and compliance risk.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="1. Customer surveys"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>1. Customer surveys</h2> <p>Perhaps the best way to stay compliant is to conduct no-obligation surveys throughout the customer journey. Plenty of customers are willing to share their opinions on purchase decisions, product and service fulfillment procedures and other feedback that CX teams can combine with other surveys. Then, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/7-key-customer-experience-metrics-to-measure">teams can analyze the data</a> to better plan their marketing strategies and sales tactics, and to streamline problematic processes.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="2. Transactional data"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>2. Transactional data</h2> <p>Data collected from sales at the point of sale is known as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/transactional-data">transactional data</a>, which can include transaction dates, times, locations, products or services purchased, purchase history and payment methods.</p> <p>Then, CX teams can use this data to determine the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li>Success or failure of a particular marketing campaign.</li> <li>Shopping trends.</li> <li>Potential campaigns that might be successful in the future.</li> <li>The likelihood of a customer returning.</li> </ul> <p>To reduce <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Top-customer-data-privacy-best-practices">compliance risk when collecting transactional data</a>, CX teams should collect only the information they need for a specific business purpose and avoid storing unnecessary personal or payment details. When possible, organizations should aggregate, anonymize or de-identify transactional data before using it for analysis. They should also limit access to the data and protect it according to internal security and privacy policies.</p> <figure class="main-article-image half-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/custex- collect_customer_data.png"> <img data-src="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/custex- collect_customer_data_half_column_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/custex- collect_customer_data_half_column_mobile.png 960w,https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/custex- collect_customer_data.png 1280w" alt="Chart listing ways to collect customer data, including surveys, transactional data, web tracking, social media, CRM data and chatbots." height="338" width="279"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Many customer data collection methods, such as cookies, website tracking, CRM data and social media analytics, require clear disclosure and appropriate privacy controls. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="3. Web tracking"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>3. Web tracking</h2> <p>Organizations that conduct business over websites can collect and analyze data using a number of tracking tools. Understanding how customers interact with a website can highlight what customers want, so CX teams can refine the website layout, content and purchasing methods to better attract prospects and cut down on cart abandonment rates.</p> <p>Businesses should be careful about what website data they collect and whether the data falls under <a href="https://iapp.org/resources/article/us-state-privacy-legislation-tracker">privacy laws</a> such as GDPR, CCPA or other state privacy laws. In many cases, websites that use cookies, pixels or similar tracking technologies must disclose those practices and give users appropriate notice and choices before collecting or sharing certain types of data.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="4. Opt-in digital newsletters and blogs"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>4. Opt-in digital newsletters and blogs</h2> <p>Many organizations stay in the minds of customers because they offer digital newsletters and walled blog content that use an opt-in, opt-out process. These methods benefit both businesses and customers, as they offer useful information, discounts and other incentives to customers while providing a wealth of user data for the business.</p> <p>In many cases, customers are willing to provide their information if the content or discounts entice them. From a business perspective, the newsletters, blogs and other related incentives are worth the time and money spent to engage a loyal customer base.</p> <div class="youtube-iframe-container"> <iframe id="ytplayer-0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lb6Gi6IR-Kc?autoplay=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;widget_referrer=null&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.theserverside.com" type="text/html" height="360" width="640" frameborder="0"></iframe> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="5. Social media"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>5. Social media</h2> <p>Social media can help brands engage and interact with existing and prospective customers. Popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offer businesses built-in analytics tools and often provide a near-real-time <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/How-to-gather-and-evaluate-customer-sentiment">view of customer sentiment</a> and an audience's continuously evolving interests.</p> <p>Alternatively, CX teams can extract the data, place it into third-party tools and combine it with other forms of collected information for deeper inspection. When teams extract data from social media platforms, they must understand the business is responsible for keeping it safe and removing personal information that may lead to noncompliance.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="6. CRM data"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>6. CRM data</h2> <p>Most organizations rely on <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Understanding-the-3-types-of-CRM-systems">CRM tools</a> to help track interactions with current or future customers. CX teams must take great care to protect CRM databases, as they contain <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/answer/How-do-companies-protect-customer-data">customers' personal information</a>, including names, email addresses and phone numbers. These systems also store descriptive, qualitative and quantitative data, which helps visualize and quantify customer behavior and lifetime value estimates.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> The key to compliance is not only to request customer consent when required, but also to explain what data is collected, why it is collected and how it will be used. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="7. Chatbots"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>7. Chatbots</h2> <p>As long as users grant consent and an organization's reasons for collecting the data are transparent, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/chatbot">chatbots</a> can help businesses focus on the types of questions, concerns and problems that customers may experience.</p> <p>Whether a user requests specific information about a product or has questions or complaints regarding a pre- and post-sale experience, CX teams can use these data points to get either a high-level or granular view of what the customer wants.</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Customer data collection compliance checklist</h3> <p>Before collecting customer data, organizations should answer several questions:</p> <p>✓ What business purpose does this data support?</p> <p>✓ Is the organization collecting only the data it needs?</p> <p>✓ Has the organization disclosed the collection method clearly?</p> <p>✓ Does the customer need to provide consent or receive an opt-out option?</p> <p>✓ Is the data protected, access-controlled and retained only as long as necessary?</p> <p>✓ Can the organization honor customer privacy rights, such as access, deletion, correction or opt-out requests?</p> <p>✓ Are third-party tools, analytics platforms and AI services covered by appropriate privacy and security reviews?</p> <p>This checklist does not replace legal review, but it can help CX, marketing, IT and security teams identify privacy issues before customer data collection begins.</p> </div> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Consent, transparency are key"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Consent, transparency are key</h2> <p>The key to compliance is not only to request customer consent when required, but also to explain what data is collected, why it is collected, how it will be used and how customers can exercise their privacy rights.</p> <p>Organizations should also practice <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/definition/data-minimization">data minimization</a> by collecting only the data they need for a specific purpose and retaining it only as long as necessary. Digital tools and AI-backed services can help organize, deduplicate, classify and remove personal information, but companies remain responsible for making sure those tools are used safely and in accordance with applicable privacy requirements.</p> <p><strong>Editor's note</strong>: <em>This article was updated to improve clarity and include current customer data privacy and compliance considerations. </em></p> <p><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em>Andrew Froehlich is founder of InfraMomentum, an enterprise IT research and analyst firm, and president of West Gate Networks, an IT consulting company. He has been involved in enterprise IT for more than 20 years.</em></span></p> </section> Customer data can improve CX, marketing and sales decisions, but organizations must collect it transparently, protect it and follow applicable privacy laws. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/legal_g1134366930.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Ways-to-collect-customer-data-that-keep-you-compliant Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:44:00 GMT <p>LAS VEGAS -- The word "acquisition" can strike fear into the hearts of IT executives.</p> <p>When an IT vendor makes an acquisition, customers rightfully wonder what will happen to their services. Will the acquisition drive up costs? Will it be beneficial in the end?</p> <p>Users at HPE Discover praised the smooth integrations the vendor has made following recent acquisitions.</p> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/news/366635872/HPE-Discover-Barcelona-2025-unveils-AI-networking-advances">HPE's integration process</a> has been "genuinely impressive," according to Mike Leone, analyst at Moor Insights &amp; Strategy.</p> <p>"One thing I respect is that HPE seems to know what not to build itself, leaning on partners for the pieces outside its lane rather than trying to own everything," Leone wrote in an email to TechTarget.</p> <p>And through all the integrations, upgrades and updates, the importance of communication, experience and expertise is a constant, customers said this week.