You could learn a lot from a CIO with a $17B IT budget

Lori Beer, JPMorgan Chase's CIO, manages a $17B IT budget, oversees $10 trillion daily transactions, and focuses on AI and modernization.

: Lori Beer, as the global CIO of JPMorgan Chase, handles a $17 billion IT budget and a team of 63,000 people worldwide. The bank moves $10 trillion daily, requiring a sophisticated technology infrastructure that includes both on-prem data centers and cloud services. Beer also emphasizes the importance of AI, modernizing data, and working with startups to maintain the bank’s technological edge.

Lori Beer, the global CIO at JPMorgan Chase, oversees a massive IT operation with a $17 billion yearly budget, which constitutes about 10% of the company's overall revenue. This operation includes a 63,000-person team worldwide, managing a technology infrastructure that supports transactions amounting to $10 trillion daily, making JPMorgan the largest U.S. bank in terms of deposits and online customers.

Beer emphasizes the significance of both on-prem data centers and cloud services, focusing on a hybrid strategy to modernize the bank’s infrastructure. This approach ensures the bank's ability to run critical services efficiently and securely, leveraging top cloud vendors like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google while maintaining sophisticated data centers in-house for essential services.

The bank is also heavily invested in leveraging AI and working with innovative startups. Beer set up a comprehensive AI and data strategy over three years ago, preparing the company for advanced technology like large language models. Additionally, JPMorgan continuously tests new technologies through numerous proof-of-concept projects to maintain a cutting-edge technological ecosystem.