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Теги: computer science computer technology quantum computing technology magazine
Год: 2023
Текст
April 2023 | technologymagazine.com
Women
in Tech
IoT Security:
Cybersecurity
is no longer
‘one size fits all’
Explosion of data:
Data transforming
the insurance industry
IBM and
the road to
Not just a science project, IBM’s quantum roadmap
is focused towards delivery of real-world benefits
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BARNARDO’S
INDARA
PICK N PAY
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The Technology Team
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MARCUS LAW
CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER
SCOTT BIRCH
MANAGING EDITOR
NEIL PERRY
PROOFREADER
JESS GIBSON
CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER
MATT JOHNSON
HEAD OF DESIGN
ANDY WOOLLACOTT
LEAD DESIGNER
SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL
FEATURE DESIGNERS
SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL
HECTOR PENROSE
SAM HUBBARD
MIMI GUNN
JUSTIN SMITH
REBEKAH BIRLESON
ADVERT DESIGNERS
DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS
MARTA EUGENIO
ERNEST DE NEVE
THOMAS EASTERFORD
DREW HARDMAN
JOSEPH HANNA
SALLY MOUSTAFA
JINGXI WANG
JORDAN WOOD
CALLUM HOOD
DANILO CARDOSO
PRODUCTION DIRECTORS
VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER
PRODUCTION MANAGERS
KIERAN WAITE
SENIOR VIDEOGRAPHER
HUDSON MELDRUM
GEORGIA ALLEN
DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ
JANE ARNETA
MARIA GONZALEZ
CHARLIE KING
YEVHENIIA SUBBOTINA
MARKETING MANAGER
DAISY SLATER
PROJECT DIRECTORS
KRIS PALMER
MIKE SADR
TOM VENTURO
RYAN HALL
MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS
JASON WESTGATE
JAMES WHITE
MANAGING DIRECTOR
LEWIS VAUGHAN
CEO
GLEN WHITE
FOREWORD
Moving along the
road to quantum
advantage
With fast-moving developments in the
space, what is the state of quantum in
2023, and what does a quantum-enabled
future look like?
“Quantum
isn’t a science
project: it’s
all aimed at
delivering
real-world
benefits for
clients”
TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE
IS PUBLISHED BY
A
t IBM’s Quantum Summit in 2021, the
company issued a detailed roadmap
and declared it would deliver quantum
advantage on selected applications in 2023.
Quantum advantage – demonstrating
that a quantum computer can solve a real-world
problem faster than a classical computer – is seen as
an important step towards the scaling and eventual
wider use of quantum computers.
It was a bold claim greeted with enthusiasm in some
quarters, and scepticism in others. But as Richard
Hopkins, Distinguished Engineer at IBM, explained to
me this month, quantum isn’t a science project: it’s all
aimed at delivering real-world benefits for clients.
This year promises to be an exciting one for quantum
computing. IBM says it’s on track to deliver its 1,121-qubit
Condor processor this year, while researchers at Google
demonstrated in 2023 for the first time that using more
qubits can lower the error rate of quantum calculations.
Could this be the year of quantum?
MARCUS LAW
marcus.law@bizclikmedia.com
© 2023 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
technologymagazine.com
7
CONTENTS
UP FRONT
016 BIG PICTURE
Front-row seat to the
NBA in the Metaverse
018 THE BRIEF
Lenovo announces 2050 netzero sustainability ambitions
016
020 TIMELINE
The new oil: how the world
became driven by Big Data
022 TRAILBLAZER
020
026
Tom Jermoluk
026 FIVE MINUTES WITH
Martin Porter
168
8
April 2023
APRIL 2023
054
FEATURES
090
054 DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
Explosion of data is powering
the insurance industry
090 CLOUD & CYBER
Cyber security no longer 'one
size fits all' in an IOT world
118 ENTERPRISE IT
CMOs must work with IT leaders
to avoid being snowed under
118
144 AI & ML
IBM and the road to delivering
real-world quantum benefits
168 TOP 10
Women in Tech
144
technologymagazine.com
9
THE TOP 100 WOMEN
IN TECHNOLOGY
OUT NOW
Read now
Digital Content for Digital People
APRIL 2023
COMPANY
REPORTS
032
032 CLOUD
TRANSFORMATION
Transformation to the Cloud helping
airline group soar to its goals
064 SCALA DATA CENTERS
Scaling at scale - bringing hyperscale
data centres to LATAM
100 INDARA
Connecting, evolving, and leading
the Australian market
100
064
technologymagazine.com
11
CONTENTS
128 LIBERTY GLOBAL
Transforming the world
of entertainment
128
154 BARNARDO'S
Barnardo’s data and insight journey
supports children, young people,
and families in the UK
186 EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
Enabling expanding data centre
interconnectivity
154
198 PICK N PAY
How retailer Pick n Pay mastered
its migration to the cloud
212 HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Flexible, scalable, and supportive
edtech solutions
226 BEST BUY HEALTH
Best Buy Health enables care at home
for everyone
240 ELANCO
Securely Scaling Animal Care
through Cloud
186
12
April 2023
APRIL 2023
198
226
212
240
technologymagazine.com
13
FLUENT ORDER MANAGEMENT
See all your inventory.
Sell more.
Deliver profitably.
Get a unified, cross-channel
view of inventory data and
optimize fulfilment so you can:
•
•
•
•
Reduce cancelled orders
Decrease delivery costs
Minimise split shipments
Reduce call center volume
Digital Commerce CX:
The critical role of
accurate inventory data
Get Your Copy
Fluent Order Managements drives real-time
business and customer benefits
Jamie Cairns, Chief
Strategy Officer at Fluent
Commerce, on how
its order management
platform enhances
operational efficiency
and customer experience.
Fluent Commerce is a global
software company focused on
distributed order management.
Its cloud-native platform,
Fluent Order Management,
provides accurate and near
real-time inventory data
visibility, order orchestration,
fulfilment optimisation, instore pick and pack, customer
service, and reporting to
transform fulfilment into
a competitive advantage.
As Jamie Cairns, Chief
Strategy Officer at Fluent
Commerce explains, the
process of managing orders
begins with inventory data.
“Being able to unify a view of
inventory and then syndicating
that inventory data out across
a range of different channels
lets you improve the customer
experience,” Cairns comments.
That, in turn, has a range of
different operational efficiency
benefits, reducing costs by
reducing split shipments,
cancelled orders, and
customer service calls.
As Cairns describes, order
management represents an
opportunity for retailers and
B2B organisations to harness
inventory data to provide
real-world benefits. One
of their recent innovations,
Fluent Big Inventory, is about
unifying in near real-time
those inventory sources,
enabling all systems to
become inventory aware.
“It is not just about enhancing
the order fulfilment process,
which is typically what has
been the domain of an order
management system,” Cairns
explains. “It’s about making
inventory data available to
other systems, like search,
as well and ultimately being
able to personalise search
results based on inventory.”
With changing customer
preferences in recent years,
brands have had to adapt
quickly. As Cairns explains,
Fluent Order Management
not only provides a robust
software-as-a-service
platform, but at a lower total
cost so businesses can move
quickly and meet customer
expectations efficiently.
During the COVID-19
pandemic when stores
were closed, Fluent Order
Management enabled
businesses to adapt quickly.
“Stores still had inventory
and there were huge spikes
in online demand,” Cairns
explains. “Our customers were
able to adapt in a matter of
a day to completely change
their fulfilment workflows.
“Digital agility is essential,”
he concludes. “We are not
trying to predict what the
future is, but to provide a
toolset that allows you to
adapt as the future evolves.”
technologymagazine.com
15
BIG PICTURE
Image:
instagram.com/brentderanter
16
April 2023
Front-row seat
to the NBA in
the Metaverse
United States
Meta has expanded its partnership with
the NBA and WNBA as the league’s official
VR headset, bringing the excitement
of professional basketball in VR to a new
level and allowing basketball fans to have
a front row seat for more than 50 games.
Called XTADIUM, fans can get closer
to the action with high-quality video and
even stage viewing parties with friends
in the Metaverse.
technologymagazine.com
17
THE BRIEF
“Cloud is not just
an infrastructure
agenda. It is a
platform that
should be a key
pillar in your digital
transformation
story”
Ankur Rastogi
Group Head, IT Application
Management, Transition and Cloud
Migration,
Lufthansa Group
BY THE NUMBERS
58% of consumer electronic
shoppers want to buy gadgets
through the metaverse
58%
What’s more, 45% of shoppers
purchasing consumer
electronics believe that the
metaverse represents the
future of shopping.
45%
READ MORE
“The caregivers
need peace of mind.
Caregivers are
willing to invest in
these technologies
to help their parents
feel safe”
Jean Olive
Chief Technology Officer
Best Buy Health
READ MORE
18
April 2023
Jaguar Land Rover creates tech hubs
for autonomous vehicles
Jaguar Land Rover is expanding its global
digital capability by opening three new
European tech hubs, creating nearly 100 new
engineering jobs and marking the next phase
of the company’s digital transformation and
global digital recruitment drive.
The hubs – situated in Munich, Germany,
Bologna, Italy, and Madrid, Spain – will
develop autonomous driving systems for
JLR’s next-gen modern luxury vehicles.
INDUSTRY TRENDS – CYBERCRIME AND
DATA BREACHES
•A
single data breach on a company cost
an average of $9.44mn in the US in 2022
•C
ybercrime is a trillion-dollar business
and is projected to cost the world $10.5tn
by 2025
•O
ver 75% of cyberattacks begin with an
email
•S
ince 2016, $43bn has been stolen
through business email compromise
Lenovo announces
2050 net-zero
sustainability
ambitions
Lenovo has announced that it will be working
towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by
2050, aligning with the Science Based Targets
initiative (SBTi).
This makes it the first PC and smartphone
maker – and one of only 139 companies in the
world – with a net-zero target validated by SBTi.
Lenovo commits to reach net-zero
GHG emissions across the value chain by
FY2049/2050, and to reduce absolute
scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions 50% by
FY2029/2030 from a FY2018/2019 base year.
“Success in achieving net-zero depends
on a transparent, science-based, and
collaborative framework that will keep
organisations accountable for the long run.
SBTi has created that framework and will
empower companies to expedite emissions
reduction,” commented Carolina Milanesi,
Founder of The Heart of Tech, an ESGfocused consultancy.
technologymagazine.com
19
TIMELINE
1958
THE NEW OIL:
HOW THE
WORLD BECAME
DRIVEN BY
BIG DATA
Experts and analysts have asserted
that data – not oil – has become
the world’s most valuable resource.
Technology Magazine looks at how
the world became driven by Big Data
1928
Storage on tape
Fritz Pfleumer, a German-Austrian
engineer, invents a method of
storing information magnetically
on tape. The principles he
develops are still in use today,
with the vast majority of digital
data being stored magnetically on
computer hard disks.
Business
intelligence
First attributed to
Mr. Richard Miller
Devens in 1865, IBM
researcher Hans
Peter Luhn defines
Business Intelligence
almost a century
later as “the ability
to apprehend the
interrelationships
of presented facts
in such a way as to
guide action towards
a desired goal”.
1989
1965
Big Data
The World Economic Forums notes this as
possibly the first use of the term Big Data in the
way it is used today. International best-selling
author Erik Larson pens an article for Harper's
Magazine, speculating on the origin of the junk
mail he receives. He writes: “The keepers of big
data say they are doing it for the consumer’s
benefit. But data has a way of being used for
purposes other than originally intended.”
The first data centre
The US government builds
the first data centre with the
intention of storing millions
of fingerprint sets and tax
returns. The initiative – capable
of holding 742 million tax
returns and 175 million sets
of fingerprints – is generally
considered the first effort at
large-scale data storage.
Data deluge
The publication Wired
brings the concept of Big
Data to the masses with
the article, The End of
Theory: The Data Deluge
Makes the Scientific
Model Obsolete.
The world’s servers
process 9.57ZB (9.57
trillion GB of information
– equivalent to 12GB
of information per
person, per day),
according to the How
Much Information?
2010 report.
Today
Real-time intelligence
IDC’s Future of Intelligence
predictions for 2023 and
beyond finds 90% of the
world’s most successful
companies will use realtime intelligence and eventstreaming technologies by
2025. The firm also predicts
that, by 2024, organisations
with greater enterprise
intelligence will have 5x
institutional reaction time.
2007
TRAILBLAZER
Tom
Jermoluk
The ‘lightbulb moment’
to eliminate passwords
Investor and inventor at leading companies
like Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and WebMD,
Tom Jermoluk is on a mission with his longtime
business partner, co-founder Jim Clark,
to phase out passwords
T
om Jermoluk (TJ) is a serial
Silicon Valley investor and
inventor leading companies
like Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and
WebMD. It is his mission, alongside
his long-time business partner and
fellow Silicon Valley Giant, Jim Clark,
to eliminate passwords.
How did your collaboration
with Jim Clark begin, and
why does it work so well?
My partnership with Jim Clark goes
back a long way – 38 years in fact.
Our partnership began with 3D graphics
and visual effects pioneer Silicon
Graphics in the early 1980s, continuing
when Jim Clark and I helped ignite the
commercial internet with Netscape,
the first commercial internet
browser and the high-speed cable
Internet service provider @Home
Networks. It is fair to say we have been
together through some significant
technological breakthroughs.
Perhaps surprisingly, the original
idea and ‘light bulb’ moment for
22
April 2023
The average
cost of a
data breach
on average
US
$4.1
mn
Beyond Identity came about when
we were developing technology for
a high-end automation company
and were met with the challenge
of using passwords to turn on a
lightbulb. It got us thinking about how
the limitations of passwords go far
beyond just lighting.
Jim and I collaborated on this
idea of getting rid of passwords
by revisiting inherent identity
weaknesses that existed from the
early days of the web, which drove
us to go back to the core foundation
to ‘reboot’ user authentication
by extending the cryptography
used in Secure Socket Layer (SSL),
which was invented at Netscape.
We knew this opportunity was too
big and disruptive to miss. The
resulting effort – Beyond Identity
– introduces the elegantly simple
concept of extending the asymmetric
cryptography used in TLS to bind
a user with their device. The
solution leverages existing secure
communications infrastructure and
crypto standards like FIDO passkeys
to extend the trust boundary beyond
server-to-server communications to
include users and their devices. By
doing so, it completely removes the
need for ‘shared secret’ passwordbased authentication approaches,
and dependence on friction-laden
compensating controls.
Jim and I have stayed close and
continued to invest together over
the past 30 years. In a nutshell, we
work well together because our skills
complement each other, and we
have huge respect for one another
Tom "TJ" Jermoluk, CEO of Beyond Identity,
on how companies can now go passwordless for free
WATCH NOW
“Perhaps surprisingly,
the original idea and
‘light bulb’ moment for
Beyond Identity came
about when we were
developing technology
for a high-end
automation company”
technologymagazine.com
23
TRAILBLAZER
Cybersecurity Mythbusters:
Is There Such a Thing as a Strong Password?
WATCH NOW
24
April 2023
“It’s clear that
the MFA in-use
today is a band
aid that isn’t
working”
on what we bring to the table. Broadly
speaking, Jim is the innovator and I’m
the technology guy with the operational
expertise that makes it happen,
but I would say the partnership and
collaboration are key.
Today, we are 100% driven in our
strong belief that becoming passwordless
is the next big thing for cyber and it
should be top of the list for enterprises
large and small everywhere. Given our
past success and ability to collaborate to
bring disruptive ideas to market, we were
both excited to go forward and tackle this
one together.
Why is passwordless the next
big thing in cybersecurity?
Passwords are the root of all evil, the
cause of all our cybersecurity problems
and threats today. Trust in corporate
networks has never been more important
and passwordless authentication is a
giant step forward for the industry.
The password vulnerability has led
to a nearly incalculable number of
successful data breaches. Stolen and
reused credentials are the main source of
ransomware and account takeover today.
Eliminating passwords removes
prominent attack vectors reusing stolen
credentials to gain access and multiple
other password-based attacks. MFA
was supposed to solve the password
issue, but it’s clear that the MFA in-use
today is a band aid that isn’t working.
By eliminating passwords and replacing
weak MFA with strong, easy-to-deploy,
phishing-resistant authentication
methods, CISOs and team leaders
can shut the door on their largest
vulnerability and build the most robust
Zero Trust initiatives.
Industry leaders like Snowflake, Unqork,
and Roblox are relying on Beyond Identity
to solve their access security challenges
for their customers, employees,
contractors and developers to advance
their journey toward Zero Trust security.
How are you building a modern
approach to MFA at Beyond Identity?
A passwordless identity management
solution, like Beyond Identity,
replaces passwords with asymmetric
cryptography that employs public/
private key pairs and creates a FIDObased phishing-resistant authentication
process. Users are authenticated by
proving they possess the enrolled device
and that it is bound to the user’s identity.
Establishing high trust in the user and
the device, plus the ability to ensure
devices meet appropriate security
controls before and after initial access,
is a cornerstone of a Zero Trust model
– especially for modern network
architectures where the identity has
become the new perimeter.
Even if you did all the other pieces of
Zero Trust perfectly, unless you establish
user identity and trust in the device, the
effort will fail.
technologymagazine.com
25
FIVE MINUTES WITH...
Martin Porter shares the highlights
of his 25-year-long software career
and outlines the rapid growth pace
of the tech giant AMD
Founded in 1969 as a Silicon Valley
start-up, the AMD journey began with
just a few dozen employees.
Now, from those modest beginnings,
AMD has grown into a global company
setting the standard for modern
computing, with billions of users and
numerous industry-firsts achieved
along the way.
In February 2022, AMD acquired Xilinx
in a deal that was the largest in the history
of semiconductor business.
Today, the expertise of both
companies has firmly established AMD
as one of the industry’s high-performance,
adaptive computing leaders.
AMD’s technologies are powering the
products and services that help solve
the world’s most important challenges.
We spoke to Martin Porter,
Corporate Vice President of
Networking and Storage Software
Solutions, to learn more about his
work at the forefront of the tech
26
April 2023
industry, and get his insights into the
advancements that AMD is making.
Q. TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
AND WHAT LED YOU TO YOUR
CURRENT ROLE AT AMD?
» I studied Mathematics for my
undergraduate degree and was
initially interested in pursuing
a PhD in the same field.
However, I instead decided
to complete an MSc in Music
Technology, which involves studying
a combination of electronics,
“Our technologies
power the products
and services our
customers build to
advance the future
of the data centre,
embedded gaming,
and PC markets”
technologymagazine.com
27
FIVE MINUTES WITH...
“It is very humbling
to know that a good
majority of the world’s
financial trading is
now processed on
technology that
we've developed”
software, and music. I especially
enjoyed the software side, and this
led to my first role after graduating,
where I developed software for
a professional audio company.
After about five years, I moved
to a networking silicon company
and have remained in this field for
the last 25 years.
