Our four experts, Florent MAS, DevSec Practice Leader, Lionel GAIROARD, DevSecOps Practice Leader, Matthieu GAILLARD-MIDOL, SecOps & CloudSec Practice Leader, and Romain DELELIS, CyberSec Practice Leader, attended Tech Rock, the must-attend event for tech professionals.
They share their thoughts on this essential and relevant event, which we highly recommend!
Efficiency, by Florent MAS, DevSec Practice Leader
So, Tech.rocks. That's it, we did it! Two days of pure techno bliss in Paris.
Imagine: a gathering of geeks, tech gurus, and innovative leaders, all coming together to discuss what makes our hearts and keyboards race.
From the outset, it was like standing at the foot of Everest with Sophie Lavaud during her opening talk—ready to climb the peaks of knowledge and innovation. Each session was another step toward the summit, each idea shared a breath of fresh air in the ascent of our expertise. We tackled topics as varied as they were specialized. We talked about digital geopolitics, distributed team management, cloud migration in the context of war... It was like being in the eye of a hurricane of ideas, each more stimulating than the last.
And the common thread running through these two days? Efficiency, of course. But be careful, we're not talking about cold, calculating efficiency. No, we're exploring efficiency in all its forms: as a driver of innovation, in its human and managerial dimensions, and even its pitfalls when it becomes an obsessive quest.
Wait until you read the rest, you'll see, it was something else!
Efficiency: a driver of innovation, by Matthieu GAILLARD-MIDOL, Practice Leader SecOps & CloudSec
One of the key pillars of efficiency isresource optimization. Holy Cummins (Senior Principal Software Engineer, Quarkus) illustrated this in his talk with the example of an organization where 25% of servers were comatose and not producing value for the organization, while 30% of active servers were only active less than 5% of the time. Innovation with the cloud, and in particular the advisor features offered by hyperscalers, will help you identify these inefficient workloads! Because an unused server isn't just money or electricity, it's also water and waste... This quest to optimize material resources is a simple first step that any organization can take.
Another pillar will beorganizational agility, which can be achieved in unfortunate circumstances, as seen at the CTO and CISO conference of Raiffeisen Bankconference. The Ukrainian bank had been preparing to migrate to the AWS cloud for some time but had not yet taken the technical plunge. The outbreak of war forced management to launch the migration based on the initial plan and to adapt as they went along in an unprecedented context. Raiffeisen Bank employees are doing everything they can to keep the service running in critical condition, thereby maintaining the morale of the population.
However, it is important to note that too much emphasis on short-term efficiency can sometimes hinder long-term innovation. Innovation requires risk-taking and exploration of unknown areas, which can be incompatible with an excessive pursuit of immediate efficiency. A balance between operational efficiency and flexibility for exploring new ideas is often necessary to create a culture of sustainable innovation.
The importance of management and human resources, by Lionel GAIROARD, DevSecOps Practice Leader
The concept of efficiency is certainly sought after in the field of technology, but also at the intersection of human and managerial management. This evolution transcends simple resource optimization to embrace a holistic approach that integrates technology, leadership, and human empathy.
People at the Heart of Technological Efficiency
There is a strong link between technological performance and the quality of human management. Resilience, diversity of skills, and inspiring leadership transform ideas into concrete achievements.
Sophie Lavaud's presentation is a perfect example of this. Her impressive track record of climbing peaks over 8,000 meters brilliantly illustrates the relationship between resilience and efficiency. Her experiences highlight the importance of turning ideas into reality, balancing physical, mental, and emotional intelligence, and group dynamics in the success of technology companies.
Luc Julia also provided a perspective emphasizing the importance of a pragmatic, human-centered approach to technological innovation. His experience with giants such as HP, Samsung, Apple and Renault highlight the importance of combining a culture of efficiency with a start-up approach, even within large companies. These examples underscore that human qualities such asadaptability, creativity, and emotional intelligence are essential drivers of efficiency in the technology ecosystem.
