Data centric, customer driven digital transformation
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Helping enterprises realize the power of digital transformation WRITTEN BY
HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY
TOM VENTURO
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Lisa Davis,Vice President of Digital Transformation and Scale Solutions, Enterprise and Government, in the Data Center Group at Intel, discusses the company’s digital transformation from PC to data-centric, and the need for digital transformations to be both holistic and customer driven.
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biquitous digital transformation and mass migration towards the cloud has become the new reality for the world’s corporations,
governments, and educational institutions. As data 04
increasingly becomes the fuel powering the global economy, new methodologies, technologies and philosophies need to be developed in order to remain marketable –even the industry’s largest players are changing their playbooks. Intel, with over half a century at the forefront of semiconductor innovation, has been a catalyst for some of the most significant technology transformations in modern history, helping reinvent the way we work and play and thrive in the digital era. Today, Intel is both helping its diverse ecosystem of customers and partners harness the power of the digital transformation, while simultaneously undergoing its own transformative shift in its business focus. “It’s a data-centric world, and Intel as an organization is transitioning to harness the value that this data provides,” explains Lisa Davis,
“Intel is moving from a PC-centric strategy to a data-centric one” — Lisa Davis, President of Digital Transformation & Scale Solutions, Enterprise & Government, Data Center Group, Intel
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Vice President and General Manager of Digital Transformation & Scale Solutions at Intel. “We fully recognize the importance of being data-centric, to both our business and our customers. Leveraging the latest technologies that help to move, store and process data allows us to serve
“ Your company’s 06 ability to keep pace with the competition by leveraging technology to provide the services, capabilities and experiences your customers expect today is paramount” — Lisa Davis, President of Digital Transformation & Scale Solutions, Enterprise & Government, Data Center Group, Intel
our customers’ needs better.” Unlocking the power of Big Data is, Davis recognizes, the primary driver of Intel and its customers’ digital transformation. In the modern world, a successful digital transformation is the difference between commercial viability and being consigned to the Wikipedia footnotes of history. “It is extremely difficult to compete in today’s market using the technologies of yesterday,” says Davis. “Your company’s ability to keep pace with the competition by leveraging technology to provide the services, capabilities and experiences your customers expect today is paramount. The companies that don’t do that aren’t likely to survive.” We sat down with Davis to discuss her insights,
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘BEHIND THE SCENES WITH LISA DAVIS: A NEW ERA OF IT’ 07 gained from a career in technology
“I spent 26 years, after graduating from
spanning more than three decades in
Syracuse, working for the US Depart-
the public and private sectors, into the
ment of Defense. I think I may be one
need for ongoing digital transformations
of the few people who started as a high
that are holistic, guided by corporate
school senior, as a GS2 – the very
strategy and ultimately driven by
bottom of the pay scale – and retired
customer demand.
as a Senior Executive Service Member,
Davis’ journey in the public sector
which is equivalent to a US Admiral or
began as a senior in high school,
General.” Throughout her career with
spending her summers throughout
the DoD, Davis held almost every job
college working in a Junior Fellowship
in the IT organization, rising from
Program at the Lakehurst Naval Air
a computer programmer, to managing
Engineering Center. “They were trying
help desks services, to managing
to recruit engineers to come to work
infrastructure systems, to running
for the US Government,” she recalls.
mission control systems, to being w w w.i ntel. com
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“ Digital transformation is ultimately about the experiences we create for our customers” — Lisa Davis, President of Digital Transformation & Scale Solutions, Enterprise & Government, Data Center Group, Intel
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a Deputy CIO and eventually CIO for
during her time in government, and
the Counterintelligence Field Activity
soon brought the concept of seamless
in DOD, and then for the US Marshals
internet connectivity to the Georgetown
Service at the Department of Justice.
campus. She served at the college
In 2012, Davis made the decision
for a further three years before making
to leave the public sector and move to
the move to Intel, taking on her current
academia, where she became CIO of
role two years later running the Digital
Georgetown University. “I was intrigued
Transformation and Scale Solutions
by the mission, which was to take an
business, for Enterprise and Government
institution created in 1789 and continue
customers in the Data Center Group
to make it digitally relevant for the
at Intel. “What I love about this role
students of today,” Davis recalls.
