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CIO First Look
July 16, 2025
With gen AI and cloud strategies, things can get foggy, especially when it comes to stresses on budgets, data management, and security. Costs can spiral in this unpredictable and data-intensive test kitchen, so a modified hybrid and multi-cloud strategy can be a way to get a better handle on managing compliance, avoiding vendor lock-in, and balancing performance with cost.
That’s what Pat Brans discusses in today’s lead feature on how gen AI is changing the ways CIOs and boards approach cloud and data governance, and find the courage needed to make difficult choices.
First and foremost, IT leaders need to have a good handle on their data, considering that’s the raw material needed for AI to thrive, and a handful of IT leaders from a variety of enterprises discuss their cloud journeys, including Bastien Aerni, VP at GTT, a networking and security as a service provider.
“Overinvesting is risky, and underinvesting limits scalability and user experience,” he says. “We’re focused on enabling innovation through a high-performance and flexible platform that lets us safely test and activate new technologies in a vendor- and technology-agnostic manner. It’s no longer enough to have a three-year IT plan. You need to architect for change.”
Irrespective of industry, the rise of gen AI has reignited boardroom discussions about cloud strategies. While the potential is big, so are the complexities — especially for CIOs suddenly facing budget overruns, security risks, and tangled hybrid environments.
“Companies are trying everything, which leads to enormous costs,” says Juan Orlandini, CTO North America at Insight. “If you're running gen AI in the public cloud, the costs add up quickly. You get charged for everything — compute, storage, and all the network traffic.”
Juan Orlandini, CTO North America, Insight
Insight
Those surging expenses reflect a broader reality. Gen AI workloads are unpredictable, data-intensive, and often experimental, according to Bastien Aerni, VP at GTT, a networking and security as a service provider. “CIOs often don’t know how successful a given initiative will be,” he says. “Overinvesting is risky, and underinvesting limits scalability and user experience.”