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/hpe_discover_1-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/hpe_discover_1-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/hpe_discover_1-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/hpe_discover_1-f.jpg 1280w" alt="Photo from HPE Discover keynote." data-credit="Paul Crocetti" height="271" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>About 13,000 people attended the HPE Discover user conference. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Pickin' up good integrations"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Pickin' up good integrations</h2> <p>Danfoss, a global industrial manufacturing company based in Denmark, has been an HPE customer for about 20 years. The company uses HPE's GreenLake and Private Cloud AI. HPE and Danfoss <a href="https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/about-danfoss/news/dcs/hewlett-packard-enterprise-and-danfoss-partner-to-curb-data-center-energy-consumption-and-reuse-excess-heat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">also collaborate</a> on equipment aiming to improve data center energy efficiency.</p> <p>HPE does a good job of both acquiring the right companies to complete its portfolio and innovating internally, said Sune Tornbo Baastrup, senior vice president and CIO at Danfoss. For example, HPE's networking has grown dramatically since its acquisitions of Aruba Networks in 2015, Silver Peak in 2020 and Juniper Networks in 2025.</p> <p>"It has really made them the strongest network player in the market today," Baastrup told TechTarget at Discover.</p> <p>Baastrup said he was particularly impressed with the speed at which HPE has integrated Aruba and Juniper, "at a pace that I've never seen before in the technology world." He pointed to HPE's experience with acquisitions, customer communication and product execution as reasons why the integrations go well.</p> <p>HPE is also honest about what isn't going to be in its portfolio, he said.</p> <p>"Strategically, that's extremely valuable, because then you don't waste time on 'Is this something that is going to be a feature or functionality or is it not?'" Baastrup said. "Honestly, that openness that they have is very seldom [seen] today."</p> <p>Scott Atchley, CTO of the National Center for Computational Science at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was an HPE customer when the vendor acquired <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/news/252463603/HPE-Cray-deal-brings-supercomputers-to-enterprises-for-AI">supercomputing pioneer Cray</a> in 2019.</p> <p>The multidisciplinary research facility for the U.S. Department of Energy uses multiple HPE high-performance computing and AI systems, including Frontier. The laboratory issued a request for proposal for Frontier just before HPE purchased Cray.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> They really saved the Frontier project for us. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Scott Atchley, CTO, National Center for Computational Science</strong> </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>Frontier, now an HPE Cray supercomputer and the world's first exascale system, went into production in 2022 when the COVID pandemic had left <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searcherp/feature/How-COVID-19-has-affected-just-in-time-supply-chains">supply chains a mess</a>. Atchley said he was thankful for HPE's ownership of Cray because of its resources available, even at that time.</p> <p>"They really saved the Frontier project for us," Atchley told TechTarget at Discover.</p> <p>While Atchley said he sensed some internal frustrations among HPE and Cray employees during the two- to three-year integration process, they didn't affect the customer level.</p> <p>"It takes time for the cultures and everything else to blend in," Atchley said.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Expertise goes a long way"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Expertise goes a long way</h2> <p>At the business level, communication is key as well. IT staff at RWJBarnabas Health work closely with their <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchitchannel/definition/VAR">value-added resellers</a>, according to network manager Harold Patino. The collection of healthcare providers in New Jersey has a lot of networking equipment, including 5,000 switches deployed throughout the state.</p> <p>"They tell us when we should be looking at upgrading that equipment," Patino said at a Discover breakout session on Wednesday. "Without their knowledge, it would be very difficult to try to figure all this out on our own."</p> <p>It's especially important to be up to date and implement upgrades seamlessly when any downtime is a critical incident, such as in a hospital system.</p> <p>"It's impossible for me to say, 'Listen, we're just going to take down this floor for about four hours,'" Patino said.</p> <p>Stressing resiliency and the ability to upgrade without downtime is important when trying to convince management when equipment upgrades are needed.</p> <p>Patino recalled meeting his CIO and other executives in the office at a time when his organization was discussing moving to HPE Aruba switches.</p> <p>"We did an upgrade while they were in the meeting, just to prove there was no downtime," Patino said. "So that, for us, pretty much sold it."</p> <p>Eric Stover, IT transformation leader at building products provider Owens Corning, recommended not getting too swept up in the AI whirlwind. AI can solve a lot, but it doesn't need to do everything, Stover said in the breakout session.</p> <p>Divide out what agents can take and what they can't, he suggested.</p> <p>"Definitely start by keeping it simple," Stover said.</p> <p><em>Paul Crocetti is editorial director of Informa TechTarget's Infrastructure sites, which include SearchStorage, SearchDataCenter and SearchITOperations. Since starting at then-TechTarget in 2015, he has also served as editor on the SearchStorage, SearchDataBackup and SearchDisasterRecovery sites. You can reach him at </em><a target="_blank" href="mailto:paul.crocetti@informatechtarget.com" rel="noopener"><em>paul.crocetti@informatechtarget.com</em></a><em> and on </em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcrocetti/" rel="noopener"><em>LinkedIn</em></a><em>.</em></p> </section> Several customers at HPE Discover praised the vendor for its smooth acquisition integrations and shared their tips for navigating systems updates. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/collab_g1227412970.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/366644953/HPE-customers-say-the-key-to-integration-success-is-communication Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:43:00 GMT <p>One of the most-cited benefits of <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/virtualhealthcare/feature/RPM-101-What-Is-Remote-Patient-Monitoring-Its-Benefits-and-Uses">remote patient monitoring</a> is its <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/virtualhealthcare/feature/How-remote-patient-care-helped-cut-heart-failure-readmissions">potential to reduce readmissions</a> by providing real-time data that clinicians can act on. But recent research adds nuance to this notion, showing that remote monitoring alone may not have this effect in all cases.</p> <p>The study, published in <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2850152"><i>JAMA Network Open</i></a>, found that remote monitoring itself did not help individuals discharged home after hospitalizations for sepsis and lower respiratory tract infections avoid readmissions.</p> <p>Researchers from the&nbsp;University of Pittsburgh&nbsp;and&nbsp;UPMC Health Plan assessed whether remote monitoring is effective in reducing readmissions following hospitalizations for serious infections. While remote monitoring can help identify signs of clinical needs, the effectiveness of RPM approaches for certain conditions is understudied, they noted in the study.</p> <p>The study evaluated four remote monitoring interventions and compared them to usual care following hospital discharge. Usual care included a post-discharge phone call from a nurse and continued management with a primary care physician. Meanwhile, the RPM interventions included narrow and broad smartphone-based questionnaires to capture patient-reported symptoms, as well as clinical responses from either a standard nurse call center team or an enhanced multidisciplinary team.</p> <p>In the study, there were 1,286 adults who had been discharged after hospitalization with sepsis or lower respiratory tract infection between March 2021 and December 2024. Of those included in the study, 399 were assigned to receive usual care, while the rest were enrolled in one of the four remote monitoring interventions.</p> <p>All remote monitoring interventions were less effective than usual care at reducing readmissions among study participants, the researchers found. The rate of readmissions within 90 days of discharge ranged from 36.3% among the patients who received the broad questionnaire and the enhanced multidisciplinary team response to 44.2% among those who received the narrow questionnaire and the standard nurse call center team response.</p> <p>In contrast, the control arm that received usual care had a 37.8% readmission rate.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Additionally, researchers observed that among patients 65 years and older, remote monitoring reduced days spent at home and increased readmission rates compared with usual care.</p> <p>"These findings suggest that the CMS should reassess the role of remote therapeutic monitoring in reducing readmissions and underscore the value of tailoring remote monitoring in post-acute care for serious infections," the study authors wrote.</p> <p><em>Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers healthcare IT and innovation, including artificial intelligence, digital healthcare, EHRs and interoperability.</em></p> A recent study found that RPM alone did not reduce readmissions among discharged patients with sepsis and respiratory infections, challenging RPM's broad claims of effectiveness. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/virtual%20health_g673493724.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/virtualhealthcare/news/366644829/RPM-didnt-curb-hospital-admissions-after-serious-infections Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:41:00 GMT <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Executive summary</h3> <ul type="disc" class="default-list"> <li><b>Federal court strikes down $100,000 H-1B fee</b>: On June 8, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's $100,000 H-1B visa petition fee (imposed in September 2025) was unconstitutional. The fee represented a dramatic increase from the standard $1,700-$4,500 range.</li> <li><b>Temporary relief with ongoing uncertainty</b>: While the ruling initially provided relief for employers, the administration filed an appeal, and the judge granted a stay, keeping the fee in place until the appellate court rules. This creates ongoing uncertainty for companies that depend on H-1B workers for specialized technology, healthcare, and academic roles.