Mars Rover
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance – the
most advanced machine to touch down
on the Red Planet – is powered by AMD’s
FPGA for image processing and navigation
28
April 2023
Following AMD’s acquisition of
Xilinx in February 2022, I am now
the Corporate Vice President of
Networking and Storage Software at
AMD. My role mainly entails managing
software groups focused on
networking adapters within the AMD
Adaptive and Embedded Computing
Group (AECG). It is an exciting role,
in which I drive all the software
behind the adapters – whether it’s
embedded or networking stacks –
along with the storage stacks that
come with those product ranges.
Q. WHAT DOES AMD
TECHNOLOGY ENABLE FOR ITS
CUSTOMERS?
» Our mission is to help solve the
world’s most important challenges
through high-performance
and adaptive computing. Our
technologies power the products
and services our customers build to
advance the future of the data centre,
embedded gaming, and PC markets.
AMD’s AECG division – which
includes FPGAs and Adaptive SoCs
as well as network adapters and
accelerator cards – serves a broad
spectrum of markets with specialist
silicon solutions. From powering
5G network cores in wireless
communications to supporting
advanced driver-assistance systems
in the automotive sector, all the way
to Mars.
In fact, NASA’s Mars rover
Perseverance, which is the most
advanced machine to touch down
on the Red Planet, is powered by
AMD’s FPGA for image processing
and navigation.
AMD CES 2023 Keynote Opening Video
Together we advance
WATCH NOW
Q. WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT
QUALITY IN GOOD LEADERSHIP?
Q. WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF
ADVICE YOU HAVE RECEIVED?
products and the technology you’re
working on and the company’s business
objectives. This helps provide clear
direction and give correct feedback
to the teams you manage.
I know our engineers are the true
experts, so I give clear directions to
the team on what the customer is
expecting, what we need to deliver,
and the timeline. I listen to the
feedback from the team and support
them in doing their job to execute our
business plans.
Sometimes, that involves introducing
new processes, obtaining new tools, or
providing insight from other groups and
typically removing roadblocks to help
them to be as productive as possible.
software that passes tests; your aim
should be to develop software that
never fails tests’ – someone once
told me this, and it has stuck with
me throughout my career.
To me, everything comes
down to the quality of the software
you’re delivering. For example,
in the data centre market, bugs are
detrimental; they have a significant
impact, and it is crucial to consider
how you will verify the quality of
your software from the very start
of every project.
So, I would say to younger Martin:
it’s not just about developing software
but how you build quality, reliable
software – a rare skill in the industry.
» As a leader, you must understand
» ‘Your aim should not be to develop
technologymagazine.com
29
Accelerate Your Net-Zero
Carbon Initiatives with
Low-Code
Featured with:
Executives from Appian, AWS, and Xebia share their collaborative efforts and
excitement about their partnership in low-code, cloud, and sustainability.
Technology is instrumental to achieving
next-level capabilities across industries.
But organizations that want to operate
sustainably must choose technology that lets
them adhere to strong environmental, social,
and governance principles.
Digital transformation in ESG.
Appian Corporation, a process automation
leader, is a critical piece of the digital
transformation and sustainability puzzle. The
enterprise-grade Appian Low-Code Platform
is built to simplify today’s complex business
processes, with process mining, workflow,
and automation capabilities.
“Our objective is to help our customers achieve
sustainability goals across their business
operations,” says Wilson. “[This means] looking
at data availability, meaning access to more
data, and enabling actionable insights. “Lowcode, cloud-enabled, technologies will allow
organizations to build fast, learn fast, iterate,
and continue to improve these insights to drive
their sustainability outcomes.”
“By quickly building apps that streamline and
automate workflows, organizations are using
Appian to make their processes for monitoring
and reporting on ESG initiatives faster,
simpler, and more effective,” says Meryl Gibbs,
Emerging Industries Leader at Appian.
“Both AWS and Appcino are amazing
partners of ours,” says Michael Heffner,
VP Solutions and Industry Go To Market
at Appian. “We have an extremely long
legacy engagement with AWS as our trusted,
go-to-market partner and Appcino builds
“meaningful, business-focused applications
on the Appian platform and is amazing
in all things ESG.”
As an AWS leader enabling sustainability
solutions built on the cloud, Mary Wilson,
Global Sustainability Lead at AWS, talks
about the partnership with Appian.
Tarun Khatri, Co-Founder & Executive
Director of Appcino (product part of Xebia),
explains just how critical ESG is in the face
of digital transformation. “The investment
community now considers ESG reporting as
a major factor for measuring performance,”
says Khatri The collaboration will continually
uncover new insights and provides customers
the opportunity to accelerate their ESG goals
with speed and security.
technologymagazine.com
31
TRANSFORMATION
TO THE CLOUD
HELPING AIRLINE
GROUP SOAR
TO ITS GOALS
WRITTEN BY:
MARCUS
LAW
PRODUCED BY:
LEWIS
VAUGHAN
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
technologymagazine.com
33
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
LUFTHANSA GROUP’S
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
IS ENABLING THE GROUP
TO PROVIDE A SEAMLESS
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE FOR
CUSTOMERS AND ACHIEVE
ITS SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
C
ustomers are always the centre
of attention at the Lufthansa
Group. The aviation company
aims at providing its passengers
with perfect service and making
flying in all its facets a sustainably positive
experience. Against this background, the goal
is to assess the company’s offers and products
along the entire travel chain on a continuous
basis with the aim of optimising them.
Customer orientation and a focus on
quality are the Lufthansa Group’s strategic
cornerstones. Regular surveys and a
continuous dialogue with passengers help
the group learn as much as possible about
customer needs and to include them in the
development of innovative offers.
Significant investments in a modern and
efficient fleet, more comfort on board,
numerous product innovations, and digital
offers ensure that flying is becoming more
and more attractive and sustainable for
the Lufthansa Group’s customers with the
ambitious climate target of being carbonneutral by 2050.
34
April 2023
Ankur Rastogi,
Lufthansa Group
technologymagazine.com
35
“Cloud is not just an
infrastructure agenda.
It is a platform that
should be a key
pillar in your digital
transformation story”
ANKUR RASTOGI
GROUP HEAD – IT APPLICATION MANAGEMENT,
TRANSITION & CLOUD MIGRATION; SENIOR
DIRECTOR, LUFTHANSA GROUP
36
April 2023
As the world increasingly leverages
the power of modern technologies, Ankur
Rastogi, Group Head, IT Application
Management, Transition and Cloud
Migration at Lufthansa Group, explains,
the organisation’s aim is to be the most
digital and the most innovative aviation
group in the world.
“Digital transformation is embedded
in our business strategy,” he comments.
“And our cloud strategy forms a key pillar
in our digital strategy. The philosophy
behind our cloud strategy is cloud-first,
but not cloud-only.
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
ANKUR RASTOGI
TITLE: GROUP HEAD – IT
APPLICATION MANAGEMENT,
TRANSITION & CLOUD MIGRATION;
SENIOR DIRECTOR
COMPANY: LUFTHANSA GROUP
Central cloud team
As part of his responsibilities, Rastogi heads
Lufthansa’s group-wide central cloud team,
which is responsible for creating, maintaining,
and updating the organisation’s cloud strategy.
Lufthansa Group’s cloud transformation
was not just about migrating one application
from an on-prem data centre to the cloud,
he explains.
EXECUTIVE BIO
“In simple terms, it means that any new
solution that we buy or build has to be cloud
native. We are not going to invest in products
that are designed for legacy environments.”
Ankur Rastogi completed his
Engineering in electronics
and communication and MBA
with specialisation in Information
Management. He comes with 20+
years of strong international and
multi-cultural experience in IT and
management consulting across
different domains and regions
(Europe, India, and Africa). He has
handled a variety of leadership roles
across different disciplines in global
organisations like Lufthansa, Oracle,
HP Enterprises, and QS Advisory.
In his current role at Lufthansa
Group, he is the Group-wide process
owner for IT Transition and Operations
responsible for processes, platforms,
partners and practices around
IT test and quality management,
and application
management.
As part of
Lufthansa’s digital
transformation
initiatives, he is
heading the Central
Cloud team, which is
responsible for cloud
adoption and migration
of the entire application
portfolio to
cloud across
the Group.
PRO
transformation
Relentlessly transforming
business to move the
world forward.
Learn more
The Heart of Progress
Kyndryl’s Senior Partner Walter Huber talks cloud options
Kyndryl’s Walter Huber is the Vice President & Senior Partner for the
Lufthansa account, which means, within Kyndryl, he’s Mr Lufthansa 24/7
Walter Huber is the Vice
President and Kyndryl’s Senior
Partner for the Lufthansa
account, which means he is
also known as ‘Mr Lufthansa’
within Kyndryl. Founded in 2021,
Kyndryl was once a division
of the IBM Corporation, called
Global Technology Services.
“We design, build, manage
and modernise mission critical
infrastructures that keeps
the world economy going,”
Huber explains.
Kyndryl supports Lufthansa
as it shifts to the cloud.
As a trusted partner, Kyndryl
manages the foundations of
Lufthansa Group cloud system.
Having successfully
transitioned workloads into the
cloud for Lufthansa, Kyndryl
is doing more than simply
migrating workloads and then
running it. “Focusing on the
customer, we can advise
which cloud environment
is best for which workload
– and then accompany the
transformation journey.”
Keeping the customer at
the centre
The Kyndryl story is about
growth and creating value
for their customers.
“We are working closely with
Lufthansa and its business
units to understand what is
driving them and understand
what they must change going
forward to be the most digital
and innovative airline group.
Putting the customer in the
centre of all of that is extremely
critical for us, and it’s one of
the core values of Kyndryl.”
Another value is to maintain
customer focus. Kyndryl does
this by aligning itself to the way
the customer is organised
and how that customer makes
its business decisions.
After an almost 10-year
partnership with Lufthansa,
Kyndryl sees an ongoing
evolution for their continued
work together.
“We will continue to drive that
relationship with our customer,”
he says. “We will continue to
work with Lufthansa to take
advantage of the capabilities
we can offer, using the Kyndryl
Vital approach that allows us
to find new solutions and the
Kyndryl Bridge that allows us
to plug in new technologies
and new systems into a
network managed by us.”
Learn more
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
“Our cloud
strategy is based
on the philosophy
of cloud-first, but
not cloud-only”
ANKUR RASTOGI
GROUP HEAD – IT APPLICATION
MANAGEMENT, TRANSITION & CLOUD
MIGRATION; SENIOR DIRECTOR,
LUFTHANSA GROUP
Use more image
captions as often
as possible
“We are migrating thousands of
applications residing in multiple data centres,”
Rastogi adds. “In a cloud transformation
journey, there are multiple stakeholders:
application manager, infrastructure team,
enterprise architecture team, security team,
operations team, licence management and
the procurement team.”
“Our central cloud team is bringing all
of these stakeholders together towards a
common goal, ensuring that they are all
working towards the same target objectives
and that they're following the same guidelines.”
For managing cloud adoption and
transformation at Lufthansa, the central cloud
team had to establish a number of guiding
principles across aspects related to technical,
time and financial considerations.
“The first factor we considered was how
we wanted to use the cloud,” Rastogi says.
“We would like to use the cloud the way it's
designed. It should be possible to use the
cloud on a self-service, on-demand and payMaking or breaking the cloud journey
per-use, or metered, basis.”
There are many aspects that organisations
“We also want to use the cloud as natively
should keep in mind that could make or
as possible, meaning our implementation
break a cloud journey; the first of which
preference is Software-as-a-Service,
is having the right strategy. “There are
followed by Platform-as-a-Service, and
modern data centres that can meet many
only in the last case, Infrastructureof your requirements, but there has to be
as-a-Service, or lift and shift migration
a good reason why you're migrating to the
approach. The business continuity and
cloud. Cloud can be a key pillar behind
security requirements are directly
your digital transformation
considered in the design phase.”
story,” comments Rastogi.
As Rastogi explains, there are
“The second aspect is setting
also guidelines related to time, to
up the right structure in place,”
The Lufthansa
fit in with application life cycles
he adds. “For instance, if there is
Group has
and contractual timelines, as well
a need for a central cloud team,
approximately
109,509
as financial guidelines. “You could
generally referred to in the industry
employees
spend a lot of effort redesigning
as the cloud centre of excellence.
(31st Dec 2022)
or modernising your complete
Similarly, one needs to decide if
application,” he says, “but at the same time,
the journey is performed on a centralised
there has to be a business case behind it. So
basis or on a decentralised basis.”
time versus cost is always a risk-reward that
“Third is the governance part, which
you have to keep in mind.”
includes technical, security, and process
109.5K+
technologymagazine.com
41
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How LTIMindtree are shaping global cloud development
Since beginning its journey with Lufthansa Group in 2017, technology consulting
firm LTIMindtree has positioned itself as one of the group’s key partners
A new kind of technology consulting firm,
As with countless businesses affected by
LTIMindtree helps businesses transform – from
the COVID-19 pandemic, LTIMindtree was also
core to experience – to thrive in the marketplace
able to help Lufthansa Group come up with
of the future.
new solutions to scale the business.
Headquartered in Mumbai, India,
“One part of Lufthansa was running extremely
LTIMindtree has nearly 90,000 IT professionals
well, the cargo side,” Seifert explains. “But the
and works for about 700 clients worldwide.
travel side went down. We helped Lufthansa to
Today, LTIMindtree is working with all
downscale on one side and become more agile
subsidiaries of the Lufthansa Group. But,
on the other side, where new solutions were
as Klaus Seifert, Regional Vice President
needed to cope with demand. That really
and Head of Germany, explains, the journey
brought us together in a partnership.”
started in 2017 with a highly successful data
and analytics project.
“The project was about developing a
“At LTIMindtree, we have a long history in
travel, transportation and hospitality,” concludes
Seifert. “At the same time, our focus on the
predictive analytics system to properly forecast
client experience, customer experience,
the demand and optimise the seat pricing
data analytics, and the cloud journeys are
for the airline,” Seifert comments.
positioning us well as a future strategic partner
From there the relationship between
to advise Lufthansa for their strategies in
Lufthansa Group and LTIMindtree has evolved,
the cloud, and also for their development
with the consulting firm helping Lufthansa
of migration strategies.”
Cargo on its cloud journey and later on
taking over cloud operations for the AirPlus
and Sky Chefs part of the group.
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
guidelines, as well
as a lot of things
related to the set up
and running of a cloud
The Lufthansa
Group generated
community within
revenue of
the organisation.”
EUR 32.770m
in the financial
However, most
year 2022
importantly, Rastogi
says, is the concept
of change management in the organisation’s
journey to the cloud.
“Many people treat cloud as purely a
data centre replacement, and hence they
try to incorporate the same processes and
controls from the data centre world into
the cloud,” he says. “But cloud adoption is a
paradigm shift. It's not just the replacement
of an infrastructure platform.”
As Rastogi explains, business-oriented
solutions can be directly built in the cloud. “The
cloud can be used as a self-service platform,
meaning people can directly go into the cloud
€32.77mn
Lufthansa’s cloud journey is helping
group soar to its goals
WATCH NOW
44
April 2023
technologymagazine.com
45
Lufthansa Group’s goal
is to become the most
digital aviation group
Microsoft supports this transformational journey providing
leading Cloud platforms and solutions to Lufthansa empowering
their employees and business units to achieve more like the One
Data Platform project that enables Lufthansa to assist passengers
with personalized services before, during, and after their flight.
Learn More
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
“The cloud allows
us to use resources
more efficiently
and in a more
optimised manner”
ANKUR RASTOGI
GROUP HEAD – IT APPLICATION
MANAGEMENT, TRANSITION & CLOUD
MIGRATION; SENIOR DIRECTOR,
LUFTHANSA GROUP
portal and provision not just an infrastructure
environment but their complete end-to-end
solution,” he says. “So many processes that
were set, many controls that were in place can
get obsolete or need some sort of adaptation.
And this is what I call change management. It
requires a mindset change.”
The end goals of Lufthansa’s digital journey
As Rastogi lays out, Lufthansa's core mission is
to connect people, cultures, and economies
in a sustainable way. The organisation has
made substantial investments in digital
transformation projects, with the end goal
to offer the most seamless and the bestconnected travel experiences for customers.
“We start by offering an enhanced user
experience, which is personalised,” he
comments. “It also means that we can offer a
homogeneous experience to passengers, no
matter which of our airlines they fly or which of
our touchpoints they use to interact with us.”
“We have introduced digital self-service
solutions for bookings, rebooking refunds
and claim management, handling irregular
situations and so on,” he adds. “In the
long run, we are trying to create an overall
marketplace where personalised solutions
can be offered to customers based on their
individual needs.”
technologymagazine.com
47
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
Lufthansa Group’s digital journey is also
having a significant contribution to meeting
the organisation’s sustainability goals.
The group is one of the leading players
and is setting the agenda when it comes
to sustainability, with the target to be net
carbon neutral by 2050.
“We are constantly renewing our fleet
with more modern, efficient aircraft, which
are also more fuel efficient, and more
energy efficient,” Rastogi comments. “We
are continuously investing in research and
implementation of sustainable aviation
fuels. We have established the Cleantech
Hub, a platform that is driving more than
80 projects in this space. And to our own
customers, we are continuously offering
more and more sustainable products on
our digital platforms.”
“Digital initiatives contribute a lot to
sustainability. If I take the cloud as an
example, the cloud allows us to use
resources more efficiently and in a
more optimised manner.”
As Rastogi explains, Lufthansa Group
works hand-in-hand with cloud providers
who also have very ambitious goals in regard
to sustainability, with more fuel-efficient and
more energy-efficient data centres.
“The best part I like about cloud is it offers
a lot of transparency in various sustainability
dimensions, especially in terms of what
kind of services you consume and how it
directly translates into carbon footprints,”
he comments. “So that generates a lot of
interesting and useful information.”
48
April 2023
“Don’t adopt cloud just because everyone is doing
so. Like for any transformation programme, there
should be a reason and it is important to answer
the question ‘why’ seriously”
ANKUR RASTOGI
GROUP HEAD – IT APPLICATION MANAGEMENT,
TRANSITION & CLOUD MIGRATION; SENIOR
DIRECTOR, LUFTHANSA GROUP
technologymagazine.com
49
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
“Cloud adoption is
a paradigm shift.
Business-oriented
solutions can be
directly built in
the cloud”
ANKUR RASTOGI
GROUP HEAD – IT APPLICATION
MANAGEMENT, TRANSITION & CLOUD
MIGRATION; SENIOR DIRECTOR,
LUFTHANSA GROUP
This information can further be used
to build decision-making algorithms
helping Lufthansa Group optimise various
parameters within the business domains,
from aircraft turnaround time, network
scheduling and planning to passenger
management. “In my opinion,” Rastogi adds,
“every time you make an improvement in
efficiency, you're indirectly contributing to
sustainability goals.”
Taking a multi-vendor
approach to partnerships
Partners are critical for successful outcomes,
as Rastogi explains. For every task, a thorough
analysis is undertaken to decide if it should
be done in-house or should be outsourced.
