This Week in Enterprise Technology, Episode 49, Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo critically assess the biggest tech news for the CIO Office:
- Good News: Ransomware Down 35%!
- AWS S3 Bucket Registrations: A Sneaky Backdoor Threat
- Zoho Day and the Race to Agentic AI
- Fei Fei Li: “It Takes 50 Dollars to Distill A Reasoning Model”
- Will Semiconductor Tariffs Force CIOs to Close the Deal?
- Is the CIO a Policy Strategist or Rubber Stamp?
- Will the Windows 10 Sunset Force AI PCs into the Workplace?
- CIOs Bullish on AI, IT Employees Not So Much
- Where Salesforce AI’s Super Bowl Ad Missed the Mark
Good News: Ransomware Down 35%!
Some good news from 2024: Ransomware payments were down 35% last year, as no new large cartels got into the business and law enforcement was better at tracing down threats. Are we safe now, or is this the calm before the storm? Charles and Hyoun put on their strategy hats and explore the future of Ransomware.
Chainalysis: https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-crime-ransomware-victim-extortion-2025/
AWS S3 Bucket Registrations: a Sneaky Backdoor Threat
Watchtowr Labs found a lot of examples of software update and binary requests associated with abandoned S3 buckets that could have been replaced with malware or backdoor access. Hyoun and Charles discuss how challenging it has become to manage cloud infrastructure.
Zoho Day and the Race to Agentic AI
Zoho has introduced Zia AI Agents to automate tasks across its products, while Sridhar Vembu has stepped down as CEO. As long-time observers, Hyoun and Charles discuss what this makes for Zoho’s 900,000 global customers.
Fei-Fei Li: “It Takes 50 Dollars to Distill A Reasoning Model”
Researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington developed an AI reasoning model for under $50, training the s1 model with Gemini and Alibaba Qwen 2.5. Charles and Hyoun raise questions about the future of AI innovation, as smaller teams can cheaply replicate advanced models.
Will Semiconductor Tariffs Force CIOs to Close the Deal?
Tariffs are now a strategic concern for the CIO. Get your timing wrong and your data center costs could spike unexpectedly. With potential tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductor chips on the horizon, Charles and Hyoun debate the strategy and timing for purchasing new compute or just outsourcing to the cloud.
The Register: https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/04/nvidia_trump_tariffs/
Is the CIO a Policy Strategist or a Rubber Stamp?
The Trump administration wants to change the CIO position from a “career-reserved” or merit-based position to a political appointment with the logic that the CIO ends up defining how policy is deployed. Charles and Hyoun consider how important the CIO should be considered as a strategic executive for deploying policy, or if the CIO should be considered a rubber stamp for the CEO’s work.
CHCOC.gov: https://tinyurl.com/OPMCIOMemo
Will the Windows 10 Sunset Force AI PCs into the Workplace?
Now that Microsoft has announced a sunset date for Windows 10, CIOs need to figure out their next PC refresh. Of course Microsoft will push for AI-ready Windows 11 devices, with room for small or distilled models in the OS. Charles and Hyoun discuss the Microsoft AI PC strategy for the enterprise.
Paula Rooney on CIO.com: https://www.cio.com/article/3812887/will-the-end-of-windows-10-accelerate-cio-interest-in-ai-pcs.html
CIOs Bullish on AI, IT Employees Not So Much
IT employees are not excited about AI, but CIOs and CTOs believe they will soon be essential in businesses. However, many IT professionals are skeptical due to concerns about deployment challenges and past AI project failures. Charles and Hyoun debate the real time frames for realistic AI success.
Grant Gross on CIO.com: https://www.cio.com/article/3815935/cios-are-bullish-on-ai-agents-it-employees-not-so-much.html
Where Salesforce AI’s Super Bowl Ad Missed the Mark
Salesforce’s ad featuring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson highlights the confusing role of AI in everyday life. Instead of solving real problems, the ad portrays a bizarre scenario where AI is needed for basic tasks like dining and making reservations. Hyoun and Charles ponder why AI ads are spending so much just to miss the mark.
Defector: https://defector.com/salesforce-is-using-a-hallucination-to-sell-ai
Salesforce AI Super Bowl Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JNLL7U8H8
Google Gemini Super Bowl Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7e6g11BJc0
ServiceNow AI Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IqR735mAo4