</li> <li><b>Significant effect on hiring strategies</b>: The fee forced companies to freeze H-1B hiring or change strategies. The ruling affects not just tech giants like Meta and Amazon, but particularly impacts smaller tech firms, startups, SMBs and nonprofits that found the fee financially prohibitive.</li> <li><b>Strategic considerations for employers</b>: Companies are advised to proceed and build contingency plans such as exploring alternative visa categories, developing global capability centers and creating remote-first structures. Experts warn that the cost of uncertainty compounds faster than any fee and companies need flexible talent acquisition strategies rather than relying solely on H-1B visas.</li> </ul> </div> </div> <p>The $100,000 fee that the Trump administration imposed on H-1B visa applicants in September 2025 was struck down by a federal judge on June 8.</p> <p>While the decision is seen as a win for some companies that rely on the visa program to bring in foreign workers with specialized experience, it might not yield greater clarity on the issue. The visa fee increase <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/How-rising-H-1B-visa-costs-threaten-IT-talent-strategies">roiled the tech industry</a>, and companies will need to carefully consider their hiring practices for technology roles, experts say.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="The Trump H-1B fee"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>The Trump H-1B fee</h2> <p>The H-1B visa program allows U.S. companies to hire temporary non-immigrant foreign workers to fill specialized roles. The number of visas granted has varied but generally amounts to about 85,000 workers annually.</p> <p>In September 2025, the Trump administration imposed a $100,000 petition fee that employers were required to pay, a dramatic increase in the customary fees, which ranged from $1,700 to $4,500. Trump imposed the fees, claiming the program was overused. Twenty states subsequently filed suit against the administration to block the fee increase.</p> <p>On June 8, Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts blocked the policy in its entirety, finding that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to impose the fee. In a 42-page ruling, Judge Sorokin ruled that the $100,000 requirement is an unconstitutional tax imposed without congressional delegation, and the agencies that implemented it violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).</p> <p>Sorokin found that the increased H-1B fee meets the functional definition of a tax that the president lacked the authority to unilaterally impose on companies.</p> <p>"The President had no power or delegated authority to impose a tax on H-1B petitions," Sorokin wrote in <a target="_blank" href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.293201/gov.uscourts.mad.293201.106.0.pdf" rel="noopener">the decision</a>.</p> <p>On June 11, the administration <a target="_blank" href="https://ogletree.com/insights-resources/blog-posts/trump-administration-appeals-ruling-striking-down-100000-h-1b-fee-requirement/" rel="noopener">filed a notice of appeal</a> to the U.S. First District Court, and Judge Sorokin granted a stay of the ruling on June 12. This keeps the $100,000 fee in place until the higher court rules on the appeal.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Continuing uncertainty"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Continuing uncertainty</h2> <p>The ruling on the Trump H-1B visa fee may be good news for some companies, but there's still much that needs to be resolved, according to industry experts.</p> <p>It could provide significant relief for employers, said Tahmina Watson, owner and founder at Watson Immigration Law, whose clients include startups, SMBs and nonprofit organizations.</p> <p>These companies have been deeply affected by the $100,000 H-1B fee, she said.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> For many employers, the fee made the H-1B program financially impractical and severely limited their ability to recruit and retain the talent they need. At least for now, the court's decision provides a reprieve. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Tahmina Watson</strong>Owner and Founder, Watson Immigration Law. </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>"For many employers, the fee made the H-1B program financially impractical and severely limited their ability to recruit and retain the talent they need," Watson said. "At least for now [pending appeal], the court's decision provides a reprieve."</p> <p>The decision might provide relief for companies if it's upheld, but for now, there's uncertainty, and most will wait to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/opinion/Trumps-H-1B-dilemma-Musk-vs-MAGA">make hiring decisions</a>, said Shashi Bellamkonda, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, a global research and advisory firm.</p> <p>The practical question for tech leaders is what to do with the roles they froze when the fee was imposed, Bellamkonda said. Since that time, organizations have had three ways to respond to the fee: pausing H-1B-dependent hiring entirely, shifting those roles offshore to global capability centers or absorbing the cost for a small number of genuinely critical positions.</p> <p>"The companies in the first group now have a window to restart, and they should use it," he said. "Petitions filed while the [decision] stands are filed under the lower fee structure."</p> <p>The ruling's appeal will <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/tip/CIO-playbook-for-treating-work-visas-as-enterprise-risk">add to the uncertainty</a> around what companies should do, Bellamkonda said.</p> <p>"Companies that built their entire specialized talent pipeline on a single visa category got burned in September, and they will get burned again by whatever comes next," he said.</p> <p>Companies may go ahead with H-1B applications for open, highly specialized roles and where there are visible shortages in the U.S., while the fee is vacated, Bellamkonda said. But they should budget in a contingency anticipating a return of the fee and build parallel paths for workers, including using other <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/A-CIO-primer-on-US-work-visas">visa categories such as O-1 and L-1</a> where they fit, building global capability centers and remote-first structures for roles that do not require US presence.</p> <p>"Companies have to be careful about not using this visa category to displace U.S. employees or to bypass talent available here," he said.</p> <p>In many cases, IT leaders have delayed AI and data engineering hires for two quarters while waiting for clarity that never came, while competitors filled those roles offshore, Bellamkonda said.</p> <p>"The lesson is that the cost of uncertainty compounds faster than the cost of any fee, and the companies that built optionality kept moving while everyone else waited," he said.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="A fee few are able or willing to pay"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>A fee few are able or willing to pay</h2> <p>Very few companies are willing or able to pay the increased H-1B fee, so the ruling should bring relief, but there will be uncertainty until the case is ultimately resolved after the appeal, said Mark Stevens, an immigration attorney at Clark Hill.</p> <p>The $100,000 fee was mainly focused on technology companies, but it also affected academia and the healthcare industry, which depend on foreign workers on H-1B visas, he said. The fee was prohibitive for smaller tech firms but even gave pause for the tech giants.</p> <p>"Even a Meta or an Amazon, if they're doing this for thousands of workers, are going to have a hard time paying for it," Stevens said. "The rule forced companies to only petition for employees who are ultra valuable, and there aren't that many people who meet that description."</p> <p>There are some strategies companies can use instead of paying the H-1B fee, he said.</p> <p>For example, the H-1B fee applies only to new workers, so employers could bring in foreign workers already in the U.S. on an H-1B for another employer. But the lack of new workers will mean the candidate pool will be smaller going forward.</p> <p>"The pool of current H-1B workers will be shrinking as they get green cards or [other legal status], so there will be fewer remaining people to choose from that already have H-1B status," Stevens said. "We're dealing with labor market flexibility, and how you deal with it depends on your situation."</p> <p>Stevens expects that the First Circuit could decide the appeal relatively soon, but even this may not bring relief quickly.</p> <p>"Right now, we're in a bit of a wait-and-see. Relief may be around the corner, but when there's an order of this nature, often it takes a bit of time for an agency to implement it," he said. "They'll have to update their website or change their forms. So, I wouldn't rush to file a petition today until that implementation has happened."</p> <p><i>Jim O'Donnell is a news director for TechTarget, where he covers IT strategy and enterprise ESG.</i></p> </section> A U.S. court struck down Trump's H-1B visa policy, potentially providing relief for companies that rely on foreign workers. But the situation is uncertain as the case is appealed. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/legal_g1065824400.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/news/366644881/US-court-block-of-H-1B-visa-fee-adds-to-uncertainty Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:23:00 GMT <p>Anthropic has been forced to suspend two of its artificial intelligence (AI) models globally after the US government issued a directive prohibiting their use by foreign nationals over “national security” concerns.</p> <p>The move to suspend Anthropic’s models came just days after the launch of the <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/The-truth-about-Claude-Mythos-is-less-dramatic-than-it-seems">Claude Mythos 5</a> frontier model, with the US government claiming it had “become aware” of a jailbreaking method that allowed its safeguards to be bypassed.</p> <p>Anthropic then <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access">announced the suspension of its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models</a>, both of which are built on Claude Mythos, which the company has touted as having the “<a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5">strongest cyber security capabilities</a> of any model in the world”.</p> <p>Access to Mythos 5 has been restricted by the firm and is only available through a “trusted access program” of around 50 organisations – including cyber security partners and researchers – that use it to conduct advanced cyber security analysis to <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366641789/A-tsunami-of-flaws-When-frontier-AI-and-Patch-Tuesday-collide">find and patch vulnerabilities</a> before the technology is available to attackers.</p> <p>Fable 5 is the consumer-facing version built with extra safeguards, which the US government found a method of jailbreaking.</p> <p>Anthropic made clear in its statement that it did not agree with the US government’s decision to recall the AI models. It pushed back on claims of the models’ vulnerability, describing it as “minor” and “relatively simple”, adding that “if this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers”.