Best of LinkedIn: ICT & Tech Insights CW 41/ 42

00:00:00:

00:00:21: Welcome back.

00:00:22: Wow, the last two weeks in ICT and tech have been pretty foundational, wouldn't you say?

00:00:27: We've seen everything from verifiable quantum breakthroughs to, well, frankly, history-making infrastructure deals.

00:00:34: Absolutely, enormous scope.

00:00:35: We've got sources digging into the sheer complexity of scaling up the huge infrastructure needed for AI, but also, and this is critical, the human side of security, how fragile that can be.

00:00:46: Right.

00:00:47: So our mission for you, the listener, is really to cut through that noise.

00:00:50: We wanted to still the key trends we're seeing, focusing on digital resilience, secure scale, and how AI is actually landing in the real world.

00:00:58: Okay, so to tackle all that, we've kind of grouped the insights into four main clusters.

00:01:03: We'll kick off with cybersecurity, specifically the identity battlefield.

00:01:08: Good starting point.

00:01:09: Then we'll move into zero trust and, interestingly, OT resilience.

00:01:13: Yep.

00:01:14: After that, quantum computing, which is having a real moment.

00:01:16: Definitely.

00:01:17: And finally, we'll wrap up with the just massive shifts in data and infrastructure strategy that underpin everything else.

00:01:25: Okay,

00:01:25: let's dive right in then, cybersecurity.

00:01:28: This is arguably, well, always the most urgent challenge, isn't it?

00:01:32: But the insights lately feel different.

00:01:34: How so?

00:01:35: It's less about piling on more tools, more firewalls.

00:01:39: The conversation is really shifting focus almost entirely onto human behavior and the central role of identity.

00:01:46: Ah, okay.

00:01:47: Yeah, I saw that cultural discussion coming through strongly.

00:01:50: William McBorough had a great point about moving past this, like, seasonal mindset.

00:01:53: Exactly.

00:01:54: That whole, oh, it's October Cyber Security Awareness Month thing.

00:01:57: It just doesn't cut it anymore.

00:01:58: Right.

00:01:58: You need consistency.

00:02:00: Sustainable security needs a year-round human-centered culture.

00:02:04: Dr.

00:02:05: Sergio Sánchez really hammered this home.

00:02:08: The human element is still the weakest link.

00:02:10: You can't just throw software at

00:02:11: it.

00:02:12: So it's about education, building that culture.

00:02:15: Sustained education, yeah.

00:02:16: And culture building.

00:02:17: Belmo Oranovic's put it nicely too.

00:02:19: Passion is the real firewall.

00:02:21: You need leadership that's actually engaged, not just checking boxes.

00:02:25: And that proactive stance is crucial because the threats themselves are getting way more sophisticated, exploiting trust directly.

00:02:33: Oh, absolutely.

00:02:33: It's not just basic malware anymore.

00:02:35: Kristoff Fulon shared some fascinating and frankly slightly scary details on modern phishing.

00:02:40: We're talking QR codes hidden in PDFs.

00:02:42: Right.

00:02:42: Seems safe, but isn't.

00:02:44: malicious calendar invites, even password protected files designed specifically to sneak past email scanners.

00:02:50: They're really bypassing the traditional defenses.

00:02:53: And that increasing sophistication really forces identity to become the control plane.

00:02:58: Jane Franklin explored this really well.

00:03:00: She called identity the battlefield.

00:03:01: Yeah,

00:03:02: that resonated.

00:03:02: Because if that core identity gets compromised, Boom.

00:03:06: You've got an immediate critical business continuity crisis on your hands.

00:03:10: And the scale of that potential crisis is growing fast.

00:03:13: Francis Odom broke it down.

00:03:15: Well, identity isn't just people anymore.

00:03:16: It's split, right?

00:03:17: Human and non-human identities, NHIs.

00:03:20: That's the key point.

00:03:21: NHIs, think bots, service accounts, APIs in many places, they're starting to outnumber the actual human users.

00:03:28: Wow.

00:03:29: So how do you secure them?

00:03:30: Well, Francis Odom argues it needs convergence across the whole security stack.

00:03:33: He laid out five pillars, IAM, obviously, but also ISPM.

00:03:37: That's identity security, posture management, basically visibility.

00:03:41: Got it.

00:03:41: Then identity governance, IGA, privilege access management, PAM, and crucially, ITDR, identity threat detection and response.

00:03:50: For that real time defense, identity weaves through all of it.

00:03:53: It really connects everything.

00:03:54: and that strategic focus is so important because, well, complacency is just deadly in this space.

00:04:00: I loved Laura Vaughn's post using the Louvre heist as a warning, that whole too big to fail idea.

00:04:05: It's a delusion.

00:04:06: Right.

00:04:06: Just because you've got a big name or a huge market cap doesn't mean you're safe.

00:04:10: It's a flawed strategy, assuming reputation equals protection.

00:04:13: It just leads to that predictable, expensive panic after a breach, scrambling for upgrades you should have had all along.

00:04:20: Which connects perfectly to what Rob McGowan was saying.