A strategic decision was to employ a multivendor approach.
“In each partner category whether it
is cloud, managed service, migration or
operations partners — we did a proper due
diligence and followed a thorough selection
process,” Rastogi says.
For Lufthansa Group, a decision was made
to go with a multi-cloud and a hybrid cloud
approach. “In our cloud ecosystem, we work
quite closely with Microsoft, which is one of
our primary landing zones,” Rastogi comments.
“Many applications are already in or are in the
process of being migrated to Azure. When
it comes to managed services, we work
with CGI and Kyndryl who are managing the
foundations of our cloud ecosystem,” Rastogi
adds. “For cloud migration and application
operations and management, we work very
closely with CGI and Mindtree.”
technologymagazine.com
51
CLOUD TRANSFORMATION
Cloud strategies and risk management
Talk of risk management or security or
compliance might initially seem daunting
in the cloud, but as Rastogi explains,
many aspects that might apply to any
IT project also apply to the cloud.
“Cloud providers themselves spend a
lot in avoidance of any vulnerabilities,” he
comments. “However the overall end-to-end
“Structure the
journey to
cloud and the
organisational
setup properly.
Hire the right skills
and choose the
right partners”
ANKUR RASTOGI
GROUP HEAD – IT APPLICATION
MANAGEMENT, TRANSITION &
CLOUD MIGRATION; SENIOR
DIRECTOR, LUFTHANSA GROUP
risk management is a shared responsibility.
We need to set up our own organisations
and controls over and above the measures
provided by the cloud providers.”
As Rastogi explains, measures that would
be implemented on a typical IT lifecycle
apply to the cloud as well, for instance
generating awareness, building the right
checks and balances, introducing policies
like multifactor authentication, password and
encryption policies, configuring and securing
infrastructure and networks by implementing
the right kind of architecture, firewalls,
network security groups and load balancers.
“Another interesting aspect with
cloud is the evergreen approach,” he
comments. “Cloud does not support
legacy technologies or older versions of
operating systems and databases. So the
cloud is forcing us to continuously upgrade
our applications to the latest versions and
constantly patch them.”
Continued heavy investment
in digital transformation projects
As Rastogi describes, the future at
Lufthansa Group will see continued
heavy investment into digital
transformation projects, balancing the
objectives of innovation transformation
and operational stability.
“Through digital transformation projects,
we are trying to improve our customer
satisfaction, and make their overall travel
experience simpler and as individualistic as
possible. We are trying to offer a seamless
and connected experience.”
“We are building up a marketplace
environment with different ancillaries
and different products, which are
personalised,” Rastogi adds. “These
will leverage the data and insights that
we capture and offer solutions to our
customers that fulfil their needs.”
At the same time, along with customerfacing projects, the group is also investing
in a number of projects internally, such
as solutions to improve employee
collaboration and employee experiences.
“We are constantly modernising our
application portfolio and our infrastructure
portfolio,” Rastogi concludes. “We have
projects that are focused on improving
our cyber-defence capabilities. In all of
these projects, whether in the digital area,
innovation area, or modernisation of our
application stack, the cloud continues to
be a key pillar.”
technologymagazine.com
53
EXPLOSION OF
DATA IS POWERING
THE INSURANCE
INDUSTRY
We live in an ever-increasingly
data-dominated world. How
insurance organisations handle
that avalanche of information
is critical to success
WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW
54
April 2023
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
T
hanks to the rise of smartphones,
sensors, and connected vehicles
and appliances, a data explosion
has taken place in recent years.
Increasingly vital, businesses that
don’t treat data as an integral part of their
operations could be unable to continue
in the near-future.
While only 3 of the 10 most valuable
enterprises were actively taking a datadriven approach in 2008, that number has
risen to 7 out of 10 today.
According to Accenture, the world
produces five exabytes of data each day.
By 2025, this is set to rise to a rate of 463
exabytes per day. It acts as a highly valuable
tool for the insurance industry, which can
use this data to: analyse trends and patterns,
inform policy, assess risk, and identify fraud.
First coined in 2011 by Gartner,
‘datafication’ is the technological trend
of converting peoples’ activities into
actionable stats. This has been enabled
by a rise in technologies such as AI,
ML, big data analytics, and predictive
analytics. By collecting and harnessing
this data, insurers can optimise the
claims process, offer new, value-added
solutions, and deliver a better overall
experience for the consumer.
Importance of customer experience
According to McKinsey, insurance
companies that offer best-in-class customer
experiences are 80% more likely to retain
customers than companies that don’t.
As Chris Moore, Head of ibott 1971 at Apollo,
explains, there is an urgent need for the
industry to digitalise and truly harness the
power of data to provide better experiences
to consumers.
“In the past, the insurance industry has
relied on the knowledge that customers are
technologymagazine.com
55
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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
“There are huge amounts
of data available,
but you have to have
a strategy of what you’re
using that data for”
CHRIS MOORE
HEAD OF IBOTT 1971,
APOLLO
always going to come to us,” he comments.
“However, new consumers – especially when
it comes to big commercial clients – don’t
want that buyer-seller relationship anymore.
What they want is a strategic partnership.
When you look at that strategic partnership
model, the major companies that are
coming to say ‘we want to buy huge levels
of insurance’ are massive digital companies.
And for them, data and digitalisation aren’t
just important to their business, they are
their business.”
As Moore highlights, the overwhelming
warning sign for the insurance industry is
to not sit and do nothing. Last year, Tesla
CEO Elon Musk announced plans to launch
his company’s own insurance offering, with
a statement saying premiums would be
calculated on driving behaviour rather than
‘traditional factors like credit, age, gender,
claim history, and driving records’ used by
traditional insurance providers.
“That, for me, is quite scary,” says Moore.
“I don’t think Elon Musk wants to be an
insurer. It’s not that glamorous. But I think
he’s doing it because he’s saying, ‘I refuse
to allow an industry to be a blocker of where
I see the future’. And that’s why I think we
have to digitalise. If we don’t, rest assured
someone else will.”
technologymagazine.com
57
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
“It’s all about
using data in
the right way to
engage with the
customers more”
ELLIOTT GREEN
SALES DIRECTOR,
GENASYS
58
April 2023
Managing massive quantities of data
With massive amounts of data on tap,
how organisations handle that information
is key. “I don’t think many insurers have
absolutely nailed what their key data strategy
is,” Moore comments. “We do a lot of
business with Lyft, the ride-share company
in North America, and I’ll always remember
the risk manager describing the insurance
industry as ‘data vampires’, sucking up huge
quantities of data and not knowing what
to do with it.
“For the most part, he was right.
I remember meeting with an insurance
Insurance and big data
company in 2018. They weren’t using any
of their telematics data for pricing: they were
collecting all this data and not even using it.
“And that’s the challenge. There are huge
amounts of data available, but you have
to have a strategy of what you’re using that
data for.”
With an avalanche of information,
how insurers actually translate that data
into action is key.
“From an underwriting point of view within
our platform, we’ve seen there is a vast
amount of data,” comments Elliott Green,
Sales Director at Genasys. “The challenge
According to The National
Association of Insurance
Commissioners (NAIC), insurers use
big data in a number of ways, such as:
•U
nderwrite more accurately, price risk
and incentivise risk reduction. Telematics,
for example, allows insurers to collect
real-time driver behaviour and usage
data to provide premium discounts and
usage-based insurance
•E
nrich customer experience by quickly
resolving service issues
• I mprove marketing effectiveness by
tailoring products to individual preferences
•C
reate operating efficiencies by
streamlining the application process
– an example of this being a pre-filled
homeowner’s application
•F
acilitate better claims processing by
applying machine learning algorithms
to outcomes
•R
educe fraud through better
identification techniques – for example,
text analytics can identify potential ‘red
flag’ trends across adjusters' reports
• I mprove solvency through the ability
to more accurately assess risk
technologymagazine.com
59
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Solutions to protect consumers’ data
A study published in Computer Law
& Security Review by Dr Zofia Bednarz
and co-author Dr Kayleen Manwaring in June
2022 argued that policymakers and regulators
should act to prevent consumer harm before
insurers invest in services, software, and
strategies around big data and AI, becoming
resistant to subsequent regulation.
The researchers provide an overview
of potential solutions, including:
•P
rohibition on the use of external data;
•L
imitation on the use of data, e.g. to only
specific factors;
•M
andating transparency, including
explaining the models used;
•P
rivacy law improvements: higher
requirements as to the privacy policies and
notices, restriction of collection, disclosure,
and use of personal information to what can
60
April 2023
be reasonably expected by consumers
(this last point is particularly timely given
the ongoing Privacy Act review).
Dr Bednarz said: “There is a lot of opacity
and secrecy surrounding underwriting
processes as well as the data practices
of insurers. There is limited control
of regulators over what data is collected
and used by insurers, and in what ways.
Consumers themselves have very little
control over their own data.
“We propose a concept of ‘extrinsic
data’ – data consumers do not expect
to be collected by insurers and used for
underwriting. But the issue is actually bigger:
even if we know insurers are using our data
for underwriting, we often don’t know how
it translates into the risk assessment. And
this is why more transparency is needed.”
“I don’t think Elon
Musk wants to be an
insurer; he’s doing it
because he’s saying,
‘I refuse to allow an
industry to be
a blocker of where
I see the future’”
CHRIS MOORE
HEAD OF IBOTT 1971,
APOLLO
technologymagazine.com
61
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Modernise Now! Is AI Interface and
the Digitisation of Insurance a Necessity?
WATCH NOW
“Insurers can move
on from metrics
like people’s age
and postcode and
get to know their
policyholders much
better than they
have done to date”
is about pulling out
Protecting
the key items that you
consumers’ data
actually need within that.
The rising use of data
“We work with a lot
is already providing
of health insurers, which
benefits, but research
are now pushing a lot
from the University
of messages to users
of Sydney, authored
to encourage them
by Dr Zofia Bednarz,
to perform more steps
Lecturer in the Law
a day, for example, and
School at University
rewarding them with
of Sydney, and
lower premiums.
co-authored by Dr
“Research has shown
Kayleen Manwaring,
that 80% of illnesses are
argued that the
SCOTT LOGIE
based on lifestyle. So, as
‘datafication’ of insurer
CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT
DIRECTOR,
an insurer, you are going
processes may fuel
SAGACITY
to have fewer claims
excessive data collection
for health issues if people are doing more
in the context of insurance contracts.
steps. It benefits both sides: it benefits the
However, as Scott Logie – Customer
consumer who gets these rewards, and it
Engagement Director at data business
benefits the insurer because fewer claims are
Sagacity and Chair of the Customer
coming in. It’s all about using data in the right
Engagement Committee at the Data and
way to engage with the customers more.”
Marketing Association (DMA) – explains,
62
April 2023
consumers are frequently happy to share
this data with insurers.
“From using step trackers to demonstrate
they are physically active to proving they are
a safe driver through a telematics device
in their car, growing numbers of consumers
are happy to share real-world data with
insurers if it helps reduce their premiums,”
he comments. “This is great news for an
industry that has always been driven by
data: insurers can move on from metrics like
people’s age and postcode and get to know
their policyholders much better than they
have done to date.”
In theory, this data can support more
intelligent decision-making, such as giving
cheaper quotes to lower-risk customers,
while also being realistic about the additional
risk others might pose. As Logie concludes,
though, in practice, insurers have struggled
to utilise data to its full potential.
“A major reason for this is that data
is often stored on different systems,
in varying formats, making it challenging
for insurers to obtain a single view of
customers or treat them as individuals,”
he says. “To get the most out of
datafication, insurers need to ensure
all customer data is accurate and easily
retrievable so that it is then possible
to apply analytics to uncover the insights
that drive better decision making.”
technologymagazine.com
63
ENABLING
LATIN AMERICA
INTO THE FUTURE
WRITTEN BY:
JOSEPHINE WALBANK
64
April 2023
PRODUCED BY:
LEWIS VAUGHAN
Fourth largest
campus worldwide
450MW IT
17 buildings
Campus Tamboré:
The data centers
in operation and
those ones in 3D
rendered images
that will be built
or are under
construction
600MW
total power
+11,000
jobs
100%
renewable energy
technologymagazine.com
65
Marcos Peigo
at Tamboré
Campus works
66
April 2023
SCALA DATA CENTERS
In an exclusive interview
with Marcos Peigo,
Co-Founder and CEO,
we get an insight into the
phenomenal pace of growth
that Scala is achieving
S
cala shifts the paradigm in the
Latin American data centre industry
by growing at real scale.
The factors that instantly set Scala Data
Centers apart from its competitors are
the phenomenal pace of its growth, the
size of the sites that it is deploying and
the extraordinary degree of its customercentric approach. Although this would
be an impressive feat in any of the global
data centre markets, what’s particularly
remarkable is that this is being achieved in
one of the most notoriously underserved
data centre markets: LATAM.
Scala is scaling at real scale and, in less
than three years, has grown from its starting
point of 17MW in bookings to 150MW,
possessing the 4th largest data centre
campus in the world – the largest in Latin
America by a considerable margin – and
managing a team that has grown from 32
to more than 700 employees in this
short period.
In an exclusive interview with Marcos
Peigo, Co-Founder and CEO of Scala Data
Centers, we find out more about the factors
driving this growth and the DC provider’s
ambitions for the next decades.
technologymagazine.com
67
The future is modular.
Modular is the future.
Leader in the development and manufacture of Modular
Data Centers in Latin America, Modular enables and drives
the technology market by developing intelligent, flexible,
and high-quality solutions.
The future becomes increasingly feasible, safe, and near.
Cooling Room
LEARN MORE
Data Hall
Scalable data centre
Separated Data Hall/Cooling
Room from Power Room
Power Redundancy
Room
Segregated
Redundancy
System
Power Room
Continuous cooling
Redundant
Topology
Modular is a platform for developing
and producing Modular Data Centers
and modular components for Data
Centers that was born a leader in
Latin America, combining a strategic
vision of the technology market with
a proven entrepreneurial and
innovation capacity.
Modular designs and manufactures
intelligent structures. It is rigid
in complying with the standards’
requirements but flexible to its
customers’ needs, aligning its solutions
to the challenges of the market.
The modules leave the factory tested,
commissioned, and TIA-942 Ready
certified, reducing the risk of field
installation, optimizing deployment
time, and ensuring the quality that
certification brings.
Our products enable a future of
possibilities with Modular support
by a quality digital infrastructure fully
prepared to support mission-critical
environments.
Modular is innovative.
We think, build, and apply state-of
-the-art processes and technology
in everything we develop.
Cooling Room
Modular is solid.
With factories that serve all of Latin
America and a complete portfolio for
the most varied needs of our customers,
we supply indoor or outdoor demands,
offering smart prefabricated modular
structures, which leave our factories
ready and commissioned.
Modular is experienced.
Formed by a group of investors,
partners, and executives with decades
of experience in the technology,
engineering, aerospace, financial,
and manufacturing industries, we
were founded by the acquisition
and incorporation of the engineering,
manufacturing, and intellectual
property assets of a former market
leader in the Brazilian market.
Modular is modern.
We have developed our families of “Fast
Forward” and “Good To Go” supporting
demands from 2 to 60 racks and 10kW
to 600kW per module to meet market
needs using innovative and cuttingedge infrastructure technology.
LEARN MORE
Data Hall
Power Room
SCALA DATA CENTERS
Scaling at real scale
WATCH NOW
“We are a partner
of DigitalBridge,
but I see the
DigitalBridge team
much more as an
extension of the
companies they
invest in”
MARCOS PEIGO
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
SCALA DATA CENTERS
70
April 2023
A late market entrance,
spurring new growth mindset
Interestingly, Peigo explains that one of the
principal reasons behind Scala’s trademark
approach to growth is the fact that the
provider came to the data centre market
relatively late in the game.
“When we arrived, our competitors were
already established, with a fragmented
capacity distributed among the LATAM
countries. So, we decided to invest not in
shared facilities, but in single tenant facilities
foreseeing an expansion in the demand
similar to what has happened in other more
developed markets,” Peigo explains.
“Instead of starting by building one data
centre and sharing space in that facility for
SCALA DATA CENTERS
MARCOS PEIGO
TITLE: CO-FOUNDER & CEO
COMPANY: SCALA DATA CENTERS
LOCATION: SÃO PAULO
Marcos Peigo is the
Co-Founder and CEO of Scala
Data Centers. As a seasoned leader,
he provides critical insights into the
Latin American data centre and IT
markets, leveraging over 25 years of
experience working with technology
and infrastructure-focused firms in
Brazil and Latin America.
Marcos studied Electrical
Engineering and Economics at
Pontifícia Universidade Católica
de São Paulo. In 2023, Marcos
was the only Latin American
executive nominated by the Pacific
Telecommunications Council
(PTC) for the Outstanding C-Level
Executive Award and, in 2022, Marcos
was awarded the title of Industry
Leader by DatacenterDynamics.
technologymagazine.com
71
SCALA DATA CENTERS
SPOAPA01
HyperEdge
data center
construction is
in progress in
Porto Alegre,
south of Brazil
customer A, B, C and D until 70-80% of
that data centre is already occupied before
launching a new one, we started another
approach, which was specifically designed
to meet the needs of hyperscale customers.
We decided to get the same four customers,
and create one building for customer A, one
building for customer B, one building for
customer C, and one building for customer
D, with reserved space for them to grow.”
In the LATAM market, besides the advance
of digital transformation, key drivers of
growth here are the power restrictions that
are currently being experienced in North
America that used to serve our region,
data sovereignty regulations and currency
instability concerns. Consequently, catering
technologymagazine.com
73
SCALA DATA CENTERS
Recently launched, SGRUTB05 is the
second biggest vertical data center
of LATAM
“When they sign an agreement with us,
our customers have secured an avenue
to grow for decades, and we assume a
strong long-term expansion capacity
commitment, while giving them the
comfort of growing in the same location,
with a trusted partner”
MARCOS PEIGO
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
SCALA DATA CENTERS
74
April 2023
Use more image
São João de Meriti Campus, in Rio de Janeiro,
captions as often
that comprises a HyperEdge data center (in the front)
as possible
and additional HyperCore buildings (in the back)
for this demand then shifts to the
Latin American region.
In recent years, this long-standing trend
was coupled with the shift brought about
by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which
Scala experienced a dramatic increase in
demand, fuelled by the world’s pivot to
cloud technologies and companies’ rising
reliance on data.
“When the demand spiked, these
customers triggered the reserved space
and asked for more reservations within
the same campuses. So, we placed our
bets on building at scale, dedicating
spaces for our customers for significant
growth – much bigger than that which
they had experienced in Latin America
in the previous years – all within large,
customised, and dedicated buildings,”
Peigo outlines.
“When they sign an agreement with us,
our customers have secured an avenue
to grow for decades. We assume a strong
long-term expansion capacity commitment
while giving them the comfort of growing
in the same location with a trusted partner
obsessed with their success.”
