Articles by Gary
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Codeless Architecture and the 5 Stages of Grief
Codeless Architecture and the 5 Stages of Grief
By Gary Hoberman
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Full Speed Ahead - New Hires, New Clients and More!
Full Speed Ahead - New Hires, New Clients and More!
By Gary Hoberman
Contributions
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How can you manage technical debt when scaling a product?
Most leaders think that when a software application goes live, that’s their finish line. In reality, that’s just the start of their journey with that app. IT leaders need to make sure that they’re selecting partners or tools that are future-proof, with not just faster time-to-market, but easier maintenance throughout the entire life of that app. Codeless platforms – that don’t generate code or use code as an input – offer solutions that remove the code issue altogether so that developers and leaders can focus on net new projects and stay future-focused, rather than bogged down in the choices of their past.
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How can you manage technical debt when scaling a product?
Tech debt is not only a time and money issue, but an alarming security issue. Legacy software and code create security risks and impede innovation. Security compliance and vulnerability risks as well as the time and effort required to maintain legacy code hinders developers’ ability to focus on new technology projects. It's imperative to work across your organization to make sure that the right stakeholders are aware of the security, costs, and time risks. Just because reducing tech debt doesn't provide a direct line to "business value" doesn't mean that it shouldn't be a top priority. It's the type of issue that you want to tackle before it's too late.
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How can you manage technical debt when scaling a product?
After 25+ yrs leading technology in Fortune 50 companies, every app created before I joined the company and every app I was responsible for creating was filled with Tech Debt and had a Shelf Life (End of Life) pending in the wings. Assume each application that is not Codeless in architecture is going to cost you more in maintenance, security controls, and slow down innovation. Look no further than Log4J security issue to see case in point. Don’t be fooled by the marketing material of LCNC. You are just compounding the issue combining their bad technical debt with yours. Tech debt maintenance takes up 80% of IT budgets just to “keep the lights on,” to service aging technology stacks and legacy code rather than new & innovative applications.
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How can you manage technical debt when scaling a product?
Stop the bleeding. All new applications created or enhanced today should be created Codeless where the technical debt becomes the responsibility of the software vendor and not you. All existing applications should be migrated using Generative AI into a Codeless architecture and retired. This will not only free developers to focus on new, innovative projects, but also supports business goals to advance productivity, modernization, and reduce security vulnerabilities.
Activity
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Last week, I was reminded why I love working at New York Life. I visited New York Life’s Greater San Francisco and East Bay General Offices…
Last week, I was reminded why I love working at New York Life. I visited New York Life’s Greater San Francisco and East Bay General Offices…
Liked by Gary Hoberman
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Today marks an important milestone in TIAA’s AI journey, with TIAA gAIt, our #GenAI platform, and the first wave of use cases in production! I…
Today marks an important milestone in TIAA’s AI journey, with TIAA gAIt, our #GenAI platform, and the first wave of use cases in production! I…
Liked by Gary Hoberman
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The greatest moments in sport arise from players and teams performing on the edge – the intensity, creativity, brilliance, desperation, and…
The greatest moments in sport arise from players and teams performing on the edge – the intensity, creativity, brilliance, desperation, and…
Liked by Gary Hoberman
Experience & Education
Publications
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The New Face of Thought Leadership
CEB TowerGroup
General Colin Powell spoke, focusing on the theme of leadership and his experiences with that subject. He said that true leaders invest in their people, and it was apparent that many insurers were investing in their people by sending them to the conference. Gary Hoberman of MetLife also spoke about the power of leadership when business and IT truly align. When these functions collaborate, they become one voice, generating belief that goals will be met and that the energy comes from the top down.
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MetLife TechJam Calls On Top IT Talent
Insurance Networking News
MetLife is dedicated to innovative approaches to technology solutions, and we believe that the data-driven solutions created at the TechJam will deliver invaluable benefits to veterans and others,” said Gary Hoberman, MetLife CIO and SVP of regional application development. “We are proud to have brought together some of the brightest minds in technology to help facilitate faster and easier sharing of vital health information, enable coordinated care and ultimately better the lives of our…
MetLife is dedicated to innovative approaches to technology solutions, and we believe that the data-driven solutions created at the TechJam will deliver invaluable benefits to veterans and others,” said Gary Hoberman, MetLife CIO and SVP of regional application development. “We are proud to have brought together some of the brightest minds in technology to help facilitate faster and easier sharing of vital health information, enable coordinated care and ultimately better the lives of our nation’s veterans.”
