Home
Ahmad Kakar

Ambassador

Ahmad Kakar

Director of IT at Adventist Health

United StatesVerified Community Ambassador

Identified Expertise

IT Strategy & Roadmap8
Team & Organizational Design5
Portfolio, Program & Project Management5
Process Management4
Culture & Values4

Engagement Stats

74
Answers Written

10K
Profile Views

32
Upvotes Received

Content Ahmad is Following

Please join or sign in to view Ahmad's full profile

By joining the Peer Community, you'll get:

Peer Discussions and Polls
One-Minute Insights
Connect with like-minded individuals

What type of coach do you pay for?

Leadership coach

Business coach

Career coach

Executive coach

Other (comment)

I don’t have a coach

View Results

4.2k views4 Upvotes3 Comments

What technological innovation will impact the world most?

People & Leadership Strategy & Architecture Cloud+25 more

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning

Automation

Cloud

Edge / IoT

Augmented / Virtual Reality

Blockchain

5G

Other (comment)

View Results

5.7k views4 Comments

When does your company plan to adopt 64Gb/s Fibre Channel (FC) switching platforms?

Network Compute Storage+4 more

6-12 months at the latest

12-24 months

No plan to switch, 32 Gb/s FC is standard

No plan to switch, 4/8/16 Gb/s FC is standard

View Results

2.3k views1 Upvote

Currently, which of these is more important to the success of your enterprise?

Generative AI Robotic Process Automation (RPA)IT Strategy & Roadmap

Taking advantage of GenAI

Implementing business process automation

207 views1 Comment

What do you think is the biggest barrier today for moving ERP applications to Public Cloud (IaaS / PaaS)? Please expand on choices with meaningful insights in the comments!

IaaS PaaS Public Cloud+7 more

Migration Costs

Security

Potential Disruption

Lack of Appetite

Other Priorities

Other (Please Comment)

View Results

675 views

Does your organization have a Chief AI Officer?

AI & Machine Learning Generative AI Team & Organizational Design

Yes

No

We have a similar role but with a different title

AI leadership is handled by an executive with another title

View Results

401 views

Are you happy in your current role?

People & Leadership Talent Management & Performance

Yes

No

Unsure

View Results

32k views18 Upvotes16 Comments

What are the leading video collaboration platforms your teams are using? Would you suggest you have more than one? We have 100k employees in 190 counties. Ideally we would prefer to support only one, but find ourselves with four.

Cloud Applications & Platforms Management Tools+1 more

MS Teams

Google

Cisco (Webex)

Zoom

Other

View Results

1.3k views2 Comments

What percentage of your IT budget do you plan to spend on digital transformation technologies in 2022?

Financial Management Innovation Applications & Platforms

10% or less

11-25%

26-50%

51-75%

76%+

We're not planning to spend money on digital transformation in 2022.

View Results

4.3k views

When it comes to generative AI threats, what weighs most on your mind?

Engineering AI & Machine Learning Generative AI

Lack of security

Inaccuracy

Bias

Job losses

Negative cultural impact

Lack of IP protection

Widespread knowledge gaps

Economic volatility

Another threat

View Results

2.9k views2 Comments

Can anyone provide some names of QR code vendors that you have had success with?

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech9 days ago

I've used codecorp by Brady Corp, Zebra, and Honeywell.

1.2k views1 Comment

What cybersecurity topics do you think are critical for CIOs to be more involved in, even in orgs that have a CISO?

Relationship Management Security & GRC Security Strategy & Roadmap+1 more

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech9 days ago

Cybersecurity governance and risk management (setting up monitoring of emerging threats), data protection and privacy compliance (standardize on data protection across all channels), incident response and recovery planning ...read more

Read More Comments

1.3k views3 Comments

We will be having an upcoming tabletop scenario ("war games") for Cyber-Security. Are there any specific scenarios any of you have used that you've found particularly useful? Any ways you've structured or executed these scenarios to amplify the value?

Process Management

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech7 months ago

Phishing Attack Response: Simulate a widespread phishing attack that targets employees across various departments. This exercise tests the team's ability to quickly identify, respond to, and communicate about the phishing ...read more

Read More Comments

3.3k views2 Comments

When you evaluate a SaaS provider or a software/solution provider that leverages hyperscaler cloud as its platform, what do you value more in their exit strategy?

Cloud Applications & Platforms Strategy & Architecture+2 more

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech8 months ago

1. Data portability: Switching providers requires the ability to simply take data off of the platform.
2. Vendor lock-in mitigation: Look at how the provider handles vendor lock-in. Look for solutions that reduce proprietary ...read more

Read More Comments

3.7k views2 Comments

How can we protect our customers from getting phishing emails supposedly from our company where they request a bank account change? We have had 3 cases in the last year where our customers pay to a hacker account.

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech8 months ago

Education and awareness. What does a legitimate request look like? Sending customers information informing them of potential fraud that you have seen happen. Asking them to verify with you (their trusted contact via phone) ...read more

Read More Comments

3.6k views6 Comments

How does cultural strategic thinking play a part within an organization when it comes to aligning IT goals with business objectives?

Process Management Culture & Values IT Strategy & Roadmap

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech8 months ago

In my mind, you need a culture that deliberately makes sure the connection between Business goals and Technology goals are understood. By that I mean, everyone in IT should be able to tie the activities they perform to helping ...read more

Read More Comments

7.9k views1 Upvote10 Comments

How can new executives succeed when replacing a beloved leader?

Relationship Management Culture & Values Team & Organizational Design+1 more

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech8 months ago

Usually we have seen that when a new leader takes over or joins, he tries to bring multiple changes at one shot leaving teams confused and asking for questions. Ideal way is to capture enough data and nerve and take decisions ...read more

Read More Comments

7.1k views1 Upvote12 Comments

What do you consider the biggest opportunity for AI to impact your industry in 2024?

5G Augmented & Virtual Reality (AR/VR)Bots+9 more

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech9 months ago

We will be leveraging AI to complete repetitive and low-risk transactions to free up staff time for more complex initiatives.

1

Read More Comments

13k views2 Upvotes15 Comments

Do you have any pet peeves when it comes to managing cloud costs or things you've noticed others do?

Cloud Cost Optimization IT Strategy & Roadmap

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech9 months ago

I hate managing with spreadsheets. Whenever possible, I prefer to migrate data to a database or a more structured system.

Read More Comments

817 views2 Comments

What are some major warning signs that signal potential trouble or inefficiency to be on the lookout for when managing cloud spending? What practices should you guard against?

Cloud IT Strategy & Roadmap

Ahmad KakarDirector of IT at Adventist Health in Healthcare and Biotech9 months ago

At a basic level, and I think we've all experienced it: a huge bill at the end of the first quarter, and no one knows what it's for. That, to me, is a glaring warning sign.

Read More Comments

647 views5 Comments