From there, the average size of Scala’s
tickets jumped from 2MW to 8MW, then
8MW to 20MW, and so on, as Scala and
its customers alike saw returns from their
investments in these large deployments.
technologymagazine.com
75
Your Power,
Custom Made.
When you need to rapidly expand but not
overprovision, you need to scale with confidence.
Introducing the new Vertiv™ Powerbar iMPB modular busway power distribution
system. Ideal for any data center, our user-friendly system provides a cost-effective
way to ensure continued uptime of your IT load. Easily integrate power with a smart,
overhead solution that keeps floor space open for additional IT equipment, scaling
your data center today and getting ready for growth tomorrow.
Vertiv.com/iMPB
SCALA DATA CENTERS
“The combination of these factors
– alongside our massive control from design
to construction with sustainability practices,
all developed by our own team – and this
long-term view, which sees us betting on
our customers’ growth, has taken us to this
position where we are basically doubling
the size of the LATAM market in three years.”
Now, Scala plans on opening 12 sites
within the next 24 months – a testament
to the quality of its engineering and
construction teams. This is even more
impressive when you consider that the
young company started out (just a few years
ago) with two sites. For Peigo, Scala’s unique
relationship with its partners has proved
absolutely instrumental in achieving this.
“To work with DigitalBridge is really
a pleasure. DigitalBridge brings us a unique
combination of global experience with
Scala’s local knowledge. So, we don't see
DigitalBridge as single investors – they are
also operators,” Peigo explains.
“I see the DigitalBridge team much
more as an extension of the companies
they invest in, rather than investors that
we meet in board meetings to talk about
results and define targets. It's more a dayby-day relationship with strong alignment,”
Peigo posits.
At 56 meters
high and 12MW
of IT capacity,
SGRUTB04 is the
biggest vertical
data center in
LATAM
technologymagazine.com
77
Marcos Peigo
at Tamboré
Campus works
78
April 2023
SCALA DATA CENTERS
Similarly, the bespoke partnership
that Scala has established with Brazilian
company Modular Data Centers has been
key to achieving a faster pace of customercentric service that has defined its success.
“Modular had all-in-one prefab outdoor
modules. They sell to the market, in general,
smaller deployments, at 8, 16 or 30 racks.
But, based on the idea of enhancing the
amount of components that we could
prefab before sending to the site – so that
we could achieve higher standardisation
and need less time to deploy – Modular
took on the challenge to build something
bespoke for Scala and together we came
up with the FastDeploy design where
dedicated blocks of 600kW of capacity can
be delivered on record time in strategically
located sites that can grow up to 7.2MW
of IT capacity.”
Walking the talk on
sustainability since day one
Since much of what Scala does in this
region is the first of its kind, a key part of
its sustainability strategy is working with
local people and communities.
“We have to work with municipalities and
local governments to educate them about
what a data centre is and the benefits that
a data centre deployment can bring. In this
way, we’re working also to enable tier two
markets in Latin America, bringing progress
to these countries and locations, and
enabling the future in Latin America,”
Peigo asserts.
“We really believe that digital
infrastructure is the way to pave the future
for these countries and to enable growth in
a sustainable manner. This isn’t something
that happens in one meeting or with one
press release; this is a process, and it takes
time to consolidate.”
technologymagazine.com
79
BUILDING GREAT
CHALLENGES
RS CONSTRUÇÕES owns highly qualified
teams and a renowned structure in the fields
of engineering, management, quality, security
and environment, which enables us to provide
our clients innovative, sustainable and
profitable solutions in all projects we partake.
LEARN MORE
CONTACT US
SCALA DATA CENTERS
Some of the students from
Scala's Full Engineering
Scholarship Program at the
company's HQ
Scala believes that infrastructure
and education contribute massively to
transforming society and guided by this
belief, since 2020, Scala has donated full
engineering scholarships to young people
in situations of social vulnerability.
“In November 2022, we expanded the
programme announcing that from now on,
for every MW booked, we will donate a full
engineering scholarship in the area where
that capacity will be deployed, plus
a dedicated mentoring program with
a Scala executive plus a job opportunity at
the company”, Peigo asserts. “Therefore,
millions of opportunities in someone's life
will be created, enabling a brighter future
for them and their families. In 2023 we will
reach 150 full engineering scholarships.”
“We really believe that
digital infrastructure
and education are
the way to pave
the future for these
countries and to
enable the growth in a
sustainable manner”
MARCOS PEIGO
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
SCALA DATA CENTERS
technologymagazine.com
81
Engineering company
with 40 years’ experience
air conditioning systems
Experienced with assembling of air conditioning,
ventilation and exhaust systems.
In 2017 our efforts were directed to the data
centre field. In 2020 we were privileged to
perform the assembling of SCALA SP3 HVAC
system. Continually seeking for quality on
service provision, we had the first recurrence
of HVAC assembling system with SCALA SP4,
and recently SCALA SP5.
Get in touch
SCALA DATA CENTERS
Alongside this, Scala has firmly asserted
itself as a market leader in the field of
green standards.
“What makes us really proud is that,
since the beginning, sustainability has been
a must. This means huge investments to drive
lower PUEs, only renewable sourcing since
our first day of operation, and being the first
Latin American data centre to reach a carbon
neutrality status, plus the first to operate with
100% renewable sources in the region.”
“The average PUE for data centres in Latin
America is 1.74. Our average PUE in loaded
sites today is under 1.35 and, in our most
recent designs, we are already reaching
below 1.30. We’re very proud to be leading
the industry in our region in this way being
the benchmark to be followed.”
Creating LATAM’s hyperscale market
Currently, Scala’s key availability zones in
Brazil can be seen as a triangle of its vast
Tamboré, Jundiaí and Campinas campuses.
Then, running in parallel to these expansions,
it is also rapidly developing its presence in
other cities in Brazil – Rio de Janeiro and Porto
Alegre – and also in other LATAM countries,
including Colombia, Mexico and Chile.
What makes Scala so successful in this
emerging market is the strategic positioning
of its data centres, in order to create
opportunistic availability zones, which are
precisely designed to best serve customers.
Scala’s ascent to the top of the LATAM DC
market began in Brazil, upon the acquisition
of two premium data centres from the
UOL Group.
technologymagazine.com
83
SCALA DATA CENTERS
“The average PUE
for data centres in
Latin America is 1.74.
Our average PUE today
is 1.35 and, in our
new designs, we are
reaching below 1.30”
MARCOS PEIGO
CO-FOUNDER & CEO
SCALA DATA CENTERS
“We quickly decided to grow, with
the idea of big campuses in LATAM
mirroring the US markets. Seeing this
growth combined with the maturity of the
applications, the constraints of power and
growth in North America, plus the demand
for lower latency deployments in Latin
America, we drive for bigger deployments,”
Peigo explains.
“Before 2020, the average deployments
in Latin America (for a hyperscale site) were
2-3MW. Now, we’re talking about 20-30MW
buildings dedicated to single hyperscale
customers, not only in Brazil but also in
other countries.”
In fact, Scala is currently deploying its
Lampa campus which is already the biggest
campus ever permitted in Chile, with
120MW of total capacity and 90MW of IT
capacity when fully deployed.
“And to give you a sense of how big
we plan for some locations to be, for our
Tamboré campus alone, we have secured
600MW of power, which makes Tamboré
the fourth largest campus in the world, and
by far the biggest one in the entire LATAM
market,” Peigo says.
84
April 2023
Scala has
grown from
to more tha
700 employe
in less than
three years
SCALA DATA CENTERS
Scalers at the company’s
HQ, in São Paulo
32
an
ees
n
s
technologymagazine.com
85
SCALA DATA CENTERS
“We already have 100MW in production,
and we are now adding a second substation
with another 100MW and the third substation
will be 400MW. It's a massive amount of
capacity. To give some perspective on this,
the consumption in Tamboré alone will be
the same size as the consumption required
for the entirety of Brasília.”
The pace of Scala’s growth – particularly in
2022 and 2023 – is massive. But why? Beyond
simply a case of profit for profit’s sake, why
has the speed of growth been set as such
a paramount priority for the provider?
“Firstly, we understood from the beginning
that this hyperscale market didn't exist in
LATAM. We had hyperscale customers with
capacity deployed in LATAM, but all of their
capacity or all of their loads were relatively
small, with one megawatt here,
two megawatts there, and so on.”
Launched
in 2021,
SGRUTB03
was the first
single tenant
data center
built by Scala
technologymagazine.com
87
SCALA DATA CENTERS
88
April 2023
SGRUTB04 went into
service in 2022, dedicated
to a single hyperscale
client, with a commitment
to full capacity for more
than a decade
“Add to this equation that the majority
of the existing DC’s in the region were
smaller in average size than a single data hall
of a real hyperscale facility. Of course, they
were built in an era where the capacity and
the visibility for the future was very small,
but that does not change the fact those
structures were not ready for the current
demand. Plus, they were designed without
the sustainable requirements that we
have today.”
Peigo explains that, very early on,
Scala realised the hyperscale expertise on
engineering, design and sustainability for
data centres were practically non-existent in
LATAM. Then, they instead decided to invest
in creating this expertise from the ground up.
“So, we hired a lot of people and built our
Center of Excellence in Engineering (CoE),
SCALA DATA CENTERS
from which we control everything from the
design up to construction management.”
The Center of Excellence gives Scala
a far greater degree of control in the
design, construction management,
planning and performance evaluation of
its data centres. Rather than using general
contractors, the centre gives the company
centralised control, helping it to implement
a streamlined, uniform approach across its
entire Latin American portfolio.
“Instead of having branches of Scala,
we have uniform sites. So, if you’re working
for Scala in a data centre – whether it’s
in Colombia or Rio – it's the same local
structure, supported by our centralised
command centre. We basically change
the address.”
This approach is not only fostering
efficiencies across the entire portfolio,
but this approach is a cornerstone of
Scala’s company culture.
“We are not creating the sense that
Brazil is the biggest country and the
centre of our portfolio – Scala is a Latin
American platform.
“With the non-Brazilian employees
that we have hired, we bring them to the
headquarters, and they stay with us for three
to six months, working and getting trained
in the common centre. Then, when they get
back to their countries, they’ve left a piece
of their country here and they take a piece
of Scala there. This forges our culture and
strengthens the bonds among our people,
it doesn’t matter where they live or work.
“This is the way we are growing as
a unique company: a single entity, operating
all of these campuses in a sustainable way
throughout Latin America.”
technologymagazine.com
89
CLOUD & CYBER
CYBERSE
NO LONGER
‘ONE SIZE
FITS ALL’
IN AN
IOT WORLD
As more ‘things’ get connected,
the number of ways to attack them
has increased. With cybersecurity
no longer one-size-fits all,
businesses must take care
WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW
90
April 2023
ECURITY
technologymagazine.com
91
CLOUD & CYBER
T
he Internet of Things is changing
the way the world works
and plays. From applications
in MedTech, logistics, and
transportation to smart home
solutions, IoT is an enabler of a larger
digital transformation that will produce
vast quantities of data to be stored, parsed,
and transmitted over an ever-expanding
global network.
But, as the world of IoT continues
to expand, so too do security threats.
The billions of IoT devices in use have
naturally created new vulnerabilities for
companies. According to global management
consulting firm McKinsey, as more ‘things’
get connected, the number of ways to attack
them has increased dramatically. Pre-IoT,
a large corporate network might have needed
to account for up to 500,000 endpoints
being vulnerable to attack, while the IoT
may involve a network with millions or tens
of millions of these endpoints.
IoT fuelling transformation but
vulnerabilities create risks for businesses
The potential value of IoT is large and
growing. By 2030, McKinsey estimates
it could amount to up to US$12.5tn globally.
And, according to Palo Alto Networks,
the rapid growth of capabilities and
adoption of IoT technology has fuelled
a transformation in enterprise operations.
IoT devices are believed to make up
30% of total devices on enterprise networks
today, with the rich data collected from
these devices providing a number of valuable
insights informing real-time decisions and
delivering accurate predictive modelling.
In addition, IoT is a key enabler of digital
transformation in the enterprise, with the
potential to drive up workforce productivity,
business efficiency, and profitability,
as well as the overall employee experience.
However, despite the many
advantages IoT technology enables,
the interconnectedness of smart devices
“The billions of existing
IoT devices were not
deployed overnight,
and the security problems
they inherit will not be
fixed overnight either”
TOM CANNING
VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL
SALES IOT AND DEVICES,
CANONICAL
92
April 2023
presents a substantial challenge to
enterprises, primarily in terms of the serious
security risks arising from unmonitored
and unsecured devices connected to
the network.
What’s more, with increases in hybrid
working environments, security weaknesses
on employees’ home networks could create
risks for businesses. Last year, infosec firm
Bitdefender found a number of security
vulnerabilities in a particular brand of baby
monitors, potentially enabling attackers
to either access the camera feed or execute
malicious code on vulnerable devices.
And, in addition to commercial impact,
the risks of IoT-related service disruptions
extend to the critical infrastructure in
our communities.
New and escalating
challenges
According to Palo Alto Networks,
security teams are now faced with
new and escalating challenges that are
unique to IoT security, including:
• Inventory – not having clear visibility
and context for what IoT devices
are in the network, and how to
securely manage new devices.
• Threats – lack of well-embedded
security into IoT device
operating systems that are hard
or impossible to patch.
• Data volume – overseeing vast amounts
of data generated from both managed
and unmanaged IoT devices.
• Ownership – new risks associated with
the management of IoT devices by
disparate teams within the organisation.
• Diversity – the sheer diversity
of IoT devices, in terms of their
limitless forms and functions.
• Operations – the unification crisis
wherein IoT devices are critical to
core operations yet difficult for IT to
integrate into the core security posture.
technologymagazine.com
93
Enabling educators.
Empowering students.
Explore how we accelerate student discovery, learning
and innovation with our Digital Education 3D Experience.
EXPLORE THE 3D EXPERIENCE
CLOUD & CYBER
“Thanks to the
work-fromanywhere era,
the boundaries
between home
and work
networks
have blurred”
SUNIL RAVI
CHIEF SECURITY ARCHITECT,
VERSA NETWORKS
“Imagine the implications of an attack
on the switching infrastructure of a metro
subway line, a wireless pacemaker becoming
compromised, or a power grid shutting
down,” reports a whitepaper by Fortinet.
As the report explains, security professionals
must be prepared to define solution
requirements thoughtfully to guard against
these new threats.
“Thanks to the work-from-anywhere
era, the boundaries between home and
work networks have blurred,” explains
Sunil Ravi, Chief Security Architect at
Versa Networks. “Once the malware has
breached a home network, it can then
move laterally across to the homeowner’s
work network, inflicting significant damage
to the organisation. With IoT devices being
the perfect target for malware, vendors
must ensure that their products have
effective security.”
Connected devices can
be vulnerable to breaches
As Palo Alto Networks explains, without
robust security, any connected IoT device
is vulnerable to breach, compromise,
and control by a bad actor to ultimately
infiltrate, steal user data, and bring
down systems.
With large volumes of diverse IoT devices
continuing to connect to the network,
a dramatic expansion of the attack surface
is occurring in parallel. As a result, the entire
network security posture is diminished,
in terms of the level of integrity and
protection offered to the least secure device.
In addition to these challenges, 98%
of all IoT device traffic is unencrypted,
putting personal and confidential data
at severe risk.
Almost half of the respondents to
a study by Capgemini identified the inclusion
of technologies like IoT as one of the
main issues exposing their organisation
to breaches. Ineffective delegation
of cybersecurity responsibilities also ranks
amongst the top vulnerabilities, an issue
making it difficult to identify malicious
activity in a timely manner.
technologymagazine.com
95
“While on the
surface it seems
like security
and networking
performance
are at complete
opposite ends
of the spectrum,
SASE has proven
an ability to strike
the perfect
balance between
the two entities”
APURVA MEHTA
CTO AND CO-FOUNDER,
VERSA NETWORKS
96
April 2023
CLOUD & CYBER
The rise of SASE
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
is an emerging wide-area networks
(WAN) model coined by Gartner in The
Future of Network Security is in the
Cloud that delivers network and security
capabilities, including SD-WAN, ZTNA,
FWaaS, secure web gateway, and CASB
as services to protect connected entities
with a zero-trust security model.
According to Gartner: “SASE
capabilities are delivered as a service
based upon the identity of the entity,
real-time context, enterprise security/
compliance policies and continuous
assessment of risk/trust throughout
the sessions. Identities of entities can
be associated with people, groups
of people (branch offices), devices,
applications, services, IoT systems, or
edge computing locations.”
technologymagazine.com
97
CLOUD & CYBER
“With SASE,
IoT devices can
maintain their
performance to
meet the needs
of the business
but also ensure
that security
is watertight”
APURVA MEHTA
CTO AND CO-FOUNDER,
VERSA NETWORKS
98
April 2023
As Tom Canning, Vice President
of Global Sales IoT and Devices at Canonical,
explains: “Businesses need to take
a long, hard look at where their burden
of security lies, and seriously consider
putting trust in IoT applications to support
and manage networks. That way, managers
can be confident that they’re futureproofing through technology, which can
automatically remediate any security issues.
“It’s no longer a case of one-size-fitsall in the smart era of Industry 4.0. Device
hardware is not static and manufacturers
must recognise that the future does not
lie in this form of vulnerable hardware,
but instead in software-defined capabilities.
“As attacks continue to accelerate, more
action is needed to protect and futureproof the manufacturing industry. It will
take investment and a real commitment
to change how the industry thinks about
security in relation to smart infrastructure.
The billions of existing IoT devices were
not deployed overnight, and the security
problems they inherit will not be fixed
overnight, either.”
SASE striking the perfect balance
Coined by Gartner in the 2019 Networking
Hype Cycle and Market Trends report,
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
introduces a new architecture where
networking and security functions are
bundled in a cloud-delivered service.
As IoT and internet-based traffic continues
to soar, SASE allows enterprises to
streamline network integration, security,
and policy management of distributed
devices with a centrally-managed platform.
“Whilst on the surface it seems like
security and networking performance are
at complete opposite ends of the spectrum,
SASE has proven to be able to strike the
perfect balance between the two entities,”
explains Apurva Mehta, CTO and co-founder
at Versa Networks.
“SASE allows for a tighter integration
between networking performance and
security. This means IoT devices can be secure,
while also ensuring that high performance
is maintained. Additionally, through SASE,
organisations can ensure that all endpoints
on IoT networks receive the same amount
of security coverage and management
capabilities – giving security teams complete
visibility across their network.”
Not only does SASE give organisations
visibility across all endpoints in IoT
networks, but it also segments the network,
too. By doing this, organisations can
restrict the movement of malware on IoT
networks, meaning that the cyber-risk of
an organisation is dramatically reduced.
Additionally, when suspicious activity is
spotted within IoT devices, it can be easily
located by security teams and mitigated.