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MetLife Drives NoSQL & Mobile Innovation
Information Week
MetLife is leapfrogging competitors with a mobile social app and a portal that uses big data to “paint a picture” of customers. Find out how the insurance company spurred innovation with NoSQL technologies in Doug Henschen’s interview with MetLife Global Business CIO Gary Hoberman.
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MetLife Assembles Technology Elites to Help U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Break Down Barriers to Improve Veteran Care
Press Release
"MetLife is dedicated to innovative approaches to technology solutions, and we believe that the data-driven solutions created at the TechJam will deliver invaluable benefits to veterans and others," said Gary Hoberman, MetLife CIO and SVP of Regional Application Development. "We are proud to have brought together some of the brightest minds in technology to help facilitate faster and easier sharing of vital health information, enable coordinated care and ultimately better the lives of our…
"MetLife is dedicated to innovative approaches to technology solutions, and we believe that the data-driven solutions created at the TechJam will deliver invaluable benefits to veterans and others," said Gary Hoberman, MetLife CIO and SVP of Regional Application Development. "We are proud to have brought together some of the brightest minds in technology to help facilitate faster and easier sharing of vital health information, enable coordinated care and ultimately better the lives of our nation's veterans."
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At MetLife, technology is the best policy
Fortune
"We're a 145-year-old company that's acting like a startup," Hoberman says. "Technology is not just an enabler. It's the fabric of the company -- and the future." That may just be the best insurance policy MetLife can buy.
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KeyNote - Forum For Application Development & Delivery Professionals
Forrester's
Drive Customer Experience With Smart Technology Solutions
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The state of the digital enterprise at Gartner Symposium
SearchCIO
Gary Hoberman, CIO of MetLife, on a recent big data project: "Big data was a term used as a goal when I landed at MetLife. When we started this [project], we knew there was something out there called big data, but we didn’t yet have a use for it. We didn't say, 'Let's look at that box and put something [in] it.' We looked at the use case and saw we needed to have better customer centricity. … The answer was big data."
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Reinventing Insurance through Big Data: MetLife’s Innovative Customer Service Product
SSA Notebook | October 2013
Technology, innovation, speed, and agility are words not typically associated with the insurance industry, unless you are MetLife
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Why NoSQL Databases Are Gaining Fans
Information Week
MetLife's latest use of MongoDB is a customer-facing mobile app called Infinity. Now available in the Apple and Andoid app stores, Infinity lets MetLife customers and potential customers upload critical documents, images, movies and other digital content that they can automatically share with designated people at some future date. It's a digital time capsule that could be used to send somebody a birthday greeting, to send yourself a future reminder of what you cared about when you were 30 or to…
MetLife's latest use of MongoDB is a customer-facing mobile app called Infinity. Now available in the Apple and Andoid app stores, Infinity lets MetLife customers and potential customers upload critical documents, images, movies and other digital content that they can automatically share with designated people at some future date. It's a digital time capsule that could be used to send somebody a birthday greeting, to send yourself a future reminder of what you cared about when you were 30 or to send loved ones key documents and memories when you're gone -- a more obvious connection to the life insurance business.
One thing notable about the app is that it was dreamed up by IT, according to Hoberman. "We presented the idea to the business as a way to emotionally connect with customers," said Hoberman, who added that the MongoDB-based app is set to scale on Microsoft's Azure cloud. -
From Beer To Bureaucracy, Mobile Strategy Matters
Information Week
Helping people save digital memories.
Insurance company MetLife introduced in August a consumer mobile app for iOS and Android called MetLife Infinity that lets people upload precious data such as official documents, photos and videos to share with only select people, either now or at some future date. One possible use is a life insurance holder who wants to release a cache of information upon his or her death. But users don't have to be MetLife customers, so people can use it for…Helping people save digital memories.
