Surviving Tech Disruption: October 2020 Tech Speaker Series

Wide-spread tech disruption is happening, by us and to us. Organizations were already trying to navigate digital transformation, cloud, AI and automation well before COVID came into our daily lives. Cloud computing is driving the greatest systemic change within enterprises today. Disruptive technologies are emerging rapidly, and organizations across all industry sectors must adapt in order to thrive in a digital world.

In order to effectively introduce new digital innovations into the organization, enterprises are overhauling existing systems and adopting public clouds, most often AWS, Google or Microsoft. But oftentimes, company execs are at odds with their IT departments as to the best strategy to evaluate cloud services and address application-performance issues.

In this engaging and informative session, a distinguished group of tech experts from Thin Client Computing, ALLATA and Expedient shed light on what makes applications cloud-native versus ground-native and how understanding the difference can not only help you survive tech disruption, but also streamline and accelerate your cloud strategy. Moderated by Expedient Market Vice President Heidi Altree, was a fantastic discussion and well worth a listen.

HEIDI ALTREE Market Vice President

DOUG THEIS Director of Market Strategy

RUSH WESTON Vice President

STEVE GREENBERG President & Principal Architect

The initial questions among organizations is what applications to change first and what cloud service they should go with.

“The first thing to do is nothing,” said Steve Greenberg, president and principal architect at Thin Client Computing. “Companies leaders should have a solid understanding of their current business applications before making any IT decisions. And from there, make the changes that help your business, not just what vendors tell you what you need.”

More than just your average IT company, Scottsdale-based Thin Client Computing is committed to being the leading edge provider of virtualization products and professional services. With over 20 years of experience in server-based computing and virtualization technologies, the company offers design and implementation of advanced application delivery platforms.

The panel also discussed how to identify cloud-native vs. ground-native applications, and how that helps in making IT decisions.

“Most companies are running ground-native software, which were architected way before cloud applications were even in use,” added Rush Weston, vice president of Allata.

A strategy, architecture and enterprise-level application development company, Allata focuses on helping clients enhance or scale business opportunities, create efficiencies and automate processes through custom technology solutions.

“Older technology are likely to hardware dependencies,” Greenberg added. “Legacy applications that aren’t going to just pick themselves up and move to a modern platform. For that, you need a ‘life and shift’…which is taking something out of its warm and cozy data center environment and moving it to the cloud.” 

“So many businesses love the idea of moving to the cloud, but they don’t want to maintain a data center,” said Doug Theis, director of market strategy for Expedient, a company that expanded into Phoenix in 2019 to help clients transform their IT operations through award-winning cloud solutions and managed services including disaster recovery, security and compliance, and more.

“If businesses can go 100% SaaS, that’s what we often recommend to clients and potential customers. You lose a little bit of control with SaaS, but you do have a lot of benefits with it.”

“A multi-cloud strategy is appropriate for many bigger organizations, said Weston. “But there should be a fine balance by selectively and intentionally picking the clouds you want to end up in.”

Asked to offer one piece advice to organizations that are considering moving to the cloud, each panelist was eager to provide recommendations.

“Measure the risk versus the reward,” Weston shared. “Customer-facing applications that affects your business should be able to service your customers better and grow your business.”

“If something needs fixed, then do it,” Greenberg added. “But don’t self-inflict and change for the sake of change.”

“The promise of the cloud is the current shiny object,” Theis said. “Moving legacy applications into an enterprise cloud and delivering with better speed to your customers will ultimately bring more value and a real change in the customer experience and differentiate from the competition. And you’ll achieve greater resiliency.”

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About the Tech Sector Speaker Series
Join the Arizona Technology Council for its new 2020 AZ Tech Sector Speaker Series that brings together tech titans, outstanding CTOs, advocates, innovators and industry champions of existing and emerging sectors who are reshaping Arizona’s tech ecosystem. This expert panel forum advances Arizona’s tech evolution and growing designation as a tech hub. With a diverse range of experience and technology backgrounds, these tech titans are leading the way and making a positive and lasting impact on the local technology industry. Interested in becoming a panelist, moderator or sponsor? VISIT HERE to learn more about this exciting new event series and to see the topics that we’ll be covering in Phoenix.

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Contact [email protected] to learn about the various levels of sponsorship to suit your organization.