00:04:22: Compliance isn't security.

00:04:24: Not even close.

00:04:25: Compliance

00:04:25: gets you a tick in a box.

00:04:27: Security demands continuous effort, implementation, maintenance, its ongoing operational discipline.

00:04:33: That idea of operational discipline, especially in designing defenses, kind of leads us nicely into our next theme, doesn't it?

00:04:39: Zero trust.

00:04:40: Yeah, good transition.

00:04:41: Zero trust or ZT, it's moved beyond just being a buzzword.

00:04:45: Definitely feels more concrete now.

00:04:47: Julian Muscaton and Shikhar Joshi highlighted it as basically the essential model now, especially with cloud scaling and AI integration.

00:04:55: But implementation.

00:04:57: That seems to be where the friction is.

00:04:59: Yeah, there's a snag.

00:05:00: It's mostly user experience.

00:05:01: Dr.

00:05:02: Jason Edwards had a great term for it.

00:05:04: ZT often feels like zero fun.

00:05:07: Zero fun.

00:05:08: I can see that.

00:05:09: Endless prompts, confusing jargon.

00:05:11: Exactly.

00:05:12: It creates friction, and that friction kills adoption.

00:05:15: People just find workarounds if it's too annoying.

00:05:18: So how do you fix the zero fun problem?

00:05:21: Edwards suggested clarity, maybe some humor, even gamification.

00:05:25: Anything to make it less painful and more engaging, more sustainable.

00:05:29: Make

00:05:29: it stick.

00:05:30: Right.

00:05:30: The goal, as Lisa Wheelan put it with a nice analogy, is using checkpoints.

00:05:35: not hard walls, verify at each step, but keep things flexible enough for people to actually work.

00:05:40: Okay, that makes sense for like corporate networks.

00:05:42: But what about shifting zero trust to the industrial world?

00:05:45: Operational technology, OT, that feels like a whole different ballgame.

00:05:49: Oh, absolutely.

00:05:50: Huge difference.

00:05:51: When physical safety and continuous operations are on the line, you can't just interrupt things.

00:05:55: Autonomy is paramount.

00:05:57: So can ZT even work there?

00:05:59: Well, River Coddle pointed out something crucial.

00:06:01: The standards for OT-compatible zero trust.

00:06:04: They actually already exist.

00:06:05: They're within the established IEC six-two-four-four-three framework.

00:06:09: Ah, okay.

00:06:10: So it's not about reinventing the wheel.

00:06:12: Exactly.

00:06:13: It's about implementing it correctly for that specific context.

00:06:17: For industrial systems, ZT has to be enforced at network choke points, not right on the sensitive endpoints themselves.

00:06:23: Keep the core operations autonomous.

00:06:25: Precisely.

00:06:26: OT operations must stay fully independent and resilient.

00:06:30: IT can consume copies of data, but only when it's safe and available.

00:06:34: minimizing any risk of disruption.

00:06:36: That focus on, you know, provable reality and measurable security, it flows really well into our third theme, quantum computing, which feels like it's finally shifting from, well, promise to actual verifiable results.

00:06:51: It really is.

00:06:51: That Google milestone was huge.

00:06:53: We saw posts about it everywhere.

00:06:54: JV Shah, Wieland Holfelder, they reported Google's quantum AI team hit the first verifiable quantum advantage.

00:07:01: Verifiable being the keyword there.

00:07:03: Right.

00:07:04: Using their new Willow processor.

00:07:06: This is real experimental proof that a quantum machine can definitively beat a classical supercomputer on a specific relevant scientific task.

00:07:14: And the speed difference wasn't small, was it?

00:07:16: Not at all.

00:07:16: Jaime Gomez-Garcia shared the number.

00:07:19: The Willow Chip ran this quantum echoes algorithm, thirteen thousand times faster than the best classical supercomputers.

00:07:27: That's, well, that's a fundamental shift.

00:07:29: Thirteen

00:07:30: thousand times, wow, okay.

00:07:32: And while the speeds are jumping, the infrastructure is scaling too.

00:07:35: Dr.

00:07:35: Chan Naseeb and Brittany Forgeone noted Europe stepping up its game.

00:07:39: Ah, yeah, the IBM Quantum System II in Spain.

00:07:42: That's

00:07:42: the one in Basque Country.

00:07:44: a one hundred and fifty-six qubit Herron processor.

00:07:47: It shows serious government and industry commitment over there.

00:07:50: It feels like the whole field is gaining legitimacy, too.

00:07:53: I saw Dr.

00:07:53: Corey O'Mara mention the twenty-twenty-five physics Nobel for quantum tunneling, recognizing folks like John Martini's from Google's foundational team.

00:08:01: History being written as the future gets built.

00:08:03: For sure.

00:08:03: But strategically, it throws up big questions, right?

00:08:06: Ownership, sovereignty.

00:08:07: Barbara Cresty analyzed that whole situation with ID Quantique.

00:08:11: The Swiss company bought by a U.S.

00:08:13: firm, Ion Q. Yeah.

00:08:15: Highlights the intense global competition.