“IoT devices are here to stay and they
have proven to be extremely valuable to
businesses, however, they must be secure,”
Mehta concludes. “With SASE, IoT devices
can maintain their performance to meet the
needs of the business but also ensure that
security is watertight.”
technologymagazine.com
99
CONNECTING,
EVOLVING, AND
LEADING THE
AUSTRALIAN
MARKET
WRITTEN BY:
JOSEPHINE
WALBANK
100
April 2023
PRODUCED BY:
STUART
IRVING
INDARA
technologymagazine.com
101
INDARA
Scott Robson, Executive Director
of Deployment, outlines
how Indara has achieved its
trademark speed-to-market
and become a leading Australian
digital infrastructure operator
W
ith over 22 years’
experience and over
4300 sites, Indara is
a leading owner and
operator of wireless
digital infrastructure in Australia. With an
ambitious build and growth programme,
they have over 700 new Build to Suit (BTS)
sites currently in development.
In charge of this extensive portfolio and
its rapid expansion is Scott Robson, the
Executive Director of Deployment at Indara.
“My role is to oversee the portfolio
and infrastructure services growth of the
business – and that includes the 700+ BTS
programme, plus the professional services
that we offer. Those services include site
acquisition, town planning, site design,
structural and radio frequency engineering,
and construction services we perform on
our infrastructure for our customers,”
Robson explains.
In an exclusive interview, we speak to
Robson about his role and the factors that
enable Indara to strengthen its reputation as
a leading digital infrastructure provider.
Australia’s No.1 choice in
Wireless Digital Infrastructure
Indara is a leading owner and operator of
digital infrastructure in Australia. Over the
course of the last two decades, it has firmly
established itself as a connectivity leader.
102
April 2023
Scott Robson,
Executive Director
of Deployment,
at Indara
technologymagazine.com
103
INDARA
“Our vision is delivered
by our operational
excellence and
commitment to
customer experience,
underpinned by
our organisational
design and focus
on ESG”
SCOTT ROBSON
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF DEPLOYMENT, INDARA
104
April 2023
“Our vision is to accelerate a sustainable
digital future – across all of Australia –
being our customers’ first choice provider
of innovative wireless digital infrastructure,
supporting smarter and more connected
communities,” Robson explains.
“We own, build, operate, and manage
the critical physical infrastructure across
the country. We've got deep industry
knowledge and expertise delivering
new infrastructure and services across
our portfolio.”
These sites are strategically located
across both metropolitan and regional areas
to enable our customers to deliver highspeed, reliable connectivity across Australia.
SCOTT ROBSON
TITLE: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
DEPLOYMENT
COMPANY: INDARA
INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS
LOCATION: AUSTRALIA
Speed to market – an invaluable
competitive advantage
In a market like Australia, the main obstacles
that providers face will, inevitably, include
the cost to upgrade or expand a network
over a vast land mass and geography. With
over 4000 sites, the challenge that they
always consider is, how quickly could a
customer expand its coverage, upgrade,
or add a new technology, like 5G? And
how does Indara help navigate this?
EXECUTIVE BIO
“Our vision is delivered by our operational
excellence and commitment to customer
experience and is underpinned by our
organisational design and focus on ESG.
With more than 20
years’ experience in the
telecommunications industry, Scott
is responsible for the management
of Indara’s infrastructure and
services growth.
Scott has extensive turnkey
mobile deployment experience
and has been intimately involved
in all major 3G, 4G, and 5G rollouts
as well as public and private
network deployments. Scott’s role
is to grow Indara’s infrastructure
portfolio focusing on the customer’s
experience and implementation
of new infrastructure products
and services.
With a strong proven track record
of delivery, Scott is passionate about
delivering outcomes in partnership
with customers and suppliers.
Scott holds a Master of
Business Administration
from Macquarie Graduate
School of Management
and a Bachelor of
Building (Construction
Economics), from the
University of
Technology
Sydney.
We deploy the
infrastructure and
technology that
connects the world.
With consumer demand for greater coverage and more
data, the need for outsourced telecom infrastructure
deployment has intensified over the last decade.
As a leading service provider, CPS has a proven
history delivering this infrastructure and deploying
every technology generation (1G to 5G) to date.
Learn more
Longest Serving
Technology Agnostic
CPS commenced operations in
1992 and we are the longest
running independent service
provider in the Australian market.
CPS Supports all OEMs and are
therefore independent with our
approach to project work.
WWW.CPSTECH.COM.AU
Founded in 1992, CPS is one of Australia's
most experienced, trusted, and highvolume end-to-end infrastructure and
telecommunications deployment partners.
We are a certified Australian owned
and operated company that provides
a diverse workforce for the Australian
telecommunications market. We have
over 120 multi-disciplined employees
with specialist skills. As an organisation,
our vision is to be the leading enabler of
technology, connectivity, and innovation
that ultimately improves productivity,
life, and leisure in Australia.
in technological innovations that drive
efficiency, productivity, and quality
in our project management tracking
and in service delivery.
With a comprehensive and diverse
portfolio, we have delivered over
3,000 projects from end to end over
the past 5 years. Our core competency
is delivering high volume, fast paced,
micro projects, for leading infrastructure
and telecommunication customers.
CPS is focussed on ensuring we
support our customer’s local, state,
and federal telecommunications demand.
Consequently, we have invested
Our rich heritage, approach to problem
solving, and commitment to great
service and performance, as well as our
burning desire to listen and deliver our
customer’s goals, will see CPS remain
at the fore of the infrastructure and
telecommunications sectors.
Our approach is to continually strive
for excellence and by seamlessly
integrating our people, processes, and
systems into our customer organisations,
we become a natural extension of their
organisation. This allows us the ability
to cultivate a culture of collaboration and
innovation, as we firmly believe in being
in the project, rather than on the project.
Learn more
Australia Wide
Safety & Quality
CPS typically has projects
running in every State and
Territory in Australia
CPS works to the highest
standards of safety and quality
and uphold that with a passion.
Connecting, evolving and
leading the Australian market
WATCH NOW
“Our vision is to
accelerate a sustainable
digital future – across
all of Australia – being
the customer's first
choice, a provider of
innovative wireless
digital infrastructure,
and to support smarter,
more connected
communities”
SCOTT ROBSON
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF DEPLOYMENT, INDARA
108
April 2023
“What we offer to the industry is speedto-market. We continue to invest in our
processes, systems, and site data to enable
our customers to get on site faster and easier.
“While we understand our existing
sites, one of the key factors (or barriers to
overcome) in the deployment of new sites
is the property acquisition and regulatory
approval regime as there's a significant
amount of time required to navigate through
both local and state government approvals
and processes. So, building community
engagement and awareness strategies,
understanding what matters most to each
community, and building relationships with
local councils and government agencies are
what’s required to develop infrastructure that
meets the needs of our customers and that
of the community.”
INDARA
Use more image
captions as often
as possible
When it comes to asserting – and
Rapid portfolio expansion to support
consistently re-asserting – its position as a
customers and accelerate a digital future
leading digital infrastructure provider, speed
Indara is implementing state-of-the-art
is a critical market differentiator for Indara.
and exceptionally reliable infrastructure
“We exist as a company to accelerate
solutions across Australia, extending its
the transformation to the digital world. Our
4,300-strong portfolio at a rapid pace.
growing infrastructure solutions empower
“As an organisation, we have an
a smarter, more sustainable digital future,”
innovation and growth mindset.
Robson explains.
Our portfolio growth – both in the
“We support new technologies to
towers, rooftops, and other
benefit all Australians. We shape the
infrastructure – is designed
future of digital infrastructure, and with
to capitalise on the digital
our extensive experience, we offer a
technologies that are shaping
diverse suite of services and solutions.
our lives now and in the future.
From circa 750
sites
in
2000,
Our longstanding reputation for
And we leverage our technical
Indara has grown
operational excellence, engineering
partnerships, operational
to a vast network
of over 4,300 sites,
expertise, and our commitment to
expertise, and long-standing
with an additional
customer experience are major pillars
experiencein the industry to
700 currently in
of what we do and how we do things.”
make it happen.
development
4.3K+
technologymagazine.com
109
Trusted supplier of
telecommunications
structures
SINCE 1994
Roam Engineering specialise in
providing innovative and cost-effective
telecommunications monopoles, towers,
guyed-masts, headframes, and structure
strengthening solutions.
We are a proud Australian business, with a
reputation for quality, engineering capability,
and customer service.
LEARN MORE
INDARA
“What we offer
to the industry
is speed-tomarket: having
the knowledge,
expertise, and
data that supports
faster and easier
deployment
solutions for
all customers”
SCOTT ROBSON
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF DEPLOYMENT, INDARA
“We have over 22 years’ experience and,
in that time, we’ve supported – or actively
participated in – every wireless technology
deployment for all the MNOs, government,
and enterprise customers,” Robson asserts.
“We’ve been involved, first-hand, in some
of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects
and network deployments, from Australia’s
National Broadband Network, through to
more recently partnering with TPG and
Optus for their 5G network rollouts, providing
new infrastructure and professional services
across our portfolio. We’ve also partnered
with the government on regional connectivity
programmes, to expand infrastructure in
underserved areas, and MNOs through
our industry leading structural engineering
services subsidiary Structel. So, we’ve either
been a part of, or heavily involved in, the
end-to-end process with all the major
deployments for the last 22 years.”
technologymagazine.com
111
INDARA
With its vast and growing portfolio, Indara
is able to provide their customers with more
choice and more flexibility.
“How we differentiate ourselves lies in the
way we develop and execute solutions for
our customers through our vast, constantly
growing digital infrastructure portfolio. For
a customer, that solution might be a macro
tower, it might be a small cell on our smart
poles, or it might be a DAS through our
inbuilding solution.
“Regardless, our focus is on developing
the right outcome for our customers, and
this approach is not simply anchored to a
tower or infrastructure that we have today.
As a company, we will continue to look for
opportunities to expand our infrastructure
and services to support our customers’
future plans and we’re supported by our
shareholders – Australian Super and Singtel.”
To that end, Robson explains that Indara
simply couldn’t exist without its partners.
The company has built up an extensive
partner ecosystem, working with leading
providers such as CPS Technology and
Roam Engineering.
“We have a curated panel of partners
with national coverage and scope across
professional services and construction,
who make up our deployment ecosystem.
And CPS is one of those key partners that
spans both professional services and
construction services.”
“We depend on CPS to deliver on our
national build-to-suit (BTS) programmes.
We rely on CPS to find and acquire a
new site, obtain all regulatory approvals,
complete the engineering design, and
then construct and integrate these towers
into our network. So, CPS is along the
journey with us from start to finish. And
we absolutely rely on their expertise to
provide our customers with our speed-tomarket advantage.”
112
April 2023
technologymagazine.com
113
Engineering
Imagined
LeBLANC, 45+ years dedicated to the
Australasian market, bespoke engineered
manufactured solutions, innovation, and
excellence…trusted partner, even by nature.
Safety and
Constructability First.
ACUTA your specialist partner committed
to performance and quality, facilitating height
safety, PPE and consumables to the telco,
utilities, aviation, and construction sectors.
114
April 2023
INDARA
“We exist as
a company to
accelerate the
transformation
to the digital
world”
SCOTT ROBSON
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF DEPLOYMENT, INDARA
Similarly, Indara’s partnership with
Roam Engineering is key to maintaining the
company’s characteristic growth pace.
“A core part of our growth strategy is
building new sites, and we've got many,
many hundreds in progress. Roam is one
of our major structure suppliers across the
design, supply and installation of lattice
towers and monopoles, and we use Roam
structures right across Australia. So, whether
it's a 50m lattice tower or a 30m monopole,
we rely on Roam's engineering, talent, and
expertise to supply us with towers that are
designed to suit the location we've selected.”
In short, Robson explains, Indara’s partner
ecosystem is essential to the work that it
does and the results that it achieves.
“We work closely with our partners to
succeed and we see them as an extension
of our team.”
Smart cities, smart cells and pioneering
technologies – the future for Indara
Indara acquired ENE.HUB and HUB in
the latter half of 2022. This company has
been a global leader in the design and
manufacture of multifunction poles and
smart street furniture for the last 20 years.
“Through ENE.HUB as part of Indara, we
deliver a wide range of products and services
for public spaces. ENE.HUB smart poles, for
example, are designed to support small cell
deployment while also providing other smart
city services. Integrated into the poles are
features that provide local authorities with
data to improve the safety and wellbeing of
their community as well as supporting smart
city services,” Robson explains.
“A key differentiator for Indara is that we
are able to develop coverage solutions.
We are able to deliver integrated wireless
functionality into the smart city space, be
it via the smart.node, smart poles, or smart
technologymagazine.com
115
INDARA
“Speed-to-market remains key. Digital
Twin provides our customers with the
information that allows for straight
through processing and, therefore,
faster, easier access to site”
SCOTT ROBSON
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF DEPLOYMENT, INDARA
116
April 2023
furniture. Another unique product
development has been our tower.node,
which was originally designed for
community sports field lighting, now
reimagined with telecommunications
in mind as well.”
This is just one component of Indara’s
growth and diversification plan.
Another key strategic initiative is Indara’s
digital transformation strategy, which
consists of significant investment in all areas
to improve our customer experience.
“Digital transformation is something we
are continuously doing to change the way
we interact with our customers and our
ability to provide a consistent and high
quality customer experience,” Robson states.
“We’re investing in the latest technologies
and platforms that will support smart
data and high-tech digital interaction to
enable our customers to get on site faster
and easier. Internally, this will improve
efficiencies for our business and enable
us to scale as we grow.”
One of the areas that Indara is heavily
investing in is its Digital Twin capability.
“Digital twins are digital representations
of sites that provide Indara and its
customers with access to up-to-date
site information, including information
of each of our customers’ equipment on
our infrastructure. Integrating that level of
detailed data into our systems will enable
our customers to make more accurate and
informed decisions than ever before”.
“Speed-to-market remains key. Digital
Twin provides our customers with the
information that allows for straight through
processing and, therefore, faster, easier
access to site.”
technologymagazine.com
117
Turning vast amounts
of data into useful
information is a major
challenge. CMOs must
work with IT leaders
to make the most
of data analytics
WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW
F
ENTERPRISE IT
rom improving decision-making
to enhancing the understanding
of the market and competition,
data and data analytics (D&A)
hold an increasingly important
role for Chief Marketing Officers.
Research from Gartner conducted in
2022 found CMOs are increasingly targeting
D&A and marketing technology. With
customer data including everything from
online purchase data, click-through rates
and browsing behaviour to social media
interactions, mobile device usage, and
geolocation data, there is a huge quantity
of available information.
But as consumers generate more
data than ever before, the firm’s The
State of Marketing Budget and Strategy
2022 survey also found that there
are a number of resource challenges
around dealing with that data.
The report found that CMOs must
work with IT leaders to establish clear
governance rules regarding the extent,
scope and timing of IT’s involvement in
business- or marketing-led digital projects.
Successful partnerships involve clear
definitions of safe zones and the co-creation
of an adaptive governance framework.
“CMOs who cannot effectively partner
with their IT and D&A counterparts will fail
to build the necessary digital capabilities –
such as omnichannel journey orchestration
and personalisation – needed to deliver
a strong customer experience (CX) and
achieve customer acquisition and retention
goals,” said Aparajita Mazumdar, Principal of
Research in the Gartner Marketing practice.
“CMOs must educate C-suite executives and
senior IT leaders about the benefits of this
delivery approach, while also acknowledging
a mature and effective democratised delivery
programme will not happen overnight.”
technologymagazine.com
119
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This is the power that brings the integration of two cloud managed platforms,
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ENTERPRISE IT
“CMOs are under
pressure from all
sides for more
meaningful, intuitive,
and personalised
experiences”
PERRY KRUG
DIRECTOR OF SHARED SERVICES,
COUCHBASE
With an increase in martech investment
comes a number of challenges, explains
a report published by global management
consulting firm Kearney.
“Martech investment across companies
continues to grow, contributing to a flurry
of startups and M&A activities,” the report
explains. “With this comes an increasing
teaming of marketers, data scientists, product
managers, and IT/solutions architects.”
Despite these organisational shifts and
advancements, CMOs face many legacy
martech challenges. For example, today’s
martech stacks continue to be unnecessarily
complex, redundant, and fragmented.
“Many organisations are running 60 or
more applications, not to mention countless
data sources and content and digital asset
management platforms,” Kearney says.
“The result is a lack of orchestration between
tools, leading many organisations to
gradually move toward single platforms
and “one-stop shops.”
Turning data into useful information
As Perry Krug, Director of Shared Services
at Couchbase, explains, turning the sheer
volume of data into useful information is
a significant challenge.
technologymagazine.com
121
CMOs are drowning
in data, report finds
A third of CMOs (33%) are more
focused on the impact of rising
number of channels and platforms than
increasingly complicated consumer
behaviour (17%), according to new
research from integrated marketing data
platform Adverity.
Titled ‘Recession, Resilience, &
Marketing Data: What’s shaping the
CMO’s roadmap?’, the report found that
while 85% of CMOs agree the capacity
to make data-driven decisions is a
critical competitive advantage, many
are struggling to ensure effective data
management. Almost seven in ten
(67%) feel the volume of marketing data
available has become overwhelming –
with 99% using 10 or more data sources
and 52% using 14 or more.
122
April 2023
“Especially in the digital age, CMOs are under
pressure from all sides for more meaningful,
intuitive, and personalised experiences,” he
says. “Customers are generating more data
than ever before as they interact with brands
through channels from websites to mobile
apps and even devices like smartwatches.”
Used correctly, this can give all the
insights a brand needs. However, as Krug
explains, turning this sheer volume
of data into useful information is also one
of the biggest challenges marketers face.
“To deal with this, marketers need
three things,” he says. “First, they
ENTERPRISE IT
need to remove any barriers that
keep data locked away in silos – for
instance, limited to certain channels
or certain teams. If marketers don’t
have the complete picture, they can’t
make fully informed decisions.
“Second,” Krug adds, “they need all
the data to be immediately accessible.
If data takes time to process, marketing
teams aren’t acting on the most up-todate information. And if data can only be
queried in certain ways, then marketers
will be limited in what they can ask
and what insights they can gain.
“CMOs who cannot
effectively partner
with their IT and D&A
counterparts will fail
to build the necessary
digital capabilities”
APARAJITA MAZUMDAR
PRINCIPAL, RESEARCH,
GARTNER MARKETING
technologymagazine.com
123
ENTERPRISE IT
“The power of data and analytics
means businesses are now
able to draw together multiple
pieces of information about
customers to drive highly
targeted marketing outreach”
SCOTT LOGIE
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR,
SAGACITY
124
April 2023
New era of data and
analytics for martechs
The world has welcomed a new era
of marketing technology, according
to a report by Kearney. The martech stack
had become an unworkable collection
of “shiny objects”, say analysts, with
thousands of applications and datasets
being added to the mix, often without
ever being used.
Kearney’s Associate Partner Jason
Wehner, Vice President Jarosław
Podsiadło, and Consultant Alex Wang
compiled more than 40,000 martechrelated articles published in the past
three years.
