# Global Digital

> Fractional technology leadership — former CIOs, CTOs and CISOs available on demand. Global Digital pairs seasoned, hands-on executives with organisations that need senior technology judgement without a full-time hire: strategy, digital transformation, cyber resilience and pragmatic AI adoption.

Global Digital is led by Mike McTaggart, an industry veteran with more than two decades in digital business (BSE in Biomedical & Electrical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management, Duke University), backed by a network of seasoned CXOs. Engagements range from a single gut-check to a full transformation, and every one is run by someone who has actually held the role. The firm's conviction: technology only pays off when you start with the human side of the organisation.

Contact: transform@globaldigitalit.com

## Pages

- [Home](https://globaldigitalit.com/): What Global Digital does — fractional CIO/CTO/CISO leadership, on call.
- [Leadership](https://globaldigitalit.com/leadership): Mike McTaggart and the network of practitioner executives behind the firm.
- [Insights](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights): Executive whitepapers, interactive tools and client case studies.
- [Contact](https://globaldigitalit.com/contact): Start a conversation about a technology challenge.

## Insights & research

- [AI Ethics & Human Cognition (whitepaper)](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/ai-ethics-whitepaper): Executive whitepaper on the cognitive cost of AI tools and the state of AI alignment.
- [EOL, EOS, End of Support — a Plain-English Guide for Executives](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/end-of-support-explained): What software retirement dates actually mean, what stops at each one, and why unsupported software is a board issue — insurance, compliance and budget consequences included.
- [The IT budget conversation your CFO actually wants to have](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/it-budget-conversation): How to restructure the annual IT budget around three outcome categories — lights-on, risk, and value — plus five questions and an unplanned-spend test for CFOs.
- [Windows 10 is gone. What the ESU invoice is really telling you](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/windows-10-esu-invoice): What Extended Security Updates pricing means for mid-market boards, and how to make ESU a deliberate bridge instead of rent on an unmade decision.
- [72 minutes: the new speed of an attack, and what it changes](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/72-minutes): What the fastest access-to-exfiltration times mean for companies without an enterprise security budget — prevention, blast radius, and recovery over detect-and-respond.
- [Your vendor's breach is your breach](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/your-vendors-breach): A one-page vendor-risk triage for executives, the obligations you can't outsource, and the contract levers that cost nothing.
- [Buy-and-build without the integration hangover](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/buy-and-build-integration): A technology integration playbook for PE buy-and-build — day-0 versus day-100 decisions, three integration postures, and the costs that surface in month six.
- [Your cyber insurance renewal is now an audit](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/cyber-insurance-audit): The five controls carriers verify with evidence, the maintained-systems clause that ties claims to end-of-support dates, and a 120/60/30-day renewal calendar.
- [The VMware renewal letter, and what to do before you sign](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/vmware-renewal-letter): How to build leverage on a Broadcom-era renewal quote — a documented alternative, three honest paths, and the panic-migration trap to avoid.
- [Agentic AI: judgment over hype, again](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/agentic-ai-judgment): A governance-first playbook for AI agents — five questions to answer before pilots, where agents genuinely pay today, and what to wait on.
- [SQL Server 2016 has weeks of support left. Here's the unemotional version](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/sql-server-2016-countdown): A triage guide for the July 14, 2026 end-of-support date — sort instances by exposure, pick one of three paths, and put the next date on an executive calendar.
- [Windows Server 2016: the deadline is January. The start-by date is now](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/windows-server-2016-start-by): Why the six months to the January 12, 2027 end-of-support date isn't six months — freeze windows, compatibility testing, and the start-by math for mid-market server estates.
- [Unsupported software now has a price — and it's written into your cyber insurance policy](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/cyber-insurance-eol-exclusions): Cyber carriers are writing end-of-life exclusions into 2026 policies, which can make the insurance renewal date — not the vendor's end-of-support date — the real deadline for a platform decision.
- [The AI value-creation thesis has a plumbing problem](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/pe-ai-value-creation-legacy-platforms): Why private equity AI value-creation plans stall on legacy platform fragmentation, and why the hold-period math makes platform modernization a prerequisite for the AI story rather than a later sequencing decision.
- [The supplier and the customer: a manufacturer's guide to ransomware and third-party risk (whitepaper)](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/manufacturing-supplier-and-customer): Why manufacturers are the most-targeted mid-market sector for ransomware, the four exposures behind most incidents, a 90-day plan that needs an owner rather than a purchase, and a five-line board report — for companies that are both a customer of their suppliers and a supplier to their customers.
- [Mid-market is the target, not the bystander](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/mid-market-is-the-target): Three-quarters of disclosed ransomware incidents hit companies with $10 million to $1 billion in revenue, and the smaller the company, the less survivable the incident. The controls that close most of the gap cost attention, not budget.
- [The five-year hold and the platform nobody replaced](https://globaldigitalit.com/insights/five-year-hold-and-the-platform-nobody-replaced): A third of private equity portfolio companies are now held past five years, and buyers are pricing the gap. An end-of-support core system is one of the few valuation discounts a seller can remove on a known schedule.

## Capabilities

- [Stack & team assessment](https://globaldigitalit.com/capabilities/stack-team-assessment): An honest, senior-operator read on whether your technology and people can scale with the business — delivered in weeks, not quarters.
- [Cybersecurity & governance](https://globaldigitalit.com/capabilities/cybersecurity-governance): Fractional CISO leadership — framework-based posture, prioritized remediation, and the evidence trail underwriters and auditors now demand.
- [AI & ML strategy](https://globaldigitalit.com/capabilities/ai-ml-strategy): An executive-level plan for where AI pays in your business, what to deliberately skip, and a governance baseline sized for the mid-market.
- [ERP & critical systems](https://globaldigitalit.com/capabilities/erp-critical-systems): Vendor-neutral, executive-led guidance for ERP and critical-system selection, migration, and implementation.
- [Sourcing & location strategy](https://globaldigitalit.com/capabilities/sourcing-location-strategy): Build-vs-buy analysis, onshore/nearshore/offshore trade-offs, and provider selection without the bias.
- [Continuity & resilience](https://globaldigitalit.com/capabilities/continuity-resilience): Business continuity and data resilience for the cloud and AI era — impact-based recovery targets, tested restores, and rehearsed response.

## Case studies

- [Can the platform scale?](https://globaldigitalit.com/case-study-energy): Platform-scalability assessment for a PE-backed, acquisition-led energy services firm.
- [From monolith to modular stack](https://globaldigitalit.com/case-study-tech-transformation): A pragmatic path from a monolithic application to a modular, future-ready stack for a fast-growing risk-and-insurance firm.

## Tools

- [EOL Radar](https://globaldigitalit.com/tools/eol-radar.html): Track end-of-life / end-of-support dates for the technology in your stack.
- [Resiliency Report](https://globaldigitalit.com/tools/resiliency-report/report.html): Interactive assessment that scores an organisation's technology resilience.

## Services

- Fractional CIO / CTO / CISO leadership
- Technology strategy and roadmap
- Digital and platform transformation
- Cyber resilience and risk
- Pragmatic AI strategy and adoption