</p> <p>This is the first time the US government has exercised an export control directive against an AI firm. In response, more than 80 cyber security leaders, including Nvidia and Adobe, signed an&nbsp;<a href="https://freefable.org/">open letter</a> in support of Anthropic, urging the government to lift the control directive and ensure regulations are “enforced transparently and fairly”.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Growing concerns over UK’s reliance on US tech"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Growing concerns over UK’s reliance on US tech</h2> <p>The episode between Anthropic and the US government comes amid increasing concern among UK MPs about the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366641487/UK-reliance-on-US-big-tech-companies-is-national-security-risk-claims-report">over-reliance on US tech companies</a>, which has previously led to calls for the UK government to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366644347/MPs-call-for-UK-government-to-back-sovereign-IT">back sovereign IT</a>.</p> <p>Following the suspension,&nbsp;<a href="https://arc.net/l/quote/auqiekub">Baroness Beeban Kidron</a> questioned the government in the House of Lords about whether the increased dependence on US companies in health, education and security created a critical vulnerability for national security.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> Many of today’s technological dependencies were established in an era of relative geopolitical stability and a baseline assumption of trust. Recent events, however, demonstrate that this assumption has been undermined </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Sharinee Jagtiani, German Marshall Fund</strong> </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>Responding to Kidron on behalf of the government, <a href="https://arc.net/l/quote/cutozqii">Baroness Lloyd of Effra</a> did not directly address the concerns raised about national security, but did stress the need for the UK to develop sovereign AI capabilities. “Our approach is about building strength over key parts of the value chain to bring to the table technologies that no one else can do without,” she said.</p> <p>Concerns over the UK’s reliance on US technology were also raised by MPs in April 2026, after a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366641487/UK-reliance-on-US-big-tech-companies-is-national-security-risk-claims-report">report by the Open Rights Group (ORG)</a> flagged the national security and economic risks to the UK’s critical infrastructure, and the potential of services being shut down by US order.</p> <p><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366637125/Campaigners-urge-UK-to-develop-digital-sovereignty-strategy">ORG previously warned</a>, in January 2026, that hyperscale cloud services such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are bound by US law, meaning American authorities hold the power to demand access to data stored in the UK.</p> <p>Sharinee Jagtiani, a geopolitical analyst at the US-based German Marshall Fund, said: “Many of today’s technological dependencies were established in an era of relative geopolitical stability and a baseline assumption of trust. Recent events, however, demonstrate that this assumption has been undermined.”</p> <p>The next step should be focused on mitigating risk and shifting towards “managed interdependence” to increase resilience, said Jagtiani. European countries are likely to start by advancing policy initiatives to support domestic technology ecosystems and reduce exposure to external shocks.</p> <p>“Global businesses and public institutions must now operate in an environment where technological dependencies can be weaponised, and factor that in as they build out their business models and policies,” Jagtiani added.</p> <p>This includes strengthening a country’s role in emerging technology chains, developing a diverse supplier base rather than relying too heavily on a single partner – for example, by deepening connections with “technology middle powers” such as Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea and India.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Anthropic versus the US government"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Anthropic versus the US government</h2> <p>Tensions between Anthropic and the US government have been escalating for some time. This began when Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war">denied the US military</a> use of its AI models for “fully autonomous lethal weapons or mass domestic surveillance of Americans” in February 2026.</p> <p>The US government responded by putting Anthropic on a national security blacklist – with defence secretary Pete Hegseth labelling the company a “supply chain risk” – meaning the service is not secure enough for government use. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5g3z3xe65o">Anthropic sued</a> the US Department of Defence over this move.</p> <p>Claude was prohibited from use in the Pentagon as a result. Despite this, the AI model was used by the US military in the conflict in Iran, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/12/karp-palantir-anthropic-claude-pentagon-blacklist.html">reported by CNBC</a>.</p> <p>A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg4p02lvd0o">US federal judge</a> ultimately ruled that the Pentagon’s directive could not be enforced, finding that the government’s measures appeared designed to punish Anthropic rather than address any genuine security concern.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Commercial organisations"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Commercial organisations</h2> <p>This incident has similarly sparked conversation within commercial organisations that rely on US-owned AI models.</p> <p>Mary Mesaglio, analyst at business management consultancy Gartner, said this incident emphasised the “need for organisations to be intentional about sovereignty dependencies and, where possible, to design model-agnostic architectures”.</p> <p>She added that CIOs and AI leaders must stabilise AI-dependent workflows now and use this event to focus on model concentration risk, talent-technology resilience and sovereign AI disruption.</p> <p>From a cyber security perspective, Jamie Moles, a senior technical manager at US-based AI cyber security company ExtraHop, said: “The concern over a ‘jailbreak’ that uncovers software flaws highlights why a defence-in-depth strategy is non-negotiable.”</p> <p>He added: “Perfect model resistance doesn’t exist, and it’s important to never rely on just one model, as an action like this can create significant setbacks for the individual user and wider projects across an organisation.”</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Read more about artificial intelligence</h3> <ul class="default-list"> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366621215/Military-AI-caught-in-tension-between-speed-and-control">Military AI caught in tension between speed and control</a>: The use of artificial intelligence in military contexts can unlock a range of benefits for defence organisations, but also highlights a clear tension between speed and control baked into the technology.</li> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366640322/UK-MoD-awards-more-than-two-dozen-contracts-for-AI-targeting-systems">UK MoD awards more than two dozen contracts for AI targeting systems</a>: The UK Ministry of Defence is ramping up its investment into military artificial intelligence in a bid to increase the ‘lethality’ of the British armed forces.</li> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366582579/Autonomous-weapons-reduce-moral-agency-and-devalue-human-life">Autonomous weapons reduce moral agency and devalue human life</a>: Military technology experts gathered in Vienna have warned about the detrimental psychological effects of AI-powered weapons, arguing that implementing systems of algorithm-enabled killing dehumanises both the user and the target.</li> </ul> </div> </div> </section> The US government’s control order to suspend access to Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models raises concerns about the UK’s over-reliance on American tech https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/ComputerWeekly/HeroImages/AI-LLM-apps-ChatGPT-Claude-Gemini-Deepseek-Copilot-Perplexity-akinbostanci-getty-RF-hero.jpg https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366644826/US-suspension-of-Anthropic-models-prompts-AI-sovereignty-calls Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:15:00 GMT <p>As enterprises connect generative AI tools and AI agents to the sensitive personal data of customers, patients and employees, data privacy failures are becoming more difficult to contain and more costly to dismiss.</p> <p>Privacy protections are a requirement under laws such as HIPAA, the CCPA and the GDPR, and the need to ensure privacy in AI applications is gaining urgency as organizations prepare for the next compliance phase of the EU AI Act, which begins Aug. 2, 2026. That pressure, along with the potential for brand damage and other business risks, is pushing enterprises to strengthen GenAI and agentic AI policies and governance controls.</p> <p>This shift is <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/What-Big-Techs-AI-spending-means-for-your-IT-budget">reflected in budgets</a>. Companies are investing more in governance software and controls to help oversee their AI systems and prevent data privacy issues. Gartner predicts spending on AI governance platforms will reach $492 million in 2026 and exceed $1 billion by 2030. For data, AI and IT leaders, integrating privacy controls more deeply into AI architectures and governance initiatives has become a priority.</p> <p>Privacy governance is not just about managing compliance but also about preventing data exposure, reducing fallout from audits and avoiding reputational harm. These risks have grown as enterprises adopt GenAI, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), conversational analytics and AI agents that <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/tip/AI-agents-are-running-wild-Secure-the-reasoning-layer-now">access and work with enterprise data.</a> To ensure data privacy, an organization can use an&nbsp;enterprise AI governance framework&nbsp;that defines which repositories can be indexed, who can query systems, what actions agents can take and what evidence is retained for oversight.</p> <p>Recent Omdia research also underscores why privacy has become a central AI governance issue. In a 2026 survey on AI agents and identity security, data privacy was the most frequently cited agentic AI risk, selected by 33% of respondents, followed by security vulnerabilities at 32%. (Omdia is a division of Informa TechTarget.)