Kearney’s findings indicate AI and
voice solutions have been welcomed
as new applications, but the new “data
and analytics” era requires the ongoing
evolution of marketing capabilities,
including tackling legacy challenges.
Today’s martech stacks continue to
be unnecessarily complex, the report
found, with some organisations running
more than 60 applications alongside an
unnecessary wealth of data sources as well
as content and digital asset management
platforms. This dizzying array of options
has led organisations to move toward
single “one-stop-shop” platforms.
technologymagazine.com
125
Couchbase Capella Overview
WATCH NOW
“Customers are
generating more data
than ever before as
they interact with
brands through
channels from websites
to mobile apps”
“Finally, data needs
hard-won skills aren’t
to be put in the hands
rendered obsolete.
of the people who
“An example
need it. If marketers
of this approach
have to put every
is Domino’s,” he
query through a
describes. “As the
dedicated research
largest pizza company
or database team,
in the world, with
they can’t be as agile
almost 18,000 stores
and run the risk of
in more than 90
information getting
countries and more
lost in translation.”
than 50% of worldwide
All of this can
sales across digital
PERRY KRUG
DIRECTOR OF SHARED SERVICES,
mean a substantial
channels – including
COUCHBASE
change in database
smartwatches and
architecture, especially
Slack – it had a
for organisations that rely on traditional
huge wealth of data to use. By adopting
relational databases. Nevertheless, as Krug
a modern database, marketers can now
explains, this change can be made easier:
pull out incredibly granular data in realby, for instance, adopting cloud services or
time as and when they need it – creating
adopting modern platforms that still use
ad-hoc, highly personalised marketing
familiar programming languages, so that
campaigns targeted at specific audiences.”
126
April 2023
ENTERPRISE IT
Analytics joining the dots
“The power of data and analytics means
businesses are now able to draw together
multiple pieces of information about
customers to drive highly targeted marketing
outreach,” explains Scott Logie, Customer
Engagement Director at Sagacity, and Chair
of the Customer Engagement Committee
at the Data and Marketing Association
(DMA). “The days of blanket advertising to
your entire customer base are gone, with
those that continue doing this not only
wasting time and money but also being
viewed as increasingly outdated by their
consumers, while many of their competitors
hit the target with increasing accuracy.”
If used effectively, analytics tools can join
the dots between people and products.
“It should help answer key questions
about who your customers are, where
they came from and the value of what
they’ve bought, but then also what they are
likely to buy in the future, through which
channel and what value they will drive
in the future,” Logie explains. “This data
can support more targeted and creative
marketing engagements and develop
better customer relationships as a result.
“For example, if a telco is launching new
upgrade bundles that combine multiple
phone deals with data or streaming services,
analytics can be used to identify the segment
of customers who are likely to be interested,
such as families that all have multiple
phones registered to the same household.
Ultimately, people buy from people and
using analytics enables businesses to
increasingly treat customers as individuals,
make marketing more cost-effective,
and avoid damaging relationships.”
128
April 2023
LIBERTY GLOBAL
TRANSFORMING
THE WORLD OF
ENTERTAINMENT
WRITTEN BY:
MARCUS
LAW
PRODUCED BY:
MICHAEL
BANYARD
technologymagazine.com
129
LIBERTY GLOBAL
Global communications leader
Liberty Global is building tomorrow’s
connections today, transforming the
world of entertainment using the
power of technology
L
iberty Global is a world leader
in converged broadband, video,
and mobile communications,
and an active investor in cuttingedge infrastructure, content, and
technology ventures. With investments in
fibre-based and 5G networks, Liberty Global
plays a vital role in society, currently providing
over 86mn fixed and mobile connections
while also rolling out the next generation of
products and services, as well as readying its
networks for 10Gbps and beyond.
But as Pieter Vervoort, Liberty Global’s
Vice President for Entertainment Products,
explains, there is much more to Liberty
Global than providing networking solutions
to customers.
“Our core mission is to build tomorrow's
connections today,” he explains. “We want
to bring people together using the power
of technology, and especially our network,
but also, the services that we deliver to the
end-user are then a central piece in those
connections. We matter in people’s daily
lives. Especially during the pandemic period
this became very clear to us but also to our
consumers. Reliable connectivity and great
entertainment were highly appreciated
when working from and living at home.”
An experienced executive professional
with 25 years of international experience in
the global technology sector, Vervoort spent
17 years working in consumer electronics
130
April 2023
Pieter Vervoort,
Vice President
Entertainment Products
technologymagazine.com
131
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Digital Transformation
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Engineer
O pe r a t e
O pt i mi ze
LIBERTY GLOBAL
“Our portfolio and our
markets have changed
quite a bit – you could say
that, nowadays, we are as
much a mobile company
as we are a fixed company”
PIETER VERVOORT
TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT
ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS
COMPANY: LIBERTY GLOBAL
INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS
LOCATION: AMSTERDAM
Responsible for the complete
current and future Entertainment
Products portfolio management of
Liberty Global. The product portfolio
aims to deliver a full, consistent and
aggregated entertainment experience
across several set top boxes and other
relevant platforms for our consumers
both in and out of the home.
Vervoort has been with Liberty
Global since 2015, when he joined
Liberty as VP Connectivity Products.
Before that, he had been at Ziggo
since 2012 as an executive leading
its product portfolio & innovation
for connectivity, entertainment,
digital & programming. Prior to
his tenure in telecom, he worked
for 17 years with Philips in various
executive international
roles in finance, sales,
marketing, product
strategy and business
management for the
Philips TV group.
PIETER VERVOORT
before joining the telecoms industry a
decade ago, starting with the innovative
Dutch cable company Ziggo.
“When I joined the group in 2015 – when
Liberty Global acquired Ziggo – Liberty
Global was very much a traditional cable
company,” he comments. “At that time,
we were active in over 12 markets in Europe
and also in Latin America. Today, we are
focused on fewer markets, but we are
a fixed mobile converged player and have
fully integrated broadband, video and
mobile into these companies.”
As Vervoort explains, Liberty Global is
combining the best broadband and mobile
networks under brands such as Virgin
Media-O2 in the UK, VodafoneZiggo in The
Netherlands, Telenet in Belgium, Sunrise in
Switzerland, Virgin Media in Ireland, and UPC
in Slovakia, creating what he describes as
National Champions.
“In the markets where we are active, we like
to think of ourselves as National Champions,”
he continues. “We are either the number
one or two player in those markets in which
we are active. Our portfolio and our markets
have changed quite a bit – you could say that,
nowadays, we are as much a mobile company
as a fixed company.”
EXECUTIVE BIO
VICE PRESIDENT
ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS,
LIBERTY GLOBAL
LIBERTY GLOBAL
Liberty Global:
Transforming the world of entertainment
WATCH NOW
“We very much believe that
consumers are overwhelmed
with the amount of video
content that they can get these
days. As a result, it’’s important
that they come back to a
place where they find all their
content, and it’s served to them
in an intuitive manner”
PIETER VERVOORT
VICE PRESIDENT
ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS,
LIBERTY GLOBAL
134
April 2023
Transforming the world of entertainment
Rather than a sole emphasis on fixed-mobile
convergence and broadband packages,
Liberty Global instead offers an integrated
entertainment experience to consumers,
with what it describes as the superaggregation of multiple services. Central to
this strategy, Vervoort explains, is providing
consumers with one place where they can
find all of their personal content, all served
in a very intuitive manner.
Its latest product, the Horizon 4 superfast
all IP mini set-top box offers 4K Ultra HD
picture quality and an upgraded version
of Liberty’s ‘GO’ mobile app, enabling
customers to watch programmes on the go,
whenever and wherever they want.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve been
putting a lot of energy into developing our
next-generation video platform, which we call
Horizon,” Vervoort comments. This has been
rolled out to millions of households, with
consumer feedback very positive: it reduces
churn, thereby increasing day-to-day usage.
“We have really seen that people have
embraced that concept. The platform
brings together the world of linear TV,
time-shift TV, and on-demand, but also
over-the-top streaming – all brought
together in an intuitive way.”
In addition to providing broadband,
video, and mobile communications, Liberty
Global is a very active investor in cuttingedge infrastructure, content, and technology
ventures, such as ITV in the UK, Plume for
smart wifi, Lionsgate for content, AtlasEdge for
edge computing, and the motorsport series
Formula E. Its content portfolio is positioned
to capture changes in the consumption of
entertainment, sports, and gaming, providing
a holistic experience to customers.
“We very much believe that consumers
today are overwhelmed with the amount of
video content that they can get these days,”
says Vervoort. “As a result, it's important that
they come back to a place where they find
all their content and it's also served to them
in a straightforward way. This means that
search and discovery journeys for content
on the platform need to provide the end
user with what they expect. This can be done
very easily by just using our voice assistant.”
In a competitive environment where
consumers face overwhelming quantities
of media, providing them with a frictionless
experience is absolutely essential. As
Vervoort explains, these ‘digital journeys’
technologymagazine.com
135
Placing sustainability at the center of product design
“CommScope Home Networks was thrilled to collaborate
with Liberty Global on the design of the Mini TV Box, a device
manufactured by CommScope, and could not be happier with
its continued success. We are committed to continuing our
support for Liberty Global, delivering solutions that achieve
their sustainability goals. By embedding sustainability
into the very product design, we can deliver the features
and content consumers want, manufactured in a way
we can all feel good about.”
Joe Chow, President,
Home Networks, CommScope
LEARN MORE>>
CommScope Home Networks is pushing the
boundaries of technology to deliver innovative
solutions that are built with sustainability in mind.
Our global team of employees, innovators, and
technologists empower customers to anticipate
what’s next and invent what’s possible.
LIBERTY GLOBAL
“Our digital journeys
need to be absolutely
frictionless. We do have
traditional channels
as well. But our digital
touchpoints – our apps,
websites, and user
interfaces – are critical
to our success”
PIETER VERVOORT
VICE PRESIDENT
ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS,
LIBERTY GLOBAL
– combining high-speed internet with the
capabilities of its streaming video platform –
drive customer satisfaction.
“These digital journeys need to be
absolutely frictionless. We do have
traditional channels as well. We still have
call centre agents, and we have engineers
Liberty Global
Tech Summit
available to visit customers’ homes in the
case of an unforeseen problem. But our
digital touchpoints – our apps, websites and
user interfaces – are critical to our success.”
Central to helping provide this seamless
experience when it comes to video is the
Reference Design Kit (RDK) platform, an
open-source software platform supported
by Liberty Global and Comcast, on which
the Horizon 4 set-top box was developed.
“The RDK platform allows us to create
a very rich and fully-integrated video
experience,” Vervoort explains. “It also
allows us to be in full control of our own
destiny and roadmap. That also comes with
a challenge. So, you need to define the
roadmap that you want carefully, and then
make sure that, with the RDK software and
your own engineers, you're building what
you're aiming for.”
technologymagazine.com
137
Liberty Global
Tech Summit
4K Mini
TV Box
The next generation
of services
Liberty Global currently
provides over 86 million fixed
and mobile connections
and is rolling out the next
generation of products
and services, while readying
its networks for 10Gbps
and beyond.
138
April 2023
LIBERTY GLOBAL
Developing products with partners
To enable its broadband and video offer,
Liberty Global works alongside many partners.
Its partners include Nuance, Gracenote,
ThinkAnalytics, Cadent, Conviva, and Adobe.
When it comes to hardware partners, Liberty
Global works with the likes of CommScope,
Universal Electronics, and Omni for remote
controls, while working with various software
partners such as Infosys, Prodapt, and EPAM.
“It's not possible these days to innovate
and do everything yourself,” explains
Vervoort. “We do a lot in-house. So, we
have a huge, skilled products and software
development team, but we also like to tap
into the scale and skills of our partners.”
One such partnership is with network
infrastructure provider CommScope, which
has been a long-term set-top box and modem
partner for Liberty Global, with its latest Horizon
4 all IP mini streaming box featuring heavily.
“Together,” Vervoort adds, “we have
developed products that are now in
consumer homes by the millions, and
they’ve proven to be a very reliable,
trustworthy partner. Our engineers and our
product people work hand-in-glove with the
teams at CommScope.”
What’s more, Liberty Global has an
extensive network of content partnerships,
from global streaming companies to
local broadcasters, ensuring a truly
comprehensive offering for customers.
“We have content partnerships with the
global streamers – Netflix, YouTube, Disney
Plus, Amazon Prime, and Apple. But we also
have partnerships with a lot of local players,
local broadcasters in most cases. Players like
Sky, ITV, BBC, SBS, and RTL are critical in making
sure that the end product that we deliver when
it comes to video is a complete product.
“Without partnerships, something like Horizon
is not possible. You cannot do that in isolation.”
technologymagazine.com
139
LIBERTY GLOBAL
Further rollout to more customers
As Vervoort explains, the future at Liberty
Global is looking bright. The platform
will continue to be rolled out to more
customers, while the amount of content
available will continue to increase.
“With our Horizon platform, we are now
for the first time active in all the markets
where we operate,” he comments. “Now,
we need to further penetrate the base and
roll it out to more consumers so they can
enjoy the latest and the greatest.”
Further down the line, the level of content
will be expanded into new areas and
possibilities, from audio and gaming to smart
home integration, as consumers look
for more holistic experiences.
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140
April 2023
“The challenge is to remain
relevant in the fastchanging, very competitive
video landscape.
The amount of content is
simply overwhelming. It’s
coming from every angle”
PIETER VERVOORT
VICE PRESIDENT
ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS,
LIBERTY GLOBAL
“That expansion of the definition of
entertainment is not something that we
have come up with, but that's something
that consumers are looking at the entire
entertainment space. It's very logical for us,
as a platform, to follow that definition and to
make sure that things like gaming and smart
homes also find their way onto the platform.”
As customers increasingly look
for seamless experiences, Vervoort
predicts that the future will see further
convergence between fixed broadband
services and mobile. “People less and
less find it important to fully realise on
what kind of platform they sit,” Vervoort
says. “As a result, the mobile experience
and the WiFi experience need to be
absolutely seamless. It also comes with
the obligation that the WiFi coverage
needs to be there at speed in every corner
of your home. It’s the same for mobile –
every corner of your country needs to be
covered with enough bandwidth.”
Liberty’s latest set-top box is designed with
this increased fixed-mobile convergence in
mind. “Our latest set-top box is very small and
fully IP-based,” Vervoort explains. “But it's also
fully cloud-based. With that, it can run over
a hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable, it can run
technologymagazine.com
141
TV Box
142
April 2023
LIBERTY GLOBAL
over fibre, it can run over DSL, and it can run
over a mobile network.
“As a result, it becomes agnostic and
independent of its video delivery from the
network. That's critical to us because we also
have various fibre rollout plans in some of the
markets in which we operate with our brands.”
Increased competition in the
entertainment space
As competition between streaming
platforms continues to increase, and
consumers are faced with ever-more
choices – with Netflix admitting last year that
competition was eating into its growth – new
strategies are necessary.
“If we look at the industry as a whole,
I think there will be even more competition
in future,” Vervoort predicts. “We already
saw the rise of global streamers with Netflix
and Disney, and all the others are following.
You can find video services everywhere now.
And, with players like TikTok and Instagram,
a lot of consumers get a bit overwhelmed.”
As a result, with uncertain economic
conditions globally causing consumers
to re-evaluate and cut back on streaming
services, providing bundled services will be
central to Liberty Global’s strategy in future.
“We foresee a need to offer an aggregated,
integrated, curated experience,” concludes
Vervoort, “not only from a user interface
perspective but also financially.
“Not everybody will sign up for 10, 11,
or 12 different subscriptions, so there is an
opportunity to also aggregate or bundle our
services. By bundling various subscriptions,
allowing people to pick and choose, this will
allow customers to be more flexible in the
way they consume their video content.”
technologymagazine.com
143
IBM
AND THE
ROAD TO
DELIVERING
REAL-WORLD
QUANTUM
BENEFITS
IBM is pushing the limits of what can be done
with quantum processors. We speak with
Richard Hopkins, Distinguished Engineer at IBM,
to find out more
WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW
144
April 2023
W
AI & ML
hen IBM previewed
its first quantum
development roadmap
in 2020, it laid out a
pioneering timeline for
progressing quantum computing.
In 2022, IBM updated its development
roadmap to present an equally ambitious
plan for scaling quantum systems beyond
old limitations and toward advantage. At this
time, it also unveiled the 433-qubit Osprey
processor, just one year after breaking the
100-qubit barrier with its 127-qubit Eagle chip.
“We are continuously scaling up and
advancing our quantum technology
across hardware, software and classical
integration, to meet the biggest challenges
of our time, in conjunction with our
partners and clients worldwide,” said
Dr Darío Gil, Senior Vice President and
Director of Research at IBM. “This work will
prove foundational for the coming era of
quantum-centric supercomputing.”
This year, IBM is on track to deliver its
1,121-qubit Condor processor, which will
push the limits of what can be done with
single-chip processors and controlling
large systems.
Richard Hopkins, Distinguished Engineer
at IBM and Fellow of the Royal Academy
of Engineering, has spent the last 30 years
with IBM, working with clients and solving
their problems, particularly in the UK
government space.
As he explains, the state of quantum for IBM
in 2023 is unique in a number of ways. “First of
all,” he describes, “it’s probably the first time in
IBM that I’ve seen a roadmap published quite
so far out as we’ve published it.
“We’re publishing at least three years
out every year. In that regard, it is entirely
different from anything else I’ve seen us do
in 30 years.”
technologymagazine.com
145
AI & ML
“We recognised very
early on that there was
a potential for hype and
misinformation. So, we
adopted a transparency
policy, the likes of
which I’ve never seen”
RICHARD HOPKINS
DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER,
IBM
This roadmap is founded on principles
of transparency, Hopkins explains. “We
recognised very early on that there was a
potential for hype and misinformation,”
he adds. “As a result, we have adopted a
transparency policy to the likes of which
I’ve never seen, and that has worked
enormously well.”
The roadmap to advantage
Capable of solving problems up to 100
million times faster than traditional
computers, quantum computing has
the potential to comprehensively speed
up processes, on a monumental scale.
Quantum computers use qubits, which can
be 1 and 0 simultaneously, allowing these
machines to handle much more complex
problems. Quantum computers might one
day run revolutionary algorithms that could,
for example, search unwieldy databases
or factor large numbers — including,
importantly, those used in encryption.
