Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah: Daily Tech Digest

Quote for the day:

"The people who 'don't have time' and the people who 'always find time' have the same amount of time." -- Unknown

7 challenges IT leaders will face in 2026

’s says that by the end of the decade organizations will see lawsuits, fines, and due to disruptions from inadequate AI controls. As a result, CIOs say, governance has become an urgent concern — not an afterthought. ... , CIO of digital identity and data protection services company , says he’s preparing for 2026 with a focus on cultural readiness, continuous learning, and preparing people and the tech stack for rapid AI-driven changes. “The CIO role has moved beyond managing applications and infrastructure,” Kaushal says. “It’s now about shaping the future. As AI reshapes enterprise ecosystems, accelerating adoption without alignment risks technical debt, skills gaps, and greater cyber vulnerabilities. Ultimately, the true measure of a modern CIO isn’t how quickly we deploy new applications or AI — it’s how effectively we prepare our people and businesses for what’s next.” ... When modernizing applications, argues that teams need to stay outcome-focused, phasing in improvements that directly support their goals. “This means application modernization and cloud cost-optimization initiatives are required to stay competitive and relevant,” he says. “The challenge is to modernize and become more agile without letting costs spiral. By empowering an organization to develop applications faster and more efficiently, we can accelerate modernization efforts, respond more quickly to the pace of tech change, and maintain control over cloud expenditures.”

Rethinking OT security for project heavy shipyards

In OT, availability always wins. If a security control interferes with operations, it will be bypassed or rejected, often for good reasons. That constraint forces a different mindset. The first mental shift is letting go of the idea that visibility requires changing the devices themselves. In many legacy environments, that simply isn’t an option. So you have to look elsewhere. In practice, meaningful visibility often starts at the network level, using passive observation rather than active interrogation. You learn what “normal” looks like by watching how systems communicate, not by poking them. ... In our environment, sustainable IT/OT integration means avoiding ad-hoc connectivity altogether. When we connect vessels, yards and on-shore systems, we do so through deliberately designed integration paths. One practical example of this approach is how we use our : secure remote access, segmentation and monitoring are treated as integral parts of the digital solution itself, not as optional add-ons introduced later. That allows us to enable innovation while retaining control as IT and OT continue to converge. ... In practice, least privilege means being disciplined about time and purpose. Access should expire by default. It should be linked to a specific task, not to a project or a person’s role in general. We have found that making access removal automatic is often more effective than adding extra approval steps at the front end. If access cannot be explained in one sentence, it probably shouldn’t exist.

Mastering the architecture of hybrid edge environments

A mature IT architecture is characterized by well-orchestrated workflows that enable compute at the edge as well as data exchanges between the edge and central IT. Throughout all processes, security must be maintained. ... Conceptually, creating an IT architecture that incorporates both central IT and the edge sounds easy -- but it isn't. What must be achieved architecturally is a synergistic blend of hardware, software, applications, security and communications that work seamlessly together, whether the technology is at the edge or in the data center. When multiple solutions and vendors are involved, the integration of these elements can be daunting -- but the way that IT can address architectural conflicts upfront is by predefining the interface protocols, devices, and the hardware and software stacks. ... The hybrid approach is a win-win for everyone. It gives users a sense of autonomy, and it saves IT from making frequent trips to remote sites. The key to it all is to clearly define the roles that IT and end users will play in edge support. In other words, what are end-user technical support people in charge of, and at what point does IT step in? ... Finally, a mature architecture must define disaster recovery. What happens if a remote edge site fails? A mature architecture must define where it fails over to, so the site can keep going even if its local systems are out. In these cases, data and systems must be replicated for redundancy in the cloud or in the corporate data center, so remote sites can fail over to these resources, with end-to-end security in place at all points.

