MarTech360 Interview With Briana Frank Vice President of Product & Design, IBM Cloud

“Cloud technologies have revolutionized the way our clients work, especially hybrid cloud. Hybrid cloud enables our clients to host workloads wherever they need, delivering the seamless experiences customers’ demand.”

Briana, can you tell us about your professional background and your current role at IBM Cloud?

I came to IBM right after college, and then left to pursue other personal and professional goals. At one point, I worked in a tech agency start-up where I helped developers design, build & launch mobile applications. In this start-up environment surrounded by technologists I developed an appreciation for new technologies and a habit of continuously learning. My first job back at IBM was in development for an incubation team where I learned about microservices and open-source technologies such as docker and Kubernetes. Soon after coming back to IBM I was asked to take a Product Management role. Within a year, I realized Product Management was what I was meant to do.  Product is the ultimate combination of business, technology, creativity, and leadership.

While I didn’t take a traditional path, I’m grateful for my career journey and believe diverse experiences in marketing, design, development and product help me lead with empathy. Staying close to new technologies is most energizing to me. Embracing design thinking and bringing diverse ideas together to solve client problems by inventing something new is where I thrive.

How much do you think cloud industry has changed since you joined IBM?

Since joining IBM, I have seen the impact that consumer data awareness has had on the way we approach technology – everything from technical development to sales and marketing initiatives. In particular, I’ve seen an evolution in the industry’s approach to data sovereignty laws – both in the United States and abroad – to address data residency and privacy.

The rise in large scale supply chain attacks such as the SolarWinds attack has drove many countries to increase their regulations around data privacy and security. It’s also affected our product roadmap and cloud strategy at IBM. Hybrid, multicloud approaches help enterprises make workload placement decisions – after all, different workloads have different needs. We also work with our clients to implement a “sovereign cloud” approach — one that puts data privacy and data location at the center of our client’s cloud initiatives. Many of our clients are facing challenges around global and local data regulation. By taking a defined approach to Sovereign Cloud, enterprises can meet specific local jurisdiction laws on data privacy, access and control.

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What were some of the challenges that you faced while leading your teams and building amazing products such as IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, Red Hat OpenShift and others?

When working with truly talented teams you have a lot of strong ideas. The most important thing you can do is take the time early on to work through those ideas and come to agreement on a MPV (minimal viable product). Taking the time upfront to do this may seem luxurious but if done right you can come to crisp agreement and switch to execution mode allowing the teams to deliver with lightning speed because there is clarity on the “who, what, wow” of what you are building. Who you are building the product for, what you are building and the wow factor of the MVP is critical to get right from the beginning.

I have the luxury of working with brilliant people that respect each other’s diverse points of view. This respect combined with a few design thinking techniques to help mature an idea allows the group to find common ground and ultimately a new path forward is discovered. Co-creating with team members that have different points of view and cherishing their diverse opinions is always an enriching experience but most importantly leads to impressive results.

What are your thoughts on how cloud technologies help organizations achieve better business outcomes?

Cloud technologies have revolutionized the way our clients work, especially hybrid cloud. Hybrid cloud enables our clients to host workloads wherever they need, delivering the seamless experiences customers’ demand. Every enterprise has different needs for their workloads, and they have them in many different places – on prem, in public or private cloud or at the edge. The fact is that different workloads have different needs to operate efficiently.

A recent example of this in action is our work with Wasabi Technologies. Wasabi Technologies was tapped to help the Boston Red Sox take its digital initiatives to the next level, by using the vast amounts of data their operations generate to improve real-time player insights, in-game strategy, data security, and business operations. Key to their success was engaging IBM for our hybrid cloud capabilities. With the joint power of Wasabi hot cloud storage and IBM Cloud Satellite, our customers have fast, easy access to their data and applications, which can be managed through a single, secure portal no matter where it lives–on premises, in the cloud, or at the edge. The Red Sox plan to leverage Wasabi hot cloud storage across its hybrid cloud infrastructure while piloting IBM Cloud Satellite to house data including player video, analytics, surveillance data, IoT, and more, across their Fenway Park stadium.

As businesses turn mostly to a hybrid, multicloud approach to meet their customer’s demands, what are the considerations enterprises should prioritize? (Especially with the rise of consumer data in the cloud)

At IBM we are helping clients make the right workload placement decisions. These decisions are based on five key dimensions: resiliency, performance, security, compliance and total cost of ownership. We have been dedicated to delivering on these parameters with IBM Cloud, offering a platform-centric approach that is open, secure and flexible. This helps our clients reduce concentration risk or overreliance on a single cloud provider, and puts the power of choice and performance in their hands.

The other considerations that enterprises should prioritize is how data is being used for automation and personalization technology. Both automation and personalization only work if the data you have is accurate and informative, which is why datasets have become so important to every business function and department.

How can organizations use their cloud providers to keep their data safe and compliant?

Security and compliance have always been a top priority for IBM, helping clients, especially for those in regulated industries such as financial services, ensure they keep the trust of their clients. We’re seeing enterprises increasingly adopting hybrid, multicloud models. However, if not done properly, they risk falling victim to “the Frankencloud,” architectures riddled with complexity and disconnected environments. Failure to holistically manage hybrid multicloud environments can create blind spots that bad actors can attack. An organization’s security needs to be designed with one single point of control that provides a holistic view of threats and mitigates complexity.

The focus on data security and compliance will only continue to grow for financial institutions and other regulated industries in the years to come as regulation continues to evolve and security risks become more sophisticated. The recent report on cloud adoption from the U.S. Department of Treasury was a starting point for guidance on risk management for financial institutions. At IBM, we’ve been on a mission to de-risk the financial services industry for years. In fact, we developed IBM Cloud for Financial Services with built in security and compliance controls designed to help clients as they work to mitigate risk and host applications and workloads in the cloud with confidence.

How can technologies such as edge computing and AI/automation shape the future of cloud computing?

There are many different technologies shaping the future of cloud computing. With all of these technologies, it’s becoming increasingly important to have control over your data and where it lives. Take edge computing for example. Edge computing is an extension of the existing cloud where the smaller infrastructure components are distributed at the edge of the network. It’s primarily used to meet the needs of connected devices and IoT, as it reduces the bandwidth load on the network. This is especially important with the rise of AI foundational modeling. Processing data at the edge can reduce latency and prevent data from leaving a specific location which is especially important for highly regulated industries. IBM offers a combination of technology, services and expertise so that our clients have access to data and insights in near-real time and so that they can successfully use edge computing, AI, automation and other data-intensive technologies.

What advice would you give to other Product Management Leaders?

The biggest advice that I can give Product leaders is gather as much feedback as possible. Listen to clients, co-workers, managers and partners. Listen to pain points with empathy. Learn to pull data yourself and use data and testing as a form of feedback. Ask everyone for advice. This feedback will allow you to prioritize and synthesize what’s truly important. You won’t be able to act on all the ideas but the information is critical when building the best possible product or solution.

Is there anything that you’re currently reading (or any favorite books) that you’d recommend?

I have a voracious approach to reading books – I’ve always got more than one book going at once! Right now, I’m reading ‘Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which is about women’s lives and careers in the late 50s and early 60s. I’m also reading ‘Women Who Lead’ by Dr. Izdihar Jamil. It’s about the unique challenges that women experience in leadership roles. One idea that Dr. Jamil touches on is that ‘soft skills’ are something that women have always utilized in their roles. With the pandemic, she notes that we’re seeing a rise in both genders needing to use these skills that have been traditionally female-led. I love reading books like this that challenge me to think about my own leadership style.

Thanks Briana!