“This year we will hopefully announce
our Condor processor with over 1,000
qubits,” comments Hopkins. “That, in itself,
is a good step forward, but it's not enough
in its own right.”
technologymagazine.com
147
AI & ML
The Sounds of IBM:
IBM Quantum
WATCH NOW
IBM’s quantum
projects, all aimed
“We are continuously
roadmap also explains
at actually delivering
scaling
up
and
advancing
its plans to bridge
real-world benefits
multiple quantum
our quantum technology for our clients.”
processing units
across hardware,
(QPUs) together. These
Quantum
software
and
classical
techniques, it says, will
machine learning
be used to help it reach
Research has shown
integration, to meet
a 4,000 qubit machine.
that quantum
the biggest challenges
“We’ve also
computers have the
of
our
time”
announced that we
potential to boost
intend to improve
the performance of
the gate fidelities and
machine learning (ML)
DARIO GIL
SVP
AND
DIRECTOR
OF
RESEARCH,
the coherence of our
systems, and may
IBM
chips, so that we’ll be
eventually power
able to execute 100 qubits with 100 gates:
efforts in fields spanning everything from
a 100 by 100 challenge with error mitigation,”
drug discovery to fraud detection.
Hopkins adds. “That will be another leap
Most people will have been
forward in terms of accuracy and coherence.
inconvenienced at some point by a payment
“It’s a multilayer roadmap and the idea
being refused, or may perhaps have fallen
is that all those things are going to come
victim to a fraudulent transaction. Algorithms
together,” Hopkins explains. “These aren’t
used in the payment card industry mean
scientific projects, they are engineering
this is, fortunately, a rare occurrence.
148
April 2023
But, as Hopkins explains, even small
improvements to those algorithms will have
a sizeable impact, with evidence already
demonstrating that quantum computers can
help to resolve these common problems.
“We’ve recently published a paper where
we took information about real debit and
credit card details and transactions, and
passed them through a quantum algorithm
and two conventional algorithms, XG Boost
and Random Forest,” Hopkins says.
“Even with today’s quantum hardware,
providing we let the quantum computer select
the parameters to predict the fraud, then we
would get the same level of accuracy out of an
intermediate-scale quantum computer,” he
explains. “That, in itself, is not bad going, but it
doesn’t get you to that quantum advantage.”
However, as Hopkins describes, the
quantum algorithm was able to make
qualitatively different judgements and,
as a result, come to different conclusions.
“When we look at these results more
closely, we found that, first of all, the
quantum algorithm chose different
parameters,” he says. “And then, when we
looked at the results again, we saw that it was
making qualitatively different judgments.
The accuracy was the same, but it was
making a judgement on different elements
and coming to different conclusions in
many cases.”
As Hopkins describes, these hybrid
applications will have a number of use cases,
particularly in the world of ML.
“I think what you’re going to see, especially
in the ML space, is that these hybrid
algorithms will emerge fairly early on, where
you are combining the power of an existing
algorithm that can run at high speed with a
quantum algorithm, which will run slower,
but will actually take a qualitative different
decision, using a completely different
algorithm than the other one,” he says.
“I think what you're
going to see,
especially in the ML
space, is these hybrid
algorithms emerge
fairly early on”
RICHARD HOPKINS
DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER,
IBM
150
April 2023
AI & ML
Quantum security
The arrival of quantum computers
will make quantum security a vital
part of the new economy, according to
Dr Andrew Shields, Head of the Quantum
Technology Division, Toshiba Europe.
What’s more, the WEF predicts that 20
billion devices will need to be upgraded
or replaced to support new forms of
quantum-resistant encryption over the
next two decades.
“Even though we may still be a handful
of years away from quantum computers
entering the mainstream, hackers are
already using scraping and harvesting
techniques to gather encrypted data,
which they’ll be able to break into
once they gain access to the power of a
quantum computer," explained Dr Shields.
“This means that organisations need to
future-proof their data by protecting it
now, especially if it’s information that
remains sensitive for a long time, such as
genomic or financial data.”
technologymagazine.com
151
Quantum market
to be worth over $4bn
According to a report by Markets
and Markets, the quantum
computing market could be worth
more than US$4bn by 2028, growing at a
CAGR of 38%.
Factors such as the rising adoption
of quantum computing technology in
various industries and sectors, together
with increasing investments in quantum
technology, are driving the market, which
is currently valued at US$866mn.
According to the research, countries
such as the US, Germany, Japan and China
are expected to be the key markets for
quantum computing services.
152
April 2023
Use more image
captions as often
as possible
“In the commercial space, you’ll see
these hybrid algorithms begin to dominate,
where you’re using both together to come
up with something that’s better than we
could do today on a classical computer or
even on a supercomputer.”
The future of quantum
The potential for quantum computing
is immense. It can open up new
opportunities in AI and ML, with a growing
research field in quantum ML identifying
ways that quantum algorithms can enable
faster AI.
AI & ML
“Ideally we want to completely isolate people
from the idea that they’re using a quantum
machine,” Hopkins says. “The vision is, you write
a programme that performs some predictions
or optimisation, or generally does what
supercomputers are good at. And then, you’ll
send that off by calling a simple operation. Some
of that query will run on a conventional computer,
some of which might run on a GPU, some of
which will run on one or more QPUs, but the idea
is, eventually, it’ll be completely invisible to you.”
As Hopkins explains, quantum is likely to
be more useful in the future than many had
perhaps conceived.
“Quantum is going to be a much more
powerful capability than, I think, many
people were envisioning,” Hopkins
concludes. “I think people had in their
minds that quantum computers don’t
become useful until you’ve got logical
qubits. What we’re working out is how to
get value out of these things for our clients
in the near term.
“Eventually, I’m sure we’ll get to very
large numbers of logical qubits, but we
don’t want to wait until that point to get
value, and neither do our clients. So, we’re
doing something different.”
technologymagazine.com
153
Barnardo’s data
and insight journey
supports children,
young people,
and families
in the UK
WRITTEN BY:
TOM
SWALLOW
PRODUCED BY:
KRISTOFER
PALMER
154
April 2023
BARNARDO'S
technologymagazine.com
155
BARNARDO'S
Remi Martins-Tonks, Head of Data and
Insight at Barnardo’s, covers the UK
charity’s data and insight strategy driving
community and workforce development
U
nderstanding what goes
on behind the scenes of an
organisation allows you to
appreciate its achievements
and the operational scale that it
has to work to. This is the striking realisation
to be had when looking into the journey of
the UK’s largest children’s charity, Barnardo’s,
founded in 1867 by Thomas Barnardo.
He set out to provide homes and a basic
education for disadvantaged children–this
was a pivotal thread throughout the charity’s
history that echoes through its work in the
modern day.
The charity’s value of leadership has
spanned the generations. One case is
particularly visible among the data and insight
team: in 2017, Remi Martins-Tonks brought his
economics expertise into the charity’s fold in
his search for a role that would fulfil his own
values in alignment with those of his employer,
job, and the team in which he works.
“The values on which Barnardo’s
was established more than 150 years
ago remain the same today. Last year,
Barnardo’s provided essential support
to over 357,000 children, young people,
parents, and carers through more than 790
services and partnerships across the UK,”
says Martins-Tonks.
“We provide vital support to children
and families who need us most to help with
a range of issues from mental health to child
sexual abuse and children in care.”
156
April 2023
technologymagazine.com
157
BARNARDO'S
“We’ve been growing ever
since because there’s been
more emphasis on the
benefits that data provides”
REMI MARTINS-TONKS
HEAD OF DATA AND INSIGHT,
BARNARDO'S
Such motives extend beyond the
requirements of Martins-Tonks’ role,
supporting the backend operations of the
charity to enable teams with data-driven
insights and products. To understand
how this is incorporated into day-to-day
functions, it’s important to recognise how
it can support the team’s overall function.
158
April 2023
“The charity has changed over the years
as it responds to the world around it and is
moulded by the society in which it operates
to provide services that people need today.
But when we go back to the basics of what
informed our founder’s work, which was
about giving children the best possible start
in life, then it’s just as accurate today,” says
Martins-Tonks.
Barnardo’s values are: “respecting the
unique work of every person, encouraging
people to fulfil their potential, working with
hope, and exercising responsible stewardship”.
With the organisation venturing further
into the digital era, data has been selected as
a critical component of its ongoing strategy,
REMI MARTINS-TONKS
TITLE: HEAD OF DATA AND INSIGHT
COMPANY: BARNARDO'S
INDUSTRY: NON-PROFIT
LOCATION: ENGLAND, UK
allowing Barnardo’s to continue its vital work.
With a legacy dating back more than 150
years, the charity is continuously evolving
to incorporate more digital solutions
that streamline the work of other teams,
therefore encouraging the wider use of data
to carry their work forward.
“You can’t really take your foot off the pedal
at the moment. At Barnardo’s, we’ve done
a few things,” Martins-Tonks says. “Firstly,
we’ve appointed a new head of emerging
technology, who is a peer to me. Their specific
role is to do with the digital trends and how
we get the most use out of them.”
An example of this application is
aligned with continuous improvement,
EXECUTIVE BIO
Remi Martins-Tonks is the Head
of Data and Insight at Barnardo's,
the UK’s largest children’s charity. With
a background in economics, statistics
and data analysis, Remi has been with
Barnardo's for six years, including two
years in his current role. His team are
working to develop data products and
embed a data culture throughout the
organisation which improves decisionmaking and enables better outcomes
for the children and young people which
Barnardo’s supports. As well as his
passion for data, Remi loves learning as
he believes this is key to the success
of any team.
BARNARDO'S
Barnardo’s data and insight journey supports children,
young people and families in the UK
WATCH NOW
“The key is being able
to embed the use of
data to help us with
our core purpose”
REMI MARTINS-TONKS
HEAD OF DATA AND INSIGHT,
BARNARDO'S
which resulted in the adoption and wider
use of systems like robotic process
automation (RPA) to uncover data and
insights at a lower level. As the team
adheres to this principle, a number of
apprenticeships have taken on critical
roles within the team, learning areas such
160
April 2023
as data analytics, data science, and AI
and machine learning.
“We’re in the process of refreshing our
digital and data strategy, which is going to
focus even more on future digital trends,
now that we’ve got a more solid foundation
to build upon,” Martins-Tonks explains.
Training and career development is
indeed a key part of the charity’s strategy for
all-round social support, which, in turn, has
a profound impact on its ability to help and
support children, young people and families
in the UK. The end point for delivering value
through data is down to the product teams,
enabling various teams to reap the benefits
of its in-house data products.
“We’ve got one team that is focused on
creating data products for children’s services
and one on support services–building
products for our finance, HR, recruitment,
and the property and facilities teams. We're
also about to set up a product team focusing
on Barnardo’s Trading company.”
It’s all well and good having teams for
data and products in place, but how can
we understand the work that goes into
their products behind the scenes, as well
as the effect they have on the charity and
the people it helps?
Classification of the two can be complex,
but to understand them, it’s crucial to
assess the teams’ data purview: across all
areas of the charity, data is becoming firmly
embedded–though the application, uses, and
outcomes depend on the team or function it
informs–collecting information across a range
of parameters, not only informing what each
team needs at their fingertips via a dashboard,
but assessing different measures of success
to determine next steps.
As Martins-Tonks explains this, he also
provides an example of a recent data
product designed to aid the mental health
support which the charity provides. “The
feedback that we’re getting from that data
product is that it’s saving them time, because
they’re not having to run reports manually
and do things in Excel.
“This means that our teams can spend
more of their time helping children and
young people. Supporting those teams
allows them to consider who’s been referred
to the service and subsequently plan their
delivery based on the person’s requirements.
It also means we can begin analysing our
outcomes data and truly understand the
impact these services make.”
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BARNARDO'S
A qualified doctor, Thomas
Barnardo founded the charity
to support children who needed
homes and a basic education in the
19th century.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Barnardo
moved to London to carry out his
medical training, but couldn’t ignore
his sentiments towards those in the city
who were living in poverty.
He witnessed first-hand an
abundance of children sleeping on the
streets, which influenced him to give up
his endeavours in the medical profession
to instead pursue what seemed to him
to be an urgent need to do more to help
children and young people.
This birthed the charity that exists
today, which continues to carry out
his tireless work. Barnardo’s first step
to building the charity was setting up
a ‘ragged school’ to allow children free,
basic education preceding the creation
of the 1889 Children’s Charter and 1908
Children’s Act in Britain, which aimed
to alleviate child poverty.
Barnardo's
Our Impact 2021/22
WATCH NOW
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April 2023
DID YOU KNOW...
BARNARDO’S: A HERITAGE BRAND MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE
A culture of education and innovation
Ingrained into the organisation is its passion
for giving children and young people the
best possible start in life, but having an
educational culture means the benefits are
twofold. From an employment perspective,
Barnardo’s prides itself on supporting the
careers of its team members, and this has a
knock-on effect on their commitment to the
cause and the outcomes they produce.
As part of this educational culture at
Barnardo’s, it works to ensure that all new
or existing employees embody the charity’s
values in everything they do.
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BARNARDO'S
This is especially noticeable in Martins-Tonks’
data and insight team–it’s all about reflection.
“I always make sure I mention the
importance of learning–and that’s learning
by experience. That means working on
something, delivering on it, and then
reflecting: what did you achieve, what could
have been improved, and what you'll do
differently next time,” says Martins-Tonks.
“It’s also part of a wider data culture. If
colleagues are supported to learn, if they’re
curious and confident about the data they’re
using, that’s really important for enabling
things to improve.”
The in-house development programme is
what allows teams to advance their careers
through Barnardo’s, which seems to be the
major driving factor for some of its employees.
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April 2023
“You can’t really
take your foot
off the pedal
at the moment”
REMI MARTINS-TONKS
HEAD OF DATA AND INSIGHT,
BARNARDO'S
“The majority of people I speak to are
generally motivated by learning and want to
do more; they want to be able to learn more.”
“One of the greatest privileges of being
a leader is giving people the opportunity to
learn and develop.”
Continuous development is a huge
focus point for Barnardo’s. Not just from
an operational perspective, but for those
who are supported by the charity. The
provision of a great service spans the entire
organisation and its work is never done.
Even across the data and insight team,
progress is key for the greatest outcomes.
Nevertheless, Martins-Tonks recognises the
great milestones of the team as steps in the
right direction.
“The key is being able to embed the use
of data to help us with our primary function
to support children and young people so they
can enjoy better outcomes and opportunities
in their lives,” says Martins-Tonks.
“We’ve got a whole load of metrics that
we’re measuring in the programme, in terms
of how much people are using data, how
much value they’re getting from it, and the
time they’re saving by using more efficient
data products.”
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11
Data products
released
697
Unique viewers
72.87%
Viewers as % of
intended audience
35,264
Total usage
(page views)
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April 2023
BARNARDO'S
“We’ve got one team
that is focused
on creating data
products for children’s
services and one on
support services”
REMI MARTINS-TONKS
HEAD OF DATA AND INSIGHT,
BARNARDO'S
This is a digital journey that would not
have been possible without Barnardo’s
partners, businesses well-established in
their relevant fields of support. From EY,
the charity received expert consultancy to
achieve its data-driven goals and revamp
its data architecture. EY also supported the
process of data migration, moving from
the previous legacy reporting system to
go digital instead, which incorporated the
adoption of Microsoft Azure as a system that
brings everything together.
Also supporting the team on this journey
is Amplifi, which is sharing its knowledge and
expertise, allowing Barnardo’s to access the
highest quality data for its operations. Finally,
Cambridge Spark is a crucial partner who
supported Barnardo’s with upskilling its Data
and Insight team in data science, analytics, as
well as some core data skills.
Partnership conversations will continue
as demands for digital literacy grows and,
with ample support from its stakeholders,
Barnardo’s will further data usage over the next
few years, embedding it firmly at its core.
technologymagazine.com
167
TOP 10
WOMEN
Earlier this month Technology Magazine
released its list of TOP 100 Women – here we
look back at who made the prestigious TOP 10
WRITTEN BY: DAISY SLATER
168
April 2023
TOP 10
Read on for
TOP 10, or
view the full
TOP 100 online
TOP 100
technologymagazine.com
169
TOP 10
10
Barbara
O'Neill
Global Chief Information Security Officer
EY
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Barbara O’Neill has been EY’s Global Chief
Information Security Officer since 2002 and
leads the company’s strategic direction for all
information security-related matters. Helping
to build confidence in capital markets and
economies across the globe, EY is a global
leader in assurance, tax services, strategy
and transactions, and consulting. Founded
in 1989 as Ernst & Young by Ernst & Whinney
and Arthur Young, the company rebranded
as EY in 2013, becoming a household name.
Joining Ernst & Young LLP in the US in 1997 with a BS
in Computer Science from Saint Peter’s University and
a MS in Computer Science from Fairleigh Dickinson
University, O’Neill started out as the company’s Director
of Information Security and took over the responsibility
for the Americas region shortly after, in 1999.
With extensive experience in information security
management, IT strategy, governance, and audit,
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prior to joining EY, O’Neill served as a Vice President
of Information Technology and held various IT
positions in the telecommunications sector. As
well as being EY’s current Global Chief Information
Security Officer, O’Neill is a Certified Information
Systems Security Professional (CISSP) holding
many certifications and licences with EY, including
EY Sustainability & ESG Series, EY Disruptive Tech
Series, and EY Transformative Leadership Series.
TOP 10
9
Rowena
Yeo
Chief Technology Officer
Johnson & Johnson
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Having worked in both the healthcare and
food & beverage industries in executive
technology-focused roles for the past 19
years, Rowena Yeo is the Chief Technology
and Global Vice President of Technology
Services at Johnson & Johnson. So far during
her four years at Johnson & Johnson, Yeo has
been responsible for overseeing the global
technology services organisation, which
helps to deliver new levels of technological
innovation and operational excellence to
enable unprecedented levels of digital
transformation, helping to better serve its
patients, customers, and stakeholders.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Yeo worked as
the Vice President and Chief Information Officer
across Asia Pacific for The Janssen Pharmaceutical
IT strategies to both support the objectives and
achieve the goals of the business in the region.
Prior to moving into the healthcare and pharmaceutical
industry, Yeo worked in the food and beverage industry
for Cargill, an F&B manufacturing company. During her
12 years with Cargill, Yeo held various positions across
the company. Her most recent job before moving to
The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson
& Johnson was a dual role job as both the Global
Group Chief Information Officer for the company’s
Agriculture Trading and Processing Enterprise and
the Asia Pacific Chief Information Officer. Her prime
responsibilities in this position included leading the
overall technology strategy, overseeing the global
stakeholder management and IT delivery teams, and
successfully executing the business IT programs.
Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Here, she was
responsible for leading the technology direction
of the Pharmaceutical group while implementing
technologymagazine.com
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TOP 10
8
Jae
Sook Evans
Chief Information Officer
Oracle
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With more than 20 years of experience in
building and leading global technology
teams to deliver secure cloud infrastructure
and services, Jae Sook Evans is the current
Chief Information Officer at Oracle. Having
seen the enormous impact that cloud
technology has on various industries such
as telecommunications, ecommerce,
and entertainment, Evans is currently in
charge of launching and operating Oracle
Cloud Infrastructure regions. These are
aimed at supporting the cloud services
needs of its customers and developers
around the world. She also oversees
the acceleration of Oracle’s own cloud
transformation to improve employee
productivity and overall user experience.