Insurance company MetLife introduced in August a consumer mobile app for iOS and Android called MetLife Infinity that lets people upload precious data such as official documents, photos and videos to share with only select people, either now or at some future date. One possible use is a life insurance holder who wants to release a cache of information upon his or her death. But users don't have to be MetLife customers, so people can use it for whatever ideas they dream up. The app is about changing what people expect from a financial services company.
But it's also about changing what the company expects from IT, said Gary Hoberman, MetLife senior VP and CIO of regional application development. The company's IT pros are trying to not just implement what business units ask for, but to also be in a position "where we're bringing our own ideas forward," Hoberman said.
MetLife also shows a common theme for mobile development: It must move fast. MetLife completed the entire project in nine months. And that's on the high end of its mobile projects, since it involved complex storage and policy issues. -
CIO Role Is Alive & Well
Internet Evolution
Don't worry about the death of the CIO position. A strong CIO is more in demand than ever.
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MetLife IT Site Runs On MongoDB, Microsoft Azure
InformationWeek
"We're looking to use new technology, not the technology you typically see in insurance companies," said Hoberman. "Thus, we're looking for talent that's comfortable with new technology and that wants to do something different."
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MetLife Transforms Developer Recruitment With "MetLife Synapse" MongoDB-Based Application
MarketWatch
"This application is a prime example of our global strategy to embrace disruptive emerging technologies whose timetables are days and weeks, not months and years," said Gary Hoberman, CIO and Senior Vice President, Regional Application Development, MetLife. "We want to let the best developers know we speak their language not only in terms of cutting-edge technologies -- which we are deploying at scale -- but also in terms of a culture of speed and experimentation.
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MetLife wants talented developers' resumes — in JSON
Gigaom
Just because a company offers life insurance and retirement-planning services doesn’t mean it has to be boring on the tech side.
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Big data at work: 12 stories about reinvention
Gigaom
The insurance industry hasn’t exactly been a beacon of technological innovation. But MetLife has bet $300 million on a new system that for the first time puts everything it knows about its customers in one place.
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MetLife unites disparate data using NoSQL
FierceCIO
"We had 60 different teams working together as one group, and they were working nights and weekends not because they had to but because they were excited and wanted to," said Gary Hoberman, senior vice president and CIO of regional application development at MetLife.
Read more: MetLife unites disparate data using NoSQL - FierceCIO http://www.fiercecio.com/story/metlife-unites-disparate-data-using-nosql/2013-05-15#ixzz2jyQIAELv
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MetLife Uses NoSQL For Customer Service Breakthrough
Information Week
Looking beyond MetLife and even the insurance industry, The Wall may well be a prototype for the next generation of customer-360 applications.
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The promise of better data has MetLife investing $300M in new tech
Gigaom
“In insurance,” Hoberman said, “… working in months, not years, is really a startup mentality.”
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Gartner Symposium 2013 KeyNote
Gartner
CIO Case Study Interview with Gary Hoberman, MetLife moderated by Paul Taylor editor of the Financial Times
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KeyNote - Strata Conf Hadoop World
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For industries like insurance, innovation isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But at MetLife, we’re changing that by embracing disruptive technologies across big data, the cloud, mobile, and more as we place technology at the center of our business. This session will cover MetLife’s culture of innovation and the initiatives that are transforming our company, and setting the industry curve.
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MetLife fires up Synapse and JSON to recruit rock-star developers
SearchCIO
MetLife Inc. is working hard to create a startup culture within IT. Getting there means attracting the right kind of talent. That's why the insurance company launched a new site called Synapse. It offers up puzzles for prospective software engineers to solve, and it gives MetLife a chance to show that insurance isn't as stodgy as some engineers might assume. But the Synapse experience doesn't end once the problem is solved.
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MetLife's Big Data Revolution
Forbes/Silicon Angle
“Programming is an art”
Perhaps one of the biggest feats of Synapse was its deployment time, being put into motion in under 48 hours. Hoberman credits this to his “S.W.A.T. team,” and a dose of diversity. One member of this team hailed from outside the insurance industry, bringing fresh perspective in order to address a long-standing issue at a century-old firm.