</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Privacy becomes harder to manage in AI systems"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Privacy becomes harder to manage in AI systems</h2> <p><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/tip/5-benefits-of-building-a-strong-data-governance-strategy">Strong data governance is part of the foundation</a> for effective AI governance. There is an inherent privacy-utility tradeoff: More data makes AI systems more useful but also adds the risk of exposing personal, regulated or confidential information. The challenge for enterprises is to manage that tradeoff deliberately.</p> <p>Today, it is harder to balance privacy and utility because many AI systems now process sensitive data during <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/Exploring-the-context-layer-for-AI-systems">retrieval and inference</a>, not only during model training. GenAI tools can process user prompts, summarize internal documents, pull information from knowledge bases and generate new outputs based on personal or regulated data. AI agents can introduce more privacy risks if they have permission to query applications, access customer or employee records, update systems or trigger workflows.</p> <p>Many organizations want to broaden data access to support self-service analytics and AI adoption. However, this goal of data democratization often stalls because many datasets contain personally identifiable information or other sensitive data, causing leaders to worry that wider access -- including by AI tools -- will increase the chances of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/personally-identifiable-information-PII">PII</a>&nbsp;leakage, data misuse or new cyberattack vectors.</p> <p>Those concerns now extend beyond direct access to a dataset. Sensitive information can leak through prompts, retrieval logs or third-party AI services. For example, a user might be prohibited from viewing a restricted document, but an AI assistant without strong governance controls could expose the information from the document in a generated answer.</p> <p>To reduce privacy and compliance risk, organizations often limit sensitive data to approved teams. But that can restrict data access for AI development and use, reducing model quality, context relevance and business value.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Privacy controls that let AI use data more safely"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Privacy controls that let AI use data more safely</h2> <p>Organizations have several ways to reduce privacy risks without cutting AI off from useful data. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>De-identification.&nbsp;</b>Personal identifiers can be masked, redacted, generalized or replaced with non-sensitive placeholder values. Pseudonymization, tokenization and some masking techniques can be reversed or revealed when combined with other datasets, while approaches such as generalization and suppression are typically irreversible.</li> <li><b>K-anonymity.&nbsp;</b>This technique offers protection by pooling data that identifies an individual with other records that share similar attributes. For example, an individual's age or income is replaced with an age or income bracket.</li> <li><b>Differential privacy.&nbsp;</b>Attackers can infer some sensitive information from analyzing AI model outputs or published statistics. Differential privacy lowers that risk by adding noise to outputs, statistics or training processes. It is most commonly used when privacy requirements are high, and the organization can accept some compromise in model accuracy.</li> <li><b>Federated learning.&nbsp;</b>This approach trains machine learning models across distributed environments while the datasets being used stay in local systems. This reduces the need to centralize sensitive data, but it still requires constraints on model updates, metadata leakage and secure aggregation.</li> <li><b>Synthetic data.</b> This helps teams test AI systems, build prototypes and support model development without exposing personal data. However, synthetic data is not entirely free of risks and must be checked for quality, fidelity, bias and the possibility it could reveal patterns from the original data.</li> </ul> <p>These practices should be applied across the entire data lifecycle -- from data collection and storage to processing, use, retention and archiving or deletion. In practice, this means data privacy is the shared responsibility of several teams, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/feature/Why-AI-forces-securityfirst-governance">including security</a>, data engineering, data science, legal and the business teams involved in AI applications.</p> <p>The goal is not to block AI from using enterprise data, but to ensure that systems use the right data for the right reasons with the correct permissions and oversight. Tightly linking AI governance and data privacy helps make AI trustworthy for scaling applications without creating significant business risks.</p> <p><b>Editor's note:</b>&nbsp;<i>This article was updated in June 2026 for timeliness and to add new information.</i></p> <p><i>Kashyap Kompella, founder of RPA2AI Research, is an AI industry analyst and advisor to leading companies across the U.S., Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Kashyap is the co-author of three books:&nbsp;Practical Artificial Intelligence,&nbsp;Artificial Intelligence for Lawyers and&nbsp;AI Governance and Regulation.</i></p> <p><i>Tom Walat is an editor and reporter for TechTarget, where he covers data technologies.</i></p> </section> Connecting AI to sensitive data forces enterprises to face a hard question: Where are the privacy gaps that could expose us to legal, financial and reputational harm? https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/ai_g1183318665.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/How-AI-governance-and-data-privacy-go-hand-in-hand Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:08:00 GMT <p><i>AI&nbsp;is actively&nbsp;reshaping how organizations confront storage. Onstage at IBM Think in May, two IBM storage executives prominently focused on the topic of AI. </i></p> <p><i>Sam Werner is the&nbsp;general&nbsp;manager of IBM Storage and&nbsp;is responsible for&nbsp;IBM's&nbsp;end-to-end portfolio, directly managing the product management development teams.&nbsp;Christopher Vollmar, meanwhile, is the global&nbsp;product&nbsp;architect of&nbsp;operational&nbsp;resiliency and&nbsp;enterprise&nbsp;storage and IBM Master Inventor and&nbsp;is responsible&nbsp;for&nbsp;identifying&nbsp;opportunities&nbsp;to drive storage innovation based on market or client challenges and&nbsp;for&nbsp;solving&nbsp;them.</i></p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/image_think-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/image_think-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/image_think-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/image_think-f.jpg 1280w" alt="IBM Think 2026" data-credit="Alexander Gillis" height="373" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>The Stage at IBM Think 2026 </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p><i>In this combined Q&amp;A,&nbsp;TechTarget&nbsp;spoke&nbsp;with&nbsp;these two&nbsp;IBM&nbsp;storage experts&nbsp;to gauge their thoughts&nbsp;on how AI workloads affect storage security.&nbsp;Be sure to read </i><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/news/366644107/IBM-execs-on-storage-security-and-operational-resiliency"><i>part one of this interview</i></a><i>, focused on storage security and resiliency. </i></p> <p><b>Editor's note:</b>&nbsp;<i>The following was edited for length and clarity.&nbsp;Werner and Vollmar were interviewed separately.</i>&nbsp;</p> <p><b>Is there anything in storage that IT organizations fail to consider when implementing AI?</b> </p> <p><b>Sam Werner</b>:</p> <p>Yes, I think a lot of people tell a really good story about storage for AI, but there are things missing. A lot of the stories people tell about storage require you to re-platform all of your data, which is totally unrealistic.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> I think a lot of people tell a really good story about storage for AI, but there are things missing. </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Sam Werner</strong>general manager of IBM Storage </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>Imagine if you copy a bunch of files over, so you can vectorize that data to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/How-to-prepare-data-for-your-RAG-pipeline">use for RAG</a>. That data that's been copied over is completely disconnected from the source. If the source data changes, that doesn't ripple through. And there's no way to keep track of that. But even worse, if the source data permissions change -- maybe somebody identifies PII, or you're no longer allowed to have access to it or somebody tries to delete it for data governance reasons -- it hits a data retention policy where data gets deleted from the source, but there's still a vector database that's completely searchable and completely discoverable through RAG.</p> <p>People oversimplify. … Either way, you run into challenges that don't really work, so I think it takes a more comprehensive approach.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/think-dsc05678-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/think-dsc05678-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/think-dsc05678-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/think-dsc05678-f.jpg 1280w" alt="Sam Werner at IBM Think 2026" data-credit="Alexander Gillis" height="373" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Sam Werner </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p><b>Christopher Vollmar</b>:</p> <p>When implementing AI, IT organizations need to consider a couple of things. First, the&nbsp;need for data to be ready for AI that has implications for storage. There are four dimensions, but people often overlook some or all of them:</p> <p>1) Distributed data that needs to be abstracted into AI systems.</p> <p>2) Diverse data that needs to be accessed using multi-protocol -- file, object -- or format -- vector, API.</p> <p>3) Dynamic data that needs to be vertically accelerated from source to AI system memories.</p> <p>4) <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/dark-data">Dark data</a> that needs to be classified, governed and cataloged for awareness by AI systems.</p> <p>The four&nbsp;dimensions are&nbsp;now an emerging standard for an AI data plane.</p> <p>To go a step further,&nbsp;I would also suggest that&nbsp;storage has a role when implementing valuable AI -- the value&nbsp;increases&nbsp;when&nbsp;accurate&nbsp;and&nbsp;timely&nbsp;corporate data is combined with the intelligence coming from inferencing AI reasoning models. Storage can help to catalog the metadata and to manage the semantics of the data (we call it content-aware storage), helping to automate vectorization of corporate information for similarity searches.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/news/366637161/Nvidias-new-KV-cache-makes-waves-in-enterprise-storage"></a></p> <p><b>How does the increase in more complicated AI workloads change attack surfaces from a storage security standpoint? </b></p> <p><b>Werner</b>:</p> <p>Let's start with where most people are. They just copy a bunch of data around to do AI. ... That is a huge issue because there's nobody protecting them. They're copying data to servers [and then] they're putting it into a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/What-is-a-vector-database">vector database</a>. And that's very risky.