The ability to effectively integrate efficiency into operational processes and management strategy is therefore essential!
Entities such as Mistral AI, Happn, and Airbnb have highlighted best practices where operational efficiency is closely linked to informed management.
Mistral AI, for example, brilliantly illustrated this dynamic by competing with giants such as OpenAI. Their strategy focuses on developing a more compact and efficient AI model tailored to specific market needs. This was made possible by a diverse and skilled team, highlighting the importance of data management, open-source ethics, and the crucial role of FinOps in growth and cost management. This approach underscores the need for constant agility and thoughtful innovation to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving field.
For its part, Black Market has demonstrated the importance of adaptability in a changing technological environment. Faced with major developments, the company has been able to adapt in real time, demonstrating great managerial flexibility. This ability to navigate through paradigm shifts reflects agile management, which is essential for maintaining competitiveness and exploiting new opportunities.
Finally, Happn, faced with significant infrastructure costs and a growing user base, has adopted a holistic approach to optimizing its spending. By setting clear priorities and actively involving teams in resource management, Happn has demonstrated how informed financial planning and cross-functional resource management can support sustainable and effective growth.
Humanizing technology: Inclusion, accessibility, and adaptation
The need to humanize technology has been clearly demonstrated by initiatives from Google, Shodo, and Microsoft.
Google AI has presented initiatives where artificial intelligence is used to enrich and simplify human interactions, while emphasizing the importance of human supervision in the early stages of AI use. This approach highlights the concept of "human in the loop," where AI decisions and actions are monitored and guided by human intervention. This method not only ensures the relevance and accuracy of AI results, but also strengthens user confidence in these technologies. By emphasizing the relevance of data before feeding it into machine learning models, Google AI illustrates the importance of combining technical expertise and human judgment to create truly useful and more ethical AI solutions.
For its part Shodo emphasized the importance ofaccessibility andinclusion, noting that technology must be designed for all users, including people with disabilities.
Microsoft, meanwhile, focused on adapting to remote working, illustrating how management practices must evolve to maintain team efficiency and well-being in an increasingly digitized world.
These examples highlight that, in our quest for innovation and efficiency, technology must remain rooted in a deep understanding and consideration of the human experience.
Regardless of technological advances or management strategies, it is understanding, respect, and valuing people that are at the heart of real and lasting efficiency. True efficiencytrue efficiency" is not found in isolated figures or processes, but in the way these elements are integrated into the fabric of human experience.
This perspective resonates deeply in the current context of technological innovation, reminding us that progress must always be evaluated and guided by its impact on humanity: Are we building a future where technology serves humans, or a future where humans serve technology?
The risks of pursuing efficiency at all costs, Florent MAS, DevSec Practice Leader
Efficiency is the Holy Grail in our tech world. We chase after it, but at what cost? Let's not kid ourselves: behind the numbers and graphs, there are pitfalls, sometimes disguised as miracle solutions.
My private life is not for sale!
And what about privacy in all this? It's difficult to guarantee when we know that machine learning, supervised classification, and LLM algorithms are ultimately black boxes. Learning requires tens of millions of data points, and the more our AI knows about us, the more effective it will be. We can instill values in them, as Microsoft emphasizes, and put technical safeguards in place, such as OpenAI. But all it takes is one clever person to find a way to whisper in their ears for our beloved GPTs to become indiscreet and reveal sensitive data.
Beware of bias!
Let's talk about the pitfalls of technological biases:
We've seen this with data processing at Airbnband the 2017 Super Bowl campaign. Beyond the humanitarian and tolerance message, the founding team was expecting a return on investment. It was a complete flop, and the brand's branding was halted for five years. We can see that humans can completely analyze data with a bias, regardless of the modern tools at their disposal, and make bad decisions.
Artificial intelligence is the future, even the present, but if it learns from our mistakes, we're headed for disaster.