The Push for Agentic AI Standards Is Well Underway

"Many existing trust frameworks were layered onto an internet never designed for machine-level delegation or accountability. As agents begin acting independently, those frameworks need to evolve rather than simply be imposed," said, who authored the book ": The Next Evolution of AI and the Future of Digital Interaction." The agentic AI standards debate ranges from adopting enforceable guardrails to ensuring interoperability. Hazari pointed out that innovation is already moving faster than formal standard-setting can go. Fragmentation is a natural phase that precedes consolidation and interoperability. ... The brings together early but influential agentic technologies from , and . These hyperscalers are rolling out controlled AI environments often described as "AI factories" designed to deliver AI compute at enterprise scale. Initial contributions to the foundation include Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, which focuses on standardizing how agents receive and structure context; goose, an open-source agentic framework contributed by ; and AGENTS.md from , which defines how agents describe capabilities, permissions and constraints. Rather than prescribing a single architecture, these projects aim to standardize interfaces and metadata areas where fragmentation is already creating friction. Hazari said initiatives like the Agentic AI Foundation can absorb patterns into shared frameworks as they emerge.

7 steps to move from IT support to IT strategist

The biggest obstacle holding IT professionals back is a passive mindset. Sitting back and waiting to be told what to do prevents IT teams from reaching the strategic partnership level they want, said ... , vice president of AI operations at , emphasized that strong IT leaders see their work as part of a bigger ecosystem, one that works best when people are open, share information, and collaborate. ... IT professionals need to show up as partners by truly understanding what’s going on in the business, rather than waiting for business stakeholders to come to them with problems to solve, ’s Johnson said. “When you’re engaging with your business partners, you’re bringing proactive ideas and solutions to the table,” he said. ... Rather than having an order-taking mindset, IT professionals should ask probing questions about what partners need and what’s driving that need, which shifts toward problem-solving and focuses on outcomes rather than just implementing solutions, said. ... “IT professionals should frame every initiative in terms of the business problem it solves, the risk it reduces, or the opportunity it unlocks,” he said. ... Johnson warns against constantly searching for home runs. “Those are harder to find and they’re harder to deliver on,” he said. “Within 30 to 60 days, IT pros can build understanding around metrics and target states, then look for opportunities to help, even if they start small.”

Spec Driven Development: When Architecture Becomes Executable

The name Spec Driven Development may suggest a methodology, akin to Test Driven Development. However, this framing undersells its significance. SDD is more accurately understood as an architectural pattern, one that inverts the traditional source of truth by elevating executable specifications above code itself. SDD represents a fundamental shift in how software systems are architected, governed, and evolved. At a technical level, it introduces a declarative, contract-centric control plane that repositions the specification as the system's primary executable artifact. Implementation code, in contrast, becomes a secondary, generated representation of architectural intent. ... For decades, software architecture has operated under a largely unchallenged assumption that code is the ultimate authority. Architecture diagrams, design documents, interface contracts, and requirement specifications all existed to guide implementation. However, the running system always derived its truth from what was ultimately deployed. When mismatches occurred, the standard response was to "update the documentation" SDD inverts this relationship entirely. The specification becomes the authoritative definition of system reality, and implementations are continuously derived, validated, and, when necessary, regenerated to conform to that truth. This is not a philosophical distinction; it is a structural inversion of the governance of software systems.

Decoupling architectures: building resilience against cyber attacks

The recent incidents are tied together by a common approach to digital infrastructure: tightly coupled architectures. In these environments, critical applications such as , warehouse, logistics, retail, finance are interconnected so closely that if one fails, other critical systems are unable to function. A single weak point becomes the domino that topples the rest. This design may have made sense in a simpler, more predictable IT world. But in today’s highly interconnected landscape, with constantly evolving threats accelerated thanks to the AI revolution, this once-efficient design has turned into the perfect setup for system-wide issues. ... Instead of linking systems directly, a provides a shared backbone where each system publishes what happens. That means if one system is compromised or taken offline during an incident, the others can continue to function. Business operations don’t have to come to a standstill simply because a single component is isolated — and when the affected system is restored, it can replay the missed events and rejoin the flow seamlessly. Some architectures, like event-driven data streaming, can keep that data flowing in real time despite an attack. ... For CIOs and CISOs, this shift in mindset is critical. is no longer just about or detection tools. It’s about designing systems that can limit the blast radius when hit. absorbing and isolating the damage to ensure a quick recovery.

