Page 44 - BENTLEY SYSTEMS PR REPORT - March 2025

“A hybrid cloud approach, ensuring integration, security, and compliance, will be crucial. CIOs must focus on
cost-efficiency, flexibility, and scalability, while continuously improving and optimising cloud services to
support business growth and meet evolving technological demands,” continues Vaidyanathan.

CIOs should develop a cloud strategy that balances flexibility, security and integration by leveraging Open
SaaS tools for collaboration and project management, alongside PaaS for custom application development.
“Infrastructure-focused solutions, like those offered by Bentley, can provide scalability and interoperability to
handle complex workflows. Ensuring secure and efficient data storage and processing through IaaS will also
be key to optimising infrastructure projects and enabling seamless collaboration across teams,” says Bentley
Systems’ Marsh.

Says Zoho’s Paramasivam, “CIOs should prioritise cloud platforms that incorporate AI and automation to
enhance efficiency, innovation, and agility across the enterprise. By strategically integrating SaaS, IaaS, and
PaaS solutions tailored to specific business domains, they can address unique operational needs and
improve overall performance. This approach not only drives revenue growth but also enhances profit margins
by streamlining processes and enabling faster decision-making.”

Cybersecurity remains another top priority, along with fostering collaborative transformation across
departments, while proactive problem management and investing in talent are crucial to ensure successful
execution. By addressing these areas, CIOs can create a cloud strategy that drives organisational growth and
innovation across the evolving digital landscape.

“Siloed security products create blind spots where attackers thrive, leaving critical gaps across the attack
surface. CIOs’ cloud strategy needs to encompass enhanced risk prioritisation to close these gaps,” says
Tenable’s Jadallah.

Cloud native application protection platform, CNAPP solutions replace a patchwork of siloed products that
provide only partial coverage, often cause excessive alerts, and fail to expose complex risks.

By adopting a CNAPP approach CIOs can unify security and compliance technologies to gain contextual
visibility into their cloud-native apps and infrastructure, and overall cloud security posture. CNAPPs allow
CIOs to monitor the health of their cloud environment as a whole rather than individually.

“CIOs should position AI as a core component of their cloud strategy, leveraging its capabilities to anticipate
and meet consumer needs. They should consider AI a first-class citizen that can amplify rich capabilities,”
says Globant’s Pienovi.

To unlock AI-driven potential, service platforms must focus on talent optimisation and automated workflows
to maximise the new level of insight and action in real-time. Hybrid cloud platforms will require sophisticated
cost management, with a shift towards AI-augmented FinOps. Furthermore, DevSecOps must evolve to
address the dynamic demands of intelligent service platforms.
As AI usage surges, cloud usage will inevitably rise, requiring organisations to reconsider their reliance on
foundational LLMs from traditional cloud providers. This may lead to diversification into additional providers,
open-source models, or partnerships.
“Embrace a data-driven approach with governed AI and analytics to optimise resource allocation and
performance. A hybrid or multi-cloud strategy can further enhance resilience and adaptability to evolving
market demands,” advises Alteryx’s Crowther.

https://www.intelligentcio.com/me/2025/03/05/driven-by-ai-cloud-computing-is-changing-fast/