We are already beginning to question the use of LLMs in recruitment. I'll leave you to imagine the learning biases in autonomous driving and the issues that will occupy Luc Julia's teams atRenault.
Planet on sale
Ophélie Coehlo showed us the concrete environmental impact of data centers.
"Data centers rank among the top 10 commercial industries in terms of water consumption, using 513 million cubic meters of water in 2018," Virginia Tech 2018.
In England, too, this is becoming apparent with the ban on building any more centers of this type until 2035, as the electricity grid cannot cope with any more... Governments are backtracking! Are we optimizing for today at the expense of tomorrow?
- "What about security in all this?"
- "The cloud is great... but..."
In our quest for technological efficiency, we navigate between two worlds: the invisible world of data, algorithms, and digital innovation, and the visible world of our planet, with its tangible resources and fragile ecosystems. This quest for efficiency, so essential in the invisible world, must never lose sight of its impact on the visible world. Finding this balance between digital progress and preserving our environment is our most crucial challenge, because the sustainable future of our society lies in the harmony between these two worlds.
Efficiency, by Romain DELELIS, CyberSec Practice Leader
After two intense and inspiring days at Tech.rocks, we are reminded that it is in this linear progression—from invention to optimization—that the beating heart of efficiency lies.
The various speakers emphasized the importance of a balanced vision, harmonized between people and technology. The example of Raiffeisen Bank shows that even in a chaotic situation, an efficient approach may be to identify each person's role, the ideal interactions, and the common goal. The SSI did not dictate to the IT department, but supported its choices and decisions, sometimes with concessions. The level of security is not there, but we know what to expect and cannot do better at this point. The objective was to migrate; there was no other viable alternative, and the ideal plan could not be implemented.
We have also seen that viewing efficiency as an end in itself, thereby losing sight of the broader implications, is problematic. When efficiency metrics become goals in their own right, we risk neglecting essential elements such asinnovation, security, and diversity. The example of Spotify and their hackathon illustrates that sometimes an idea that seems to be off the roadmap is actually worth including. But wasn't that the point of agility?
Finally, efficiency does not mean absolute control. Microsoft has addressed this issue and questioned some of its post-COVID practices, meetings, targets, and cultural differences. We cannot dehumanize ourselves in order to bring together under the same format what works somewhere else. An obsession with efficiency can lead to burnout, stifle creativity, or even lead to ethical dilemmas, particularly in the field of technology (theEU's recent workon controlling the scope of AI reflects these concerns).
It will come as no surprise that the conclusion is a collective awareness that our technological future must be sustainable, responsible, and inclusive.
What we will apply tomorrow is this vision of technology that enhances everyday life, with or without AI. It is in this balance that true efficiency lies, an efficiency that goes beyond numbers, that goes beyond post-war concepts of optimization and cost reduction. We must include well-being,the unexpected, andinnovation. We must observe, hypothesize, and propose in order to exceed a peak or a goal. The individual is not enough; the collective is necessary! If you have an idea for a criterion of efficiency, share it with your team and colleagues and challenge them. It's a safe bet that it will be better accepted and more appropriate after that. Efficiency is the balance between quantitative achievements and qualitative improvements in work culture and innovation processes.
I will conclude with something that is causing quite a stir, but I will try to be as objective as possible: AI.
It wasn't the focus of these two days, but we still heard about it, by Mistral AI, Google, Spotify, by Microsoft, etc. It's clear that we won't be able to ignore it, but didn't we have the same fears when computers first arrived? Or later with automation? I don't know what the digital future will look like, but what is certain is that we won't be able to do without it, so how can we be most effective with it?
Florent MAS, DevSec Practice Leader
Lionel GAIROARD, DevSecOps Practice Leader
Matthieu GAILLARD-MIDOL, SecOps & CloudSec Practice Leader
Romain DELELIS, CyberSec Practice Leader