</p> <p>When you deploy storage infrastructure, you start bringing in some of the discipline and security behind managing data and protecting it with encryption. Encryption of data in flight, and at least encryption of data at rest, to make sure that data is only accessible to those who have the proper permission … keeping that data under the foundation of data governance of an enterprise storage array, where we constantly keep track of the access rights and controls on the data.</p> <p><b>Vollmar</b>:</p> <p>As AI workloads become increasingly more complicated, we need to be even more diligent in doing the foundational work that supports the operation of the business.&nbsp;This means, for one, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/How-to-implement-zero-trust-for-AI">instituting zero trust principles</a> all the way through the compute and storage stack, down through to the backup and archive layers.&nbsp;Things like multi-factor authentication, two-person integrity, a re-evaluation&nbsp;of what roles people have in accessing and administering the supporting infrastructure, and yes, building immutable copies that can be used for rapid recovery and proactive validation all the way through the data and storage lifecycle.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/1-dsc05412-f.jpg"> <img data-src="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/1-dsc05412-f_mobile.jpg" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/1-dsc05412-f_mobile.jpg 960w,https://www.theserverside.com/rms/onlineimages/1-dsc05412-f.jpg 1280w" alt="Christopher Vollmar" data-credit="Alexander Gillis" height="840" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Christopher Vollmar </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <p><i>Alexander Gillis is a Technical Writer and Editor at Informa TechTarget, with more than 8 years of experience writing about technology.</i>&nbsp;</p> IBM storage leaders Sam Werner and Christopher Vollmar share insights on AI implementation oversights, including data governance, vector database vulnerabilities and zero trust. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/onlineimages/storage_g1193926746.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/news/366644799/IBM-execs-AI-storage-and-common-implementation-oversights Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:52:00 GMT <p>Customer expectations are ever-changing, so today's strong <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/customer-experience-CX">customer experience</a> (CX) might not measure up tomorrow. Customers increasingly expect fast, consistent and personalized interactions across digital, self-service, contact center, sales and support channels.</p> <p>Companies that can't keep pace with CX expectations may find themselves in a tough spot. Poor service can hurt retention, loyalty, brand reputation and revenue, especially when customers share negative experiences through reviews, social media and word of mouth.</p> <p>To reduce that risk, companies must treat CX as a mission-critical goal and build a team that can manage strategy, data, technology, service delivery, automation and continuous improvement.</p> <figure class="main-article-image full-col" data-img-fullsize="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-customer_experience_alignment-f.png"> <img data-src="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-customer_experience_alignment-f_mobile.png" class="lazy" data-srcset="https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-customer_experience_alignment-f_mobile.png 960w,https://www.techtarget.com/rms/onlineImages/customerexperience-customer_experience_alignment-f.png 1280w" alt="Diagram showing customer experience alignment across people, processes and tools." height="472" width="560"> <figcaption> <i class="icon pictures" data-icon="z"></i>Customer experience teams need alignment across people, processes and tools to improve customer interactions, service delivery and customer satisfaction. </figcaption> <div class="main-article-image-enlarge"> <i class="icon" data-icon="w"></i> </div> </figure> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="What roles should be on the customer experience team?"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>What roles should be on the customer experience team?</h2> <p>A customer experience team comprises a variety of roles, but the following six are standouts.</p> <h3>1. Chief customer officer (CCO) or chief experience officer (CXO)</h3> <p>Ideally, a CX team should have C-level leadership, whether titled as CCO, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/chief-experience-officer-CXO">CXO</a> or a similar designation. Ultimately, this executive leader holds responsibility for all customer-facing activities and the strategy for maximizing key customer-related metrics such as acquisition, retention and satisfaction.</p> <p>The CCO is also responsible for establishing and nurturing a <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/What-does-it-mean-to-be-customer-obsessed">customer-obsessed mentality</a> throughout the organization. CCOs must be data oriented, relying on analyzing customer ratings, sales and sales through digital channels to identify where to focus for CX improvement across the customer journey. Being able to spot areas for improvement isn't enough, however. Critically important to the CCO role is full empowerment to implement change. That means this position must have a budget, staff and decision-making authority.</p> <h3>2. CX manager</h3> <p>While the C-level leader has strategic ownership of CX, the CX manager's role is more hands-on. In organizations with a CCO, CXO or other executive-level leadership, the CX manager can focus on tactical guidance and overseeing strategic deliverables. At companies without C-level leadership, the CX manager is likely to report to the CEO or top-level marketing or sales, depending on company size and organizational structure.</p> <p>The CX manager must understand the technology infrastructure supporting CX initiatives and be capable of analyzing the data coming into the contact center to spot trends among customers and assess key customer metrics such as <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/customer-satisfaction-CSAT">satisfaction</a> and loyalty. The CX manager should also be a people person, often having customer-facing direct reports or liaising with other business areas, such as IT, HR, marketing, sales and security.</p> <h3>3. Skilled CX professionals</h3> <p>Delivering a great customer experience (CX) requires skills beyond an entry-level contact center agent. Skilled agents, or CX professionals, are becoming essential members of a CX team. The agents steeped in product-specific or technology knowledge are vital in guiding customers through complex support issues or pre-purchase questions. They may be the first line of contact for a customer calling the service line or serve as an escalation point of contact when a customer has exhausted <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/answer/Why-is-customer-self-service-critical-for-contact-centers">self-service</a> or other interaction options. Their responsiveness, empathy and ability to finesse their way through challenging customer engagements are critical to achieving positive customer ratings.</p> <h3>4. Analysts</h3> <p>As indicated with the CCO, CXO and CX manager roles, the ability to gather, analyze and act on customer data is a CX imperative. Analysts with a CX specialization must be able to <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/How-to-collect-customer-feedback">work with customer feedback</a> data in various forms and across interaction channels to generate real time guidance across the CX team. This isn't just about number crunching, either. Delivering in-the-moment agent assistance based on <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/opinion-mining-sentiment-mining">sentiment analysis</a> can help prevent an experience from souring. Likewise, getting ahead of customer trends using predictive and prescriptive analytics can help improve CX. Analysts also play a growing role in connecting CX data with operational data from <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/CRM-customer-relationship-management">CRM</a>, contact center, marketing, sales and e-commerce systems so teams can see where journeys break down.</p> <h3>5. Developers</h3> <p>CX is a constantly changing target. The ability to spin up new CX channels and services, automate workflows, create innovative experiences across different customer touchpoints and keep the UI fresh and exciting are essential to staying ahead of customer expectations. Whether using full-, low- or no-code platforms, developers can work with CX managers and other customer-facing professionals to understand the needs and find the quickest way to deliver. Developers should be well-versed in using AI, APIs, automation and <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchunifiedcommunications/definition/Communications-platform-as-a-service-CPaaS">communications PaaS</a>, and be able to present ideas on implementing new offerings programmatically.</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> The structure matters less than whether the organization has clear accountability for customer journeys, customer data, service quality and technology decisions. </figure> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <h3>6. AI experts</h3> <p>Using AI, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/generative-AI">generative AI</a>, agent assistance and virtual assistants can be a key success driver for CX. This makes AI expertise a critical role on the modern CX team. This person helps evaluate AI tools, define use cases, support implementation and monitor how AI affects customers, agents and business outcomes. The AI expert should also bring a strong understanding of data privacy, security, governance and responsible AI practices. They need to assess the true cost of large language models (<a href="https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/large-language-model-LLM">LLMs</a>), understand how automation affects agent work and make sure AI tools include appropriate human oversight, escalation paths and performance measurement.</p> <p>These roles do not need to sit in one department, but they do need shared ownership. A successful CX team often works across marketing, sales, customer service, IT, data, security, product and operations. The structure matters less than whether the organization has clear accountability for customer journeys, customer data, service quality and technology decisions.</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">How AI changes CX team responsibilities</h3> <p>AI can help CX teams analyze feedback, assist agents, automate responses, personalize interactions and identify customers who might need proactive outreach. But AI also adds new responsibilities. CX leaders must decide which use cases are appropriate for automation, where human review is required and how AI performance will be measured.