“My view of programming is that it’s an art – if you know how to do it, you can paint in any color,” Hoberman says.…“Programming is an art”
Perhaps one of the biggest feats of Synapse was its deployment time, being put into motion in under 48 hours. Hoberman credits this to his “S.W.A.T. team,” and a dose of diversity. One member of this team hailed from outside the insurance industry, bringing fresh perspective in order to address a long-standing issue at a century-old firm.
“My view of programming is that it’s an art – if you know how to do it, you can paint in any color,” Hoberman says. “We have our share of legacy here, which we’re balancing that with those willing to learn.
“If you take a fresh outlook on insurance it’s interesting from technology’s view – but it all comes down to a business logic rule. It’s an industry that’s historically looked at large, commercial solutions that package things instead of looking at those things and breaking them down individually. We’re looking at every function of the process – do we build it? Buy it? Integrate it? The only way to do that is to bring in the right talent. We’re thinking for ourselves here.”
Hoberman’s dedication to internal resources is evident beyond The Wall, Synapse and even his S.W.A.T. team, as he anxiously looks to nurture a startup mentality at MetLife’s new offices, currently being razed in North Carolina.
“We’re looking for those developers through Synapse, and those that have the right mindset, for engineers and our infrastructure,” Hoberman says. “We want them to look at our new home in North Carolina to build a startup mentality in a 100+ year-young culture. You get to see how their abilities can influence a company. I’m hearing this from our competitors and peers, asking how we did it. We’re being transparent because we know the next big thing is right around the corner.
“It’s about building the right bench,” Hoberman goes on. “You surround yourself with talent. My S.W.A.T. team has the ability to go in and fix problems anywhere in the company. That’s bigger than just developers.” -
TechJam Develops Technology to Help Veterans
Baseline Magazine
"The TechJam is just one of the ways MetLife is driving innovation, and was a great opportunity to demonstrate the creativity that can come from an insurance company," he said. "For instance, through facilitation by MetLife, TechJam participants made their solutions available publicly through open-source code. We have received great feedback from the participants and hope to host other events like this one in the future."
Organizations
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Aspen Institute
Member of Society of Fellows
- Present
More activity by Gary
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I am excited to announce that I have joined the Board of Directors at ApTask Global Workforce. As an accomplished global transformation leader, my…
I am excited to announce that I have joined the Board of Directors at ApTask Global Workforce. As an accomplished global transformation leader, my…
Liked by Gary Hoberman
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I'm thrilled to welcome Sid Vyas to LPL Financial as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Infrastructure and Operations! Sid is…
I'm thrilled to welcome Sid Vyas to LPL Financial as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Infrastructure and Operations! Sid is…
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First of all, if you haven’t already, pick up a copy today from your favorite book store (www.proximitybook.net). Second, it’s super fun to work at a…
First of all, if you haven’t already, pick up a copy today from your favorite book store (www.proximitybook.net). Second, it’s super fun to work at a…
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Exciting news at Varicent! I am thrilled to share that we have secured a substantial investment led by Warburg Pincus LLC, one of the 10 biggest…
Exciting news at Varicent! I am thrilled to share that we have secured a substantial investment led by Warburg Pincus LLC, one of the 10 biggest…
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Such a lovely evening with these wonderful Irish women. Edwina Fitzmaurice Jane McCooey and Minister Peter Burke Thank you Andrew Byrne Keith…
Such a lovely evening with these wonderful Irish women. Edwina Fitzmaurice Jane McCooey and Minister Peter Burke Thank you Andrew Byrne Keith…
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As the insurance industry evolves, carriers are increasingly turning to integrated ecosystems to drive more informed and strategic decision-making…
As the insurance industry evolves, carriers are increasingly turning to integrated ecosystems to drive more informed and strategic decision-making…
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I am super excited to share that I am taking up a new role at Bain to lead Global Delivery in AI and Data. In addition to delivering long lasting…
I am super excited to share that I am taking up a new role at Bain to lead Global Delivery in AI and Data. In addition to delivering long lasting…
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Enjoyed very much the collaboration with Biju George, Sandy Davis, and Pascal Desmarets!
Enjoyed very much the collaboration with Biju George, Sandy Davis, and Pascal Desmarets!
Liked by Gary Hoberman
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