is that it allows me, having been a
Guiding digital transformations was
customer for the majority of my career
something Davis has specialized in
as a CIO, to now be in a position to
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Lisa Davis, Vice President, Data Center GroupGeneral Manager, Digital Transformation and Scale Solutions, Enterprise and Government Lisa Davis is responsible for growing the data center business and working alongside enterprise and government CIOs to create IT transformation strategies for their organizations. Davis joined the Data Center Group from the Intel IT Group where she led and developed the IT architecture and integrated technology solutions supporting Intel’s world-class global supply chain, HR, Finance, and M&A IT. Davis is a three-time Chief Information Officer and has led four technology transformations over the course of her 30-year career in technology. Prior to Intel, Davis served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Georgetown University, and held a variety of technology leadership roles in her 26-year career in the Federal Government. As a member of the Senior Executive Service she was the CIO of the U.S. Marshals Service in the Department of Justice, as well as CIO of the Counterintelligence Field Activity in the Department of Defense. Throughout her 30-year career in technology, Davis has been a champion for women in technology and leadership – channeling that passion into leading professional development initiatives for women. She has served on the board of Mirantis, as well as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a number of non-profit boards. Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University, and a master’s degree in human resources management from Golden Gate University, and is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
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influence the product roadmap and build solutions with Intel’s diverse ecosystem of partners that help our enterprise customers on their digital transformation journey,” enthuses Davis. Having run the gamut of public and private sector digital transformation roles, Davis recognizes that, while there are differences between the “different flavors of government”, academia and the private sector – like speed of adoption, budget constraints and organizational structure – every transformation can be distilled to a few 12
core truths. Firstly: “Digital transformation is ultimately about the experiences we create for our customers, whether those customers are the men and women of the US Marshals Service, or the students, faculty and administration of Georgetown University.” Unlocking the power of digital transformation is, in Davis’ mind, essential to providing Intel and its partners’ customers with the experiences they need. “I manage the global business for hybrid multi-cloud, artificial intelligence, enterprise analytics and cyber security solutions. We’re largely driven by figuring out how we help our customers move from
legacy technology environments to leveraging cloud technologies. It’s about right workload in the right place for the right business requirements,” says Davis. “Today, our customers are managing IT environments that are more complex than ever as they manage distributed environments that consist of workloads or applications sitting on-prem and in private clouds, sitting out at public clouds, and now on the intelligent edge and with many different public cloud providers.” The complexity and increasingly interconnected nature of enterprise software and the businesses that software supports is at the heart of Davis’ second core truth: “Digital transformation strategy needs to be holistic, because it’s not just about the technology,” she insists. “One of the first things I ask our customers is what their corporate strategy is. Technology should be leveraged to help drive the overall corporate or government strategy of the company. Corporate strategy and technology need to be connected. Today, every company is a technology company.” In a landscape where technological innovations move from the theoretical w w w.i ntel. com
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$70.8bn Approximate revenue
1968
Year founded
107,100
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Approximate number of employees
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to the commonplace at head-spinning speeds, it is a common mistake for companies to latch onto every new development, implement it quickly, and then try to figure out the business case later. “Don’t digitally transform for the sake of technology,” warns Davis. “I digitally transform businesses to help them compete and remain marketable. When we talk about transformation, it’s about a connection to your corporate strategy. It’s also about a data strategy because ultimately I want to modernize and help transform so I can 16
leverage the data within my company to drive insights for the business.” One new Intel technology that’s playing a key role in harnessing increased amounts of data for more rapid insights is Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory. In development for the past 10 years, Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory represents a re-architecting of the memory storage hierarchy. “We’ve created a new memory pool that is non-volatile, unlike RAM, and delivers more capacity and better TCO,” explains Davis. “A great use case for Optane is in in-memory databases like SAP Hana. SAP has been a key innovative partner in
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“Digital transformation strategy needs to be holistic, because it’s not just about the technology” — Lisa Davis, President of Digital Transformation & Scale Solutions, Enterprise & Government, Data Center Group, Intel
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leveraging this new technology, which
committees where people would ask
allows us to put large amounts of data
me when the ‘digital transformation
in memory, next to the CPU, to solve
thing’ was going to be over,” Davis
the toughest business problems for the
laughs. “Digital transformation,
company. That’s the power of this new
certainly in today’s market, doesn’t
technology.” Ultimately, the product will
have a start and an end. If you continue
help Intel and its customers navigate
to evolve and try to keep pace with the
the exponentially growing ocean of data
technology, transformation will always
covering the world, and draw insights
happen.” Much as it took on a pivotal
that will drive customer satisfaction and
role in the democratization and mass
help determine where the next stage
distribution of the microchip over the
of digital transformation leads.
last 50 years, Intel is positioning itself
“I remember sitting in budget
to be at the heart of a new reality,
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“ Digital transformation strategy needs to be holistic, because it’s not just about the technology” — Lisa Davis, President of Digital Transformation & Scale Solutions, Enterprise & Government, Data Center Group, Intel
constantly shaped and reshaped
being at the forefront of providing the
by digital transformation. Davis is
end-to-end solutions that we can build
confident that, going forward, she will
with our ecosystem of partners to help
be able to help Intel, its partners and,
all of our customers on their digital
most importantly, the end customer,
transformation journeys.”
be prepared to meet the future. “Intel is continuing to make investments and will continue to lead innovation to support our customers and partners. Certainly, in the areas of hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence, enterprise analytics, cybersecurity and even quantum computing, Intel is about 19
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘INTEL OPTANE DC PERSISTENT MEMORY FILLS THE GAP BETWEEN DRAM AND SSDS’
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Intel Corporation 2200 Mission College Blvd Santa Clara, CA 95052 USA T (408) 765-8080 www.intel.com