AI, geopolitics & supply chains reshape cyber risk

Organisations are scaling AI in core operations, customer engagement and decision-making. This expansion is exposing new attack surfaces, including data inputs, model training pipelines and integration points with legacy systems. It also coincides with uncertain regulatory expectations on issues such as transparency, auditability and the handling of personal and sensitive data in machine learning models. ... Map the above challenges alongside the geopolitical fragmentation the highlights, cyber risk is really being challenged in ways many traditional compliance frameworks were not designed for, via issues such as sovereignty, supply-chain and third-party exposure. In this environment, resilience absolutely depends on an organisation's ability to integrate cyber security, information security, privacy, and AI governance into a single risk picture, and to connect that with their technology decisions, regulatory obligations, business impact, and geopolitical context. ... Hardware, software and cloud services now rely on dispersed design, manufacturing and operational ecosystems. Attackers exploit this complexity. They target upstream providers, third-party tools and managed services. ... Regulatory fragmentation around AI is emerging alongside an increase in reported misuse. This includes deepfakes, automated disinformation, fraud, model theft and prompt injection attacks, as well as concerns over opaque automated decision-making.

Five key priorities for CEOs & Governance practitioners in 2026

As are embracing cutting edge technologies, without a skilled workforce to implement these technological solutions, the financial services industry will suffer a lot. According to IDC, IT skills shortage is expected to impact 9 out of 10 organizations by 2026 with a cost of $5.5 trillion in delays, issues, and revenue loss. Thus, CEOs and governance professionals should take up skills management as their top priority ... AI’s explainability and transparency are to be addressed on priority. Finally, AI is creating lots of environmental impacts contributing to greenhouse gas emissions due to its high energy and water consumption, which leads to the Environmental, social, governance (ESG) issues to be focused on by governance professionals. ... CEOs and governance professionals must take measures towards preemptive cybersecurity. They should realise that cybersecurity gives the foundation of trust for all the stakeholders of any enterprise and they cannot afford to compromise on it. ... Traditional strategic planning involved fixed, long-term goals, detailed forecasts, and periodic reviews. This is not suitable in the face of constant disruption. by contrast is having short planning cycles, incremental objectives, and adaptive learning. ... The future of information systems management lies in the seamless integration of cloud and edge computing – a distributed intelligent architecture where data is processed wherever it is more efficient to do so.

Dark Web Intelligence: How to Leverage OSINT for Proactive Threat Mitigation

Experts say monitoring the is an early warning system. Threat actors trade stolen data or exploits before they are detected in the broader world. Security pros even call dark web monitoring an ‘early warning radar’ that flags when sensitive data is leaked in underground forums. The difference is huge: Without these signals, breaches go undetected for months. In fact, one report found that the average breach goes undiscovered for about 194 days without proactive measures. ... Gathering intel from the dark web requires specialized tools and techniques. Analysts use a combination of and commercial intelligence platforms. Basic breach-checkers (public data-leak search engines) will flag obvious exposures, but comprehensive coverage requires purpose-built scanners that constantly crawl underground forums and encrypted chat networks. ... Organizations of all sizes have seen real benefits of dark web monitoring. For example, in 2020, identified a potential supply-chain breach when threat researchers discovered guest data being sold on some underground forums. Getting that early heads up allowed Marriott to get in and investigate and inform affected customers before the incident became public. Similarly, after 700 million got scraped in 2021, the first samples of the stolen data started popping up on dark web marketplaces and got caught by monitoring tools. Those alerts prompted LinkedIn users to reset their passwords and enabled the company to sort out its credential abuse defenses.

Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah

Daily Tech Digest - January 12, 2026