</p> <p>The CX team should work with IT, security, legal and data teams to define governance rules for customer data, privacy, model outputs, escalation paths and agent adoption. AI expertise is not only about selecting tools. It is also about making sure automation improves the customer experience rather than creating new friction.</p> </div> </div> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Common customer experience team responsibilities"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Common customer experience team responsibilities</h2> <p>Regardless of their title, each member of the CX team is accountable for increasing customer satisfaction and guiding new and returning customers through <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/Why-customer-journey-touchpoints-matter">key touchpoints in the customer journey</a>. To do so, each member of the CX team has key responsibilities, including the following:</p> <ul class="default-list"> <li><b>Understand the customer journey. </b>A <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/How-to-create-a-customer-journey-map-with-template">customer journey map</a> showcases every interaction a customer has with a business, from awareness to a loyal repeat customer. Understanding those stages and what a customer needs at each stage is critical to creating an exemplary customer experience.</li> <li><b>Gather and implement customer feedback. </b>Using <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/voice-of-the-customer-VOC">voice of the customer</a> programs, customer surveys and other methods, organizations can gain deeper insight into customers' wants and needs and adjust their offerings accordingly.</li> <li><b>Customer service and support. </b>Customer service and support are at the core of the customer experience. By understanding a customer's needs and pain points, the CX team can create tailored experiences to improve customer interaction with the brand.</li> <li><b>Measure key metrics. </b>Businesses should measure several <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/tip/7-key-customer-experience-metrics-to-measure">customer experience metrics</a> to understand what CX success looks like. Net promoter score, customer satisfaction, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/customer-effort-score-CES">customer effort score</a> and customer lifetime value are only a few of the metrics CX teams should be tracking.</li> <li><b>Ongoing training and certifications. </b>CX team members must stay current on new technologies, best practices, and key hard and soft skills. One of the best ways to do that is via a customer experience certification.</li> <li><b>Eliminate organizational silos. </b>One of the biggest CX challenges is departments keeping separate customer databases and not communicating. By collaborating and sharing a database, the marketing, sales and support departments can fully understand a customer's behavior at key touchpoints.</li> </ul> <p>A well-rounded CX team of various roles is essential for meeting and exceeding customer expectations.</p> <p><strong>Editor's note</strong>: <em>This article was updated to improve clarity and include current customer experience team considerations around AI, analytics and cross-functional collaboration. </em></p> <p><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em>Beth Schultz is vice president of research and principal analyst at Metrigy. She focuses her research on unified communications, collaboration and digital customer experience.&nbsp;</em></span></p> </section> A well-rounded customer experience team helps companies manage customer journeys, feedback, service quality, analytics, AI and cross-functional collaboration. https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/searchCIO/enterprise_management/cio_article_007.jpg https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/answer/6-must-have-roles-on-your-customer-experience-team Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:30:00 GMT <p>Emmanuel Frenehard, <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/tip/Chief-digital-officer-vs-chief-technology-officer-An-explainer">chief digital officer</a> (CDO) at biopharmaceutical giant Sanofi, recognises that the CDO role often means different things in different companies.</p> <p>At Sanofi, it was decided that the role would be an all-encompassing position, overseeing business applications, infrastructure, cyber security, data, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital services. There are also professionals in Frenehard’s team who cover research and development, manufacturing and commercial activities.</p> <p>“But there’s a common thread – and that’s our intention to save time for patients,” he says.</p> <p>“We’ve set ourselves this ambition – which is not mathematically tracked – to say, can we halve the time of drug development? Because it takes 10 to 12 years to create a new drug and take it to patients, and 90% of drugs fail. What if, through the power of data, digital, AI and software development, you could reduce that time to five to six years?”</p> <p>Frenehard describes his role as humbling. Drug development failure rates can be as high as 90%, which has important commercial ramifications, but also, more importantly, health implications for patients. He says it’s a privilege to lead the team that works to find potentially life-changing answers to challenging scientific questions.</p> <p>“It’s a job where you feel like you have a lot of responsibilities, because you certainly don’t want to fail, and there are difficulties because we work in a slow-moving industry,” he says.</p> <p>“If you’re going to do an experiment on finding new biomarkers for patients, you’re going to need a certain amount of patient data that might include biopsies and blood samples, and it might take a couple of years to validate the hypothesis, so the cycles are very lengthy.”</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Embracing the opportunity"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Embracing the opportunity</h2> <p>Frenehard has been Sanofi CDO since September 2023, having originally joined the organisation in 2020. He previously worked at media and entertainment specialists iFlix and <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252513371/CDO-interview-Lisa-Valentino-executive-VP-for-client-and-brand-solutions-Disney-Advertising-Sales">Walt Disney</a>.</p> <p>“I thought media was great and I believe in the power of entertainment,” he says. “We all live difficult lives, and I felt like there’s an escapism that you have when you watch a movie or sports. There’s a moment where all your worries are gone, and so I always thought delivering that content was a noble mission.”</p> <blockquote> <div class="imagecaption alignLeft"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/computerweekly/Emmanuel-Frenehard-Sanofi-PR-140x180px.jpg" alt="Photo of Sanofi CDO Emmanuel Frenehard"> </div> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong><span style="color: #34495e;">“We’ve set ourselves this ambition [to] halve the time of drug development. Because it takes 10 to 12 years to create a new drug and take it to patients, and 90% of drugs fail. What if, through the power of data, digital, AI and software development, you could reduce that time to five to six years?”</span></strong></span></p> <p><em><span style="color: #34495e;">Emmanuel Frenehard, Sanofi</span></em></p> </blockquote> <p>However, when Frenehard was contacted about the role at Sanofi, he recognised that the chance to improve patient life opportunities was an even nobler mission.</p> <p>“It was something new. I wanted to see whether I could be effective in a fresh industry. I think it’s good to test yourself,” he says.</p> <p>“So, that was the pull, and you quickly realise that the sense of urgency is very strong. And that’s where all the tools and all the things that I was able to learn when I was in media, such as prototyping, failing fast, doing minimal viable products, and agile ways of working, became pertinent in this industry.”</p> <p>Three-and-a-half years into the CDO role, Frenehard points to achievements in two areas – people and technology. Regarding the human component, he says bringing a team together comprising professionals from multiple disciplines is a complex but necessary task.</p> <p>“We came with this idea of saying that everybody can be stronger together when they work across one digital organisation,” he says.</p> <p>“Creating that sense of teamwork has been a big accomplishment for me, because we didn’t have that before. It’s all about the notion of one team rowing in the same direction. This team might have different convictions and points of view, but they pull together for the benefit of moving in one common direction.”</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Leading digital transformation"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Leading digital transformation</h2> <p>Sanofi was founded in 1973, although the formation came from the combination of a diverse group of companies dating back to the 19th century. In the contemporary era, Frenehard says the company has continued to grow, with the firm today employing more than 83,000 people across 70 countries.</p> <p>“I like to say Sanofi is a company with a heritage of 53 years of acquisitions that were never integrated successfully,” he says, referring to his achievements in technology.</p> <p>“Now, as an organisation, we’re running on a single <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/CW-Developer-Network/AWS-data-analytics-VP-Charting-new-oceans-the-evolution-of-data-lakes">data lake</a> – but when I started this job, we had what I call data dumps. Everybody had one, and you started thinking, ‘How can I even get insights from this data?’”</p> <blockquote class="main-article-pullquote"> <div class="main-article-pullquote-inner"> <figure> We wanted to be able to take advantage of AI, whether it be predictive, prescriptive, and now generative, because we knew that if we took the linear path that our peers have taken, it would take us a long time. We had to find ways to leapfrog our competitors </figure> <figcaption> <strong>Emmanuel Frenehard, Sanofi</strong> </figcaption> <i class="icon" data-icon="z"></i> </div> </blockquote> <p>Frenehard says data must be treated as a continuum in the biopharmaceutical industry, through which unstructured or unorganised data is turned into meaningful insights.</p> <p>“That’s tricky when the molecules you discover are treated in different data dumps with different naming conventions,” he says.</p> <p>“Getting that process right was a big element for us, and we wanted to be able to take advantage of AI, whether it be predictive, prescriptive, and now generative, because we knew that if we took the linear path that our peers have taken, it would take us a long time. We had to find ways to leapfrog our competitors.”</p> <p>Frenehard says cultural change was the key factor to making this leap successfully. His digital team adopted agile working at scale and built accelerators that allowed the organisation to recruit great digital talent, even from high-profile technology firms.</p> <p>“These professionals had the opportunity to work much like they were in a startup,” he says.