00:08:17: The EU is clearly reacting, treating quantum-like strategic infrastructure, pledging five billion through the Quantum Act.

00:08:24: They see quantum plus AI as twin engines for the future.

00:08:29: And we're already seeing hints of practical use cases, like in finance.

00:08:33: Right.

00:08:33: Jan Michalon shared details from the HSBC-IBM collaboration.

00:08:37: Their quantum models, using something called PQFM, are actually starting to outperform classical finance models.

00:08:43: Impressive.

00:08:44: But it's not all smooth sailing yet.

00:08:46: No, Michelin also mentioned the big hurdle.

00:08:48: remains what they call the noise puzzle.

00:08:50: Noise puzzle.

00:08:51: Basically real world kibbits are incredibly fragile.

00:08:53: Errors, interference, it makes it really hard to consistently replicate those perfect simulation results on actual hardware.

00:09:00: Still a major challenge.

00:09:01: Okay, that need for extreme power, specialized hardware, it brings us right into our final cluster.

00:09:06: The absolutely massive shifts in cloud infrastructure and data strategy needed to make AI scale actually happen.

00:09:13: And massive, almost doesn't do it justice, especially looking at the money involved.

00:09:19: R.G.

00:09:19: Coffield and professed Dr.

00:09:20: Ingrid Vassilio-Felts, both covered that aligned data centers deal.

00:09:24: The

00:09:24: forty billion dollar one, led by BlackRock and MGX.

00:09:27: Yeah, forty billion dollars.

00:09:30: That single deal is more than double the previous record for a data center acquisition.

00:09:35: It's staggering.

00:09:36: What does that signal to you?

00:09:38: It signals that the big players, sovereign wealth funds, tech giants, are aggressively locking down compute capacity.

00:09:45: The five GW figures cited.

00:09:47: They're securing the raw power needed for the next wave of AI.

00:09:51: It's like the industrialization phase of AI infrastructure.

00:09:54: And at that kind of scale, sustainability has to be a factor, right?

00:09:57: It can't just be an afterthought.

00:09:59: Definitely not.

00:09:59: Joaquin Rodriguez Antibon highlighted a clear trend.

00:10:03: data centers moving away from diesel backups towards hydrogen, trying to balance reliability with decarbonization goals.

00:10:09: And the underlying architecture is getting more flexible too, accommodating different vendors.

00:10:13: Yeah, Cindy Gouveroy pointed to that a OCI autonomous database and Exadata integration happening at AWS, letting customers use Oracle's high-performance stuff right alongside AWS services like Bedrock with super low latency.

00:10:27: That

00:10:27: flexibility is key, especially where speed is critical, like healthcare.

00:10:31: Exactly.

00:10:32: Nate Moore made a strong case for edge computing in healthcare.

00:10:36: For things like surgical AI or ICU monitoring, you need real-time processing right there.

00:10:42: You can't afford the delay of sending data back and forth to the cloud.

00:10:45: Makes sense.

00:10:46: But all this sophisticated infrastructure, this edge computing, it only really matters if the data itself is actually useful, right?

00:10:53: Bingo.

00:10:54: Jeff Winter shared a pretty sobering stat.

00:10:56: Forty-two percent of companies admit half their data is basically untouched.

00:11:00: Useless.

00:11:00: Half their data.

00:11:01: Yeah.

00:11:02: So if you're spending forty billion dollars on capacity, the focus has to shift from just collecting everything to capturing actual value.

00:11:08: Which

00:11:08: means changing how organizations think about data.

00:11:11: Completely.

00:11:11: Marco Geyer's model emphasizes that holistic data management.

00:11:15: You got to link governance, culture, technology and strategy together.

00:11:19: Break down the silos that lead to collecting junk data in the first place.

00:11:22: And ultimately, all this tech, all this scale, it has to serve a purpose.

00:11:26: Yashikwenda asked that fundamental question.

00:11:28: What's the real KPI for ICT success?

00:11:31: It's not just uptime or upgrades.

00:11:33: No.

00:11:33: It's delivering meaningful outcomes.

00:11:35: And that duality really sums up everything we've seen these past two weeks, doesn't it?

00:11:39: On one hand, this relentless drive for scale, thirteen thousand X faster quantum chips, forty billion dollar deals.

00:11:46: Yeah,

00:11:47: mind boggling scale.

00:11:48: But underpinning it all is the absolute necessity of human centric security, getting past that zero fund compliance and defining what real, measurable outcomes actually look like.

00:11:58: You need both.

00:11:59: the hardware and the human element to get true digital resilience.

00:12:03: You know, we started this talking about the rise of non-human identities.

00:12:07: If identity really is the future of security, it leaves a big question for you, the listener.

00:12:13: Are your current systems, your governance models, actually ready to handle a world where machines might soon outnumber people?

00:12:20: Something to think about.

00:12:21: If you enjoy this deep dive, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:12:24: Also check out our other editions on cloud, defense tech, digital products and services, artificial intelligence, sustainability and green ICT and health tech.

00:12:33: Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the latest tech insights.

00:12:36: We appreciate you tuning in.