Wendy M. Pfeiffer, Nutanix sits down with Dave Vellante & Stu Miniman at Nutanix .NEXT 2017 in Washington, D.C. #NEXTConf #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2017/07/06/will-the-chief-product-officer-grow-up-to-be-the-chief-data-officer-nextconf-womenintech/ Will the chief product officer grow up to be the chief data officer? Digital transformation is introducing more than new technologies to enterprises. Data monetization and digital consumption models are bringing business people and techies into closer collaboration. While they stretch to adopt methods and tools like virtualization, cloud computing and big data analytics, individuals themselves must grow to match the changes. Many demands of digitization have fallen on the chief information officer’s shoulders — increasing agility via developer operations and fleshing out a partner ecosystem among them. The new CIO role can span a lot of ground, but some emerging domains, like big data strategy, require full-time overseers, according to Wendy Pfeiffer (pictured), chief information officer at Nutanix Inc. “Sometimes we come to the table and we understand how to monetize data; sometimes we come to the table and we know how to efficiently manage operations,” she said of CIOs and other C-level executives. Even as the CIO role shape-shifts, some duties remain constant, Pfeiffer told Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the the Nutanix .NEXT event in Washington, D.C. (* Disclosure below.) This week, theCUBE spotlights Wendy Pfeiffer in our Women In Tech feature. The CIO wheelhouse and women in tech One evergreen in the CIO wheelhouse is operations stewardship, according to Pfeiffer. “So whether it’s taking operational expertise and transforming that into code for DevOps or whether it’s transforming it into process for on-premise infrastructure, you have to have that knowledge and you have to have that leadership,” she said. Building applications with code in the cloud contrasts sharply from traditional on-prem methods, but many underlying principles remain the same, namely agility and scalability, Pfeiffer explained. Now five months into her role as CIO for Nutanix, Pfeiffer draws on her experience as both a mother and a woman in the tech industry. “Being genuinely myself, it was all I could figure out how to be. … It’s been something where my entire career I’ve had to just keep my own counsel and be genuine. And the fact that I’m female and feminine and a mom doesn’t diminish the fact that I’m also a brilliant technologist, that I’m good at leading people,” she said. “I can feel empathy and care in my heart for a person at the same time that I’m firing them for non-performance. I can be multifaceted. I think that’s women’s superpower.” Pfeiffer also draws on a mix of experience from former employers like GoPro Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Big data algorithms were already in use during her time at Yahoo. Privacy questions were thorny then, and they are getting even more so with the General Data Protection Regulation going live in May 2018. Previously, the CIO or a chief privacy officer has been sufficient to police practices around customer data and algorithms. But exploding big data and its profit potential are spilling out of the hands of even very capable execs in traditional C-suite roles, Pfeiffer stated. It is clear that any company serious about driving revenue with data needs at least one specialist fully committed to the job, she added. Data is no longer a detail. Many enterprises now want all or most business decisions to be data-driven. “How a company deals with its data is a gigantic differentiator,” Pfeiffer said. Improved artificial intelligence and machine learning tech might draw sharper insights in less time from data lakes. But putting these tools in the hands of CIOs with full agendas will not suffice, according to Pfeiffer. “There needs to be somebody — or a combination of a couple of somebodies — who are hungry for the value that they can derive from that data,” she said. Data is product in the digital age This burgeoning chief data officer role must cover a broad map of domains: data science and analytics, business and law. (Talk about a unicorn.) Who within the existing C-suite is best cut out to adopt these new skills and become the CDO? To answer this, look at what data actually represents in a business schema, Pfeiffer advised. ... Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Nutanix .NEXT US 2017 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Nutanix .NEXT US. Neither Nutanix Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)