</p> <p>Today, these accelerators employ 150 people who build digital products for the company. Frenehard says he took the lessons from his earlier leadership experiences and focused the firm’s innovations on consumers.</p> <p>“We became very patient-centric. We have apps for patients that we’ve built to support them in their treatment,” he says.</p> <p>“We’re not trying to sell them anything – we’re trying to help them in their healing journey. Many of our drugs are for chronic treatments, which means, as a patient, that you’re going to medicate potentially for your entire life. And so, how can we ensure that you do that in a way that you don’t find intrusive? Can a digital companion app help you with that process? As a team, we adjust little things to improve the quality of life of patients.”</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Scaling emerging technology"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Scaling emerging technology</h2> <p>Frenehard accompanied his cultural change programme with a focus on improving underlying technology systems. He says 53 years of marginal rationalisation and many acquisitions meant the company had to deal with a heavy weight of IT systems.</p> <p>“We’ve moved that legacy,” he says. “We’re now entering the era of AI coding, where we can modernise that legacy at a pace we never expected. So, I’m thankful for the moment that we’re in, because I’ve got a lot of IT baggage to deal with.”</p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Read more interviews with life sciences digital leaders</h3> <ul class="default-list"> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366641240/Interview-Bernard-Seiser-vice-president-of-digital-data-and-IT-AOP-Health">Bernhard Seiser, vice-president of digital, data and IT, AOP Health</a>: With long experience of tech in the life sciences sector, AOP’s digital leader is building a foundation for further data insights in all areas of the business.</li> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366622215/Interview-Markus-Schuemmelfeder-CIO-Boehringer-Ingelheim">Markus Schümmelfeder, CIO, Boehringer Ingelheim</a>: The pharmaceutical giant has built a digital and data platform based on cloud and standardisation, from which it is exploring technology opportunities in AI and quantum computing.</li> <li><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366614698/Interview-James-Fleming-CIO-Francis-Crick-Institute">James Fleming, CIO, Francis Crick Institute</a>: Helping to cure cancer with computers puts digital leadership on another level – and the world-leading research institute is turning to data science and artificial intelligence to achieve its groundbreaking goals.</li> </ul> </div> </div> <p>Frenehard says the crucial component supporting this shift from legacy to modern IT services is the firm’s underlying Snowflake data platform. Sanofi has been a <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366641815/Ordnance-Survey-works-with-Snowflake-to-tackle-flood-risk">Snowflake user</a> for more than five years. Through this technology implementation, the digital team aimed to integrate a fragmented environment and support secure cross-business data sharing.</p> <p>“We looked at the footprint of data and realised that it was incredibly fragmented,” he says. “We had multiple data technologies. We needed to have insights that cut across the company, and we didn’t have that capability.”</p> <p>The first stage of the transformation process was building a series of mini data lakes on the Snowflake platform. This stage meant professionals could discover insights more easily. However, Frenehard wanted further progress.</p> <p>By working with Elementum, one of Snowflake’s technology partners, Sanofi professionals can now develop richer insights by building data-driven workflows that operate directly on the <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366593752/How-Snowflake-is-tackling-AI-challenges">Snowflake AI Data Cloud</a>.</p> <p>With this connected approach, the firm’s professionals use AI-powered agents to query information held in the mini data lakes. Sanofi is scaling AI across 80 countries, using <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366621057/Snowflake-founders-reveal-cuckoo-cloud-vision-that-disrupted-big-data">Snowflake as the data foundation</a> for governance and collaboration. Crucially, the organisation has built an AI-powered Concierge service to help employees exploit data assets.</p> <p>“Staff no longer interact with a system of record – they’re interacting with an agent,” he says, outlining how 65,000 of the firm’s 80,000-plus employees already use Concierge monthly across a range of business functions and activities.</p> <p>“All these things are happening, and we’re doing this work for the benefit of our company.”</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Building custom workflows"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Building custom workflows</h2> <p>Frenehard says effective use of AI is all about reinvention, not automation. To be successful in the age of agentic AI, companies will need to redesign their work processes. Two years from now, he hopes that the foundations he’s putting in place, particularly via the Concierge service, will have helped professionals in the business to reinvent the way they work.</p> <p>“By then, I’d love to tell you that we’re not as constrained by the friction of systems of record,” he says, referring to the desire to use AI to query data directly, not via traditional enterprise applications.</p> <p>“We’ve got about 2,500 systems at Sanofi. That means there are 2,500 integrations – there are 2,500 things that move up and down. As a professional, you move from one system to the other.”</p> <p>Frenehard gives the example of a marketer who has to work across many interfaces, such as those for content generation and translation.</p> <p>“Why does that process have to be so complicated?” he asks, before suggesting where Concierge can bring reinvention.&nbsp;“I think the future is an engagement layer – and that’s where Concierge comes in. It’s an abstraction layer to all the complexity that happens behind it.”</p> <p>This engagement layer means the digital team will provide employees with the right workflows, depending on their roles. If someone changes their job, the company will know their roles and access rights. The same rule will apply if someone changes geography. The key to success, says Frenehard, is that this AI-enabled approach will allow his department to build custom workflows that give people secure access to the data they need.</p> <p>“It’s not quite the path of custom software, because custom software is hard to write,” he says. “We’re talking about custom workflows, which are much easier to build.”</p> </section> Leading technology in a quest to find life-changing answers to challenging scientific questions brings an extra level of motivation for the pharma giant’s digital chief https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/ComputerWeekly/Hero%20Images/phamaceutical-drugs-medicine-pills-2-adobe.jpeg https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366644339/Interview-Emmanuel-Frenehard-chief-digital-officer-Sanofi Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:58:00 GMT <p>Salesforce’s UK CEO has restated the company’s commitment to and the importance of channel partners. The vendor has been entertaining partners and customers in Excel London at its <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/uk/events/london/">World Tour event</a>, encouraging them to adopt more agentic artificial intelligence (AI) tools.</p> <p>When <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/microscope/news/366635671/Salesforce-UK-boss-stresses-the-importance-of-partners">asked last year</a> about what the channel meant to the firm, Zahra Bahrololoumi, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salesforce.com/uk/">Salesforce</a> UK&amp;I, stated that it was not only viral but the opportunities for them continued to emerge.&nbsp;Asked if those statements remained valid, she said that partners were fundamental to the business.</p> <p>“Our channel ecosystem is such a vital part of how we operationalise everything we’ve been talking about within our customers,” she said.</p> <p>Bahrololoumi thanked the channel for its role in driving growth and enabling customers, going on to highlight the role played by its channel community.</p> <p>She added that Salesforce had committed global channel Leadership in place and was “continually investing in our partner ecosystem”.</p> <p>In terms of the opportunities, she stated that the channel was at the coalface working with customers keen to adopt the latest AI tools: “We’re starting to see more innovative models of engagement as our customers demand more outcome-based commercials. We are learning and evolving with it.”</p> <p>The focus of the London event, which used a range of customers including Formula 1 and Pandora to illustrate the power of agentic AI, was to encourage greater levels of adoption of its tools, including its Agentforce offering.</p> <p>“We wouldn’t be able to make this [the World Tour] possible without our partners. They are shoulder to shoulder with us, making this very event happen, fully integrated into how we operate,” she concluded.</p> <p>One of the key areas where partners could have an impact is in tackling user concerns, particularly those worries that were holding back the introduction of more AI across businesses.</p> <p>Joe Inzerillo, president of enterprise and AI technology at Salesforce, said that fear of making platform decisions and the prospects of rolling out AI was the number one factor holding back wider adoption, and there was a need to provide reassurance to calm those concerns.</p> <p>The ongoing need for humans was repeatedly voiced by executives and customers that wanted to stress that AI was not seen as a staff-cutting tool but rather as a timesaving and customer experience-enhancing technology.</p> <p>That message also addressed concerns that continue to swirl around AI and the motivation for some deployments, which are issues the channel has had to acknowledge as a barrier to wider adoption.</p> <p>In addition, Bahrololoumi said the vendor had committed to investing $6bn in the UK and was keen to widen the adoption of AI and use its available training to improve skills around the technology.</p> <p>She stated that Salesforce is committed to working with the UK government to ensure the country remained among the AI leaders and could harness the power of artificial intelligence.</p> <p>The other overarching theme of the event was the need to help overcome user fears around AI and to encourage more businesses to adopt the technology.</p> As the vendor pulls together partners and customers at its World Tour event, there has been a chance to promote its commitment to its channel base https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/visuals/German/article/artificial-intelligence-brain-adobe.jpg https://www.computerweekly.com/microscope/news/366644879/Salesforce-UK-boss-underlines-role-of-channel Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:58:00 GMT 60 webmaster@techtarget.com