Passionate about shining a light on diversity and
inclusion in both the workplace and the wider
STEM industries, Evans is the Executive Sponsor
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April 2023
of DE&I for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. She has
previously served as a thought leader and champion
in a number of organisations focusing on diversity,
equity, and inclusion, such as Walmart’s eCom
African American Business Resource Group and
the Grace Hopper Celebration, which is designed
to bring the research of women in computing to
the forefront through a series of conferences.
Prior to joining Oracle in April of 2022, Evans held
two positions at American multinational retail
corporation Walmart, including Senior Vice President
of Global Infrastructure Engineering and Operations,
where she was responsible for the the company’s
ecommerce and store technology operations, global
infrastructure services, as well as public cloud and
edge cloud migration strategies, to name a few.
TOP 10
7
Penelope
Prett
Chief Information, Data & Analytics Officer
Accenture
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Working to inspire the ingenuity of
global IT and the promise of technology,
Penelope Prett is the Chief Information,
Data, and Analytics Officer at Accenture.
In her role, Penelope is responsible for
leading the company’s global IT operations,
inclusive of infrastructure, services, and
applications, allowing Accenture’s 700,000+
employees to work remotely while serving
its clients in more than 120 countries.
To aid Accenture’s global IT professionals who are
tasked with embracing change across a number of
facets including cloud and digital experience – both
of which are underpinned by intelligent technology
operations – Prett and her team are responsible
for transforming the company into a modern-day
enterprise. In her current role as Chief Information,
relationships with primary platform and industry
ecosystem partners – a job that she has been
building on since joining the company back in 1992.
During her extensive career with Accenture, which
has spanned more than thirty years, Prett has
held various leadership roles across its client and
technology organisations, including Chief Information
Officer and Managing Director, where she supervised
large transformation programmes and served as
the Resources Industry Global Quality & Risk Lead.
Outside of her leadership commitments, Penelope
is also extremely active in Accenture’s diversity,
equity, and inclusion initiatives where she has worked
on a range of programmes, including its LGBTQIA
initiatives as well as work on integrating veterans and
other non-traditional talent into the workforce.
Data, and Analytics Officer, Prett is also responsible
for cultivating and nurturing new and existing
technologymagazine.com
173
TOP 10
6
Jaskiran
Bhatia
Partner & Global CTO
Deloitte
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Jaskiran Bhatia is a renowned technology
and transformation leader currently working
as a Partner and Global Chief Technology
Officer at Deloitte. For over 25 years, Kaskiran
has been focusing on new age technologies
alongside how they can enable change and
transformation, while also making a positive
impact in the world. Before joining Deloitte in
2015, Jaskiran worked for the likes of KPMG
and IBM, where she developed her love of
technology to help solve complex business
problems. Though she graduated as an
Engineer from the BMS College of Engineering
in 1994, Bhatia has always been a technologist
at heart, having both led technologyfocused global teams and built software
products throughout her extensive career.
Bhatia started at Deloitte as Partner of Technology
Transformation and has worked her way up to Global
CTO in her eight years at the company. During her
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April 2023
career, Bhatia has been responsible for designing
and building Deloitte’s Enterprise Tax Technology
Platform, which serves to help customers and clients
meet their tax needs across the globe. She has also
worked as an advisor to Deloitte’s clients and tax
professionals, helping them use technology as a key
driver in the transformation of the tax function.
During her two-year stint at KPMG between 20132015, prior to joining Deloitte, Jaskiran created and
ran the Data and Analytics Practice in India, helping
her to build on her already extensive experience
and knowledge of new age technologies.
TOP 10
5
Kathryn
Guarini
Chief Information Officer
IBM
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Drawing on over two decades of IT executive
and management experience, Kathryn
Guarini is the Chief Information Officer at
IBM. She leads a global team of nearly 12,000
employees whose mission is to deliver the
future of IT by accelerating IBM’s digital
transformation, ensuring the full potential of
hybrid cloud and AI are realised to create a
productive environment for the company’s
over 250,000 employees around the globe.
Alongside her role as CIO, Guarini is a member of
the IBM Acceleration Team, IBM Technology Team,
IBM Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, IBM Privacy
Advisory Committee, and serves on the Hispanics
@ IBM Advisory Board. Kathryn has also completed
Science, where she developed and implemented
the IBM Research transformation and improved
the operational efficiency of the division.
Outside of her career at IBM, Kathryn serves on a
variety of boards that focus on ensuring diversity
within the industry, such as the Brookhaven National
Laboratory’s Inclusion and Diversity External Advisory
Board and the US Council for Inclusive Innovation.
Having earned a PhD from Stanford University, and
a BS degree from Yale University in applied physics,
Guarini has authored over 60 technical publications
including a book and a book chapter, holds more
than 63 US patents, and has been recognised
with various industry awards for her research.
the IBM MicroMBA programme, where she focused
on finance, marketing, and strategy. Before assuming
her role as CIO, Guarini served as the Chief Operating
Officer of IBM Research and Vice President for Impact
technologymagazine.com
175
TOP 10
4
Sam
Kini
Global Chief Information Officer
Unilever
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With a career spanning over a decade,
Sam Kini has worked extensively across the
technology industry with a strong focus in
the telecommunications sector. Starting her
stint in the technology industry at Virgin
Media in 2010 as the Director of Service
Management (Interim), Kini was responsible
for all the end-user services and computing
as well as service delivery disciplines and IT
operations functions. In this role, Kini was
also accountable for problem and change
management, supplier management, service
level management, and service performance.
Between 2010 and 2016, Sam held various roles
within Virgin Media and ended her six-year career
with the telecommunications giant serving as the
Director of Development and Delivery, Technology,
and Transformation. In this role, she overlooked
all IT Applications across Virgin Media, including
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April 2023
TV, portals and app development, sales, customer
service, billing, OSS, and enterprise/ERP.
After her career at Virgin Media, Kini moved to
the Belgian media, telecommunications, and
entertainment services provider Telent, assuming
the roles of Chief Information Officer and Executive
Board Member, where she was fully accountable for
all IT, digital, and data systems and services across
the combined Telenet group. Her current role as
Global Chief Information Officer at Unilever has her
overseeing the company’s enterprise architecture
as well as the development and delivery of applied
technology across all applications and platforms.
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TOP 10
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April 2023
TOP 10
3
Lakshmi
Hanspal
Global Chief Information Security
Officer, Devices & Services
Amazon
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In a world that is fast-paced and constantly
changing, with global threats to digital assets
being ever-present, trust is imperative. As
the Global Chief Information Security Officer
of Amazon Devices & Services, Lakshmi
Hanspal’s work encompasses all aspects
of trust, including products, platforms,
and operating environments. Observing
and influencing the role of trust in digital
security over the past 26 years, Hanspal has
aided Amazon’s mass migration to the cloud,
which she says has thrust the company into
a partnership era where conversations and
decisions must be a trusted collaboration
between cloud providers and customers.
An integral part of Hanspal’s job is to help leadership
teams navigate their way to trusted operations and
integrate secure transformations into their company
a strong emphasis on allowing herself to constantly
evolve, too, in an industry that is so often perceived
as disruptive. Through allowing herself to evolve, she
has become a proud champion of Women in Tech, an
executive sponsor of Veterans, and a committed citizen
to the development of the next-generation workforce.
Hanspal’s previous role, before joining Amazon
in 2021, was as Global Chief Security Office at
Box, the Cloud Content Management company
empowering enterprises to revolutionise the way
they work. During her time at Box, Hanspal was part
of the executive leadership of Box's Trust Office.
Her main focus was to build trusted products and
operate trusted environments. Some of her other
responsibilities included, but were not limited
to, disaster recovery, crisis management, security
operations, risk management, and data protection.
ethos. As well as helping others to evolve, she also puts
technologymagazine.com
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TOP 10
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April 2023
TOP 10
2
Renee
Lo
Partner CTO
Google
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Beginning her career as a software engineer,
Renee Lo, Partner Chief Technology Officer
and APAC Regional Director at Google,
now focuses on building teams that put
people at the forefront to unlock business
impact beyond the sum of individual parts.
As the regional director, Renee leads the
partner technology organisation across
APAC to empower and grow Google’s
already extensive partner ecosystem. By
leveraging Google Cloud’s tech stack, her
team strives to help partners deliver digital
transformation and innovative solutions to
organisations across the Asia Pacific region.
Lo has had an extensive career in the technology
industry – spanning over twenty years – where
allowed her to understand customer and partner
needs, helping her to best serve them today.
Before joining Google in September of 2022, Renee
served as the General Manager of Data and AI
at Microsoft, where she managed the cloud and
software revenue across Asia. Growing the business
consistently at more than 50% year on year, she led
cross-region specialist sales teams, built on and grew
local partnerships, and operationalised the business.
During her time at Amazon between 2015 and 2019,
Renee held positions in business development and
analytics, Big Data, and AI where she developed and
delivered field enablement programs across Southeast
Asia, grew the company’s partner community, and
provided key insights to engineering leaders.
she has worked in a variety of fields including
marketing, coding, product management, partner
strategy, business development, and go-tomarket strategies. Her past experience has
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TOP 10
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April 2023
TOP 10
1
Kate
Maxwell
Chief Technology Officer
Microsoft
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Kate Maxwell is the current Chief Technology
Officer at Microsoft, serving defence and
intelligence customers around the globe. As
a sought-after keynote speaker, leader, and
author, she is passionate about leveraging
the intersection of people, technology, and
culture to help organisations advance their
partnerships, alliances and missions. Some
of Maxwell’s key expertise include: public
sector digital transformation, unmanned
systems, and space mission management.
Maxwell’s work in the industry is highly
critical and, using her training in computer
science and systems engineering, she can
best understand the frontline of defence
technology, helping to bring service
members home after every mission.
for associations such as TechPoint Foundation for
Alongside her role as CTO at Microsoft, Kate also
and was included in WomenTech Network’s 100
serves as a Digital Transformation Council member
Youth and The Startup Ladies. Before joining Microsoft
in 2020, Kate worked at Raytheon, an American
multinational aerospace and defence conglomerate,
as Chief Engineer and Technical Director.
Outside of her role in the defence industry, Kate
is a huge advocate for diversity and inclusion in
the wider technology industry, and, in 2014, she
founded The Maxwell Scholarship at Cocalico High
School, which serves to recognise and support
young women pursuing a higher education in a
computing or engineering major. Thanks to her
determined efforts to encourage diversity in STEM
and her outstanding leadership, Kate was named the
Tech Executive of the Year in the Public Company
category for 2022 by the Indianapolis Business Journal
Women in Tech Leaders to Watch in 2022 & 2023.
for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and
has extensive board experience across the industry
technologymagazine.com
185
AD FEATURE
WRITTEN BY:
JOSEPHINE
WALBANK
PRODUCED BY:
LEWIS
VAUGHAN
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
ENABLING
EXPANDING
DATA CENTRE
INTERCONNECTIVITY
technologymagazine.com
187
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
OUTLINES THE VALUE
OF DATA CENTRE
INTERCONNECTIVITY
AND HOW ITS SERVICES
ARE DRIVING SCALABLE,
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
ACROSS GLOBAL MARKETS
E
XA Infrastructure (EXA) owns and
operates the most extensive
dedicated infrastructure footprint
connecting Europe and North
America. Since launch in September 2021,
EXA has worked tirelessly to expand its
global presence in pursuit of its clear aim to become the undisputed pan-European
and transatlantic data centre to data centre
connectivity provider.
The digital infrastructure provider
focusses on data centre to data centre
interconnectivity, enabling core to edge data
distribution and core to core connectivity
across all major European data centre
markets. Not only has EXA established a
critical position in the key FLAP market, but
it is also relied upon by data centres players
throughout Europe’s emerging Tier II & Tier
III markets, including the Iberian Peninsula,
the Nordics, and Central, Southern and
Eastern Europe.
So, to find out more about the role EXA
plays in data centre interconnectivity, and
its predictions for the future of these critical
markets, we spoke to two experts in the
team driving the company’s inter data centre
initiatives: Pravdomir Dobrev, Senior Product
Manager, and Georgi Lesov, Network
Investment Manager.
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April 2023
technologymagazine.com
189
“Customers can rely
on us to continue to
expand into new hubs
and geographies as they
emerge. We always strive
to be our customers’
growth enabler”
GEORGI LESOV,
NETWORK INVESTMENT MANAGER,
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
190
April 2023
A leading pan-European, transatlantic
connectivity provider
One of EXA’s key market differentiators
is the sheer size of its established and
growing network.
“Our network is an impressive panEuropean digital platform with over 500
Points-of-Presence (PoPs) globally. We
own and operate three transatlantic cables,
including the fastest and lowest latency link
between London and New York. EXA has
considerable presence on the east coast
of the United States and in Canada too.”
Lesov explains.
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
GEORGI LESOV
TITLE: NETWORK INVESTMENT
MANAGER
The focus of Lesov’s team is on strategic
network investments, with Lesov looking
after the CEE and Nordic regions. Lesov is
also responsible for overseeing data centre
interconnectivity with a global lens.
Dobrev’s role is the management of the
colocation product line and supporting EXA’s
growth strategy in the colocation market
space. Since launch, EXA has connected
– or is in the process of connecting –
tens of new strategic data centres across
Europe and North America, with the former
spanning considerably beyond the region’s
traditional markets.
EXECUTIVE BIO
COMPANY: EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
Georgi Lesov is currently a
Network Investment Manager
within EXA Infrastructure, and is
focused on CEE as a region, but also
DC-to-DC connectivity globally.
Georgi has been with the company
long before it became EXA. He
joined, back in 2016, what was then
Interoute. Over the past 7 years,
he has spent time in Operations,
Access, Product and most recently,
Strategic Investments – the latter he
describes as the most exciting position
yet. Prior to that, he was a Project
Manager for a local software company
and before that was
backpacking his way
through South-East
Asia. Interesting
fact – Georgi
also graduated
from South
Bank University in
London with a BA in
International
Politics. He
did his MA
in European
Public Policy
at King’s
College
London.
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
“The dedicated data centre
interconnectivity programme – which we
launched a few months after the launch of
EXA and is still ongoing today – enables us
to take a more proactive approach to capital
deployment, building into key strategic
data centres ahead of customer orders,
rather a game of “pin the cost on an anchor
customer,” Lesov explains.
“We look at each data centre individually,
by focusing on size (in terms of MW and
floor space), power density, PUE, age of the
facility, future scalability, and many other
192
April 2023
factors, which are all part of our due diligence
process. Then, once a candidate site has
made it to the shortlist, we execute within a
few months, and bring the site online.”
EXA also proactively surveys its customers,
to understand where they need their sites to
be – not only today, but in one, three- and
five-years’ time. EXA aims to be amongst the
first movers in these locations. Operating in
such a strategic way not only enables EXA to
grow with its customers but it means EXA is
also driving industry developments.
“It’s a positive mutualism,” Lesov says.
EXA also offers a set of professional
services for customers and partners
needing help, for instance with designing
and building Cable Landing Stations (CLSs)
and other key network nodes. EXA
has experience in building, operating,
maintaining, and the service assurance for
those sites, with years of expertise. Those
services and sites, as Lesov describes, are
the glue that joins the pieces of the puzzle
together, thus allowing EXA to be a onestop-shop for its customers and align its
operations to their growth plans.
PRAVDOMIR DOBREV
TITLE: SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER
COMPANY: EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
Pravdomir (Prav) Dobrev
has joined EXA Infrastructure as
a Senior Colocation Product Manager
and has over 8 years of experience in
the data centre industry. His former
role includes Senior Global Product
Manager, Colocation at Digital Realty
where he oversaw the core product
lifecycle and in the last few years, their
product integration with Interxion.
Prior to this, he worked as a Senior
Engineer at Romonet where he
consulted hyper-scale and large
enterprise DC operators on energy
management and sustainability. He
holds an MSc in Data Science
from Birkbeck College
London, and BEng
(Hons) in Building
Services Engineering
from London South
Bank University. He
is a member of the
Institute of Engineering
and Technology (IET).
500+
Points of Presence
3
Transatlantic cables
13
Tier 3 equivalent
datacentres
EXECUTIVE BIO
34
Countries
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
A partner ecosystem, driving data
build directly, or in geographies that we
centre interconnectivity
don’t see it as commercially viable, and our
As can be seen from the recent flurry
partners do the same with us. This means
of AI chatbot launches, advancing
we help each other but also challenge each
interconnectivity between data centres is
other and push each other to do better.”
a rapidly growing need, which is proving
critical to fostering the successful growth of
The role of data centre interconnectivity in
the industry at large.
the next evolution of key industry markets
“This year in particular, one of the top
As discussed, the growth of data centre
trends that we’re seeing is enterprises
interconnect services is linked to the
looking into more distributed types of
increasing demand for higher bandwidth
workloads” Dobrev explains.
associated with technologies’
“Essentially, it’s no longer the
advances, such as the Internet of
case that all enterprise applications
Things (IoT), machine learning etc.
are only positioned in the cloud.
This has triggered the need for
Cities Connected
So, to be able to serve increasing
linking data centres in a reliable
distributed workloads, core
and cost-effective way.
colocation sites and edge sites,
If we take Europe as an example,
connectivity providers need a
the European data centre market
reliable and low latency network
set to grow by 6.7% from 2018infrastructure. That’s why EXA and
2028, and a projected 2.86% CAGR
New
York
to
London
its services are playing a key role”.
predicted for the FLAP market
“We are a B2B-focused business,
from 2021-2027. And this trend
so we work very closely with all the major
shows no sign of slowing down.
telecom operators and carriers as well as
Being able to respond quickly to this
small, medium and large tech companies
demand is what EXA strives to achieve
needing to connect to them. We leverage
by investing where its existing or future
existing partner networks where we can’t
customers need PoPs.
“In the traditional markets, particularly
FLAP, there is still a large amount of growth
(these cities dominate in terms of population
and GDP) but this is also, obviously, where
there is the greatest amount of legacy
investment to capitalise, and hence
competition”. Lesov states.
“This is a growing trend, and we expect to
see more capacity coming online throughout
2023. However, it’s important to note that
other European markets are also growing
considerably, with plenty of edge nodes
to improve end-user experience as well as
PRAVDOMIR DOBREV,
new interconnection points coming online
SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER,
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
– between continents. This will be a game
300+
<59 ms
“This year in particular,
one of the top trends
that we’re seeing is
enterprises looking into
more distributed types
of workloads”
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April 2023
technologymagazine.com
195
EXA INFRASTRUCTURE
changer for the industry over the next few
“Simply put, if data centres exist on their
years, in colocation and in connectivity”
own – if they’re not connected to the rest
Dobrev explains.
of the world – then they don’t have much
EXA’s works hard to make sure that that
value.” Dobrev says. “That’s why they need
growth at the edge comes with the resilience
backbone architecture enablers, like EXA, to
the industry needs – something it
connect them to other customers
does through it’s drive for constant
and hubs. The greater the number
route diversification.
of locations that we establish a
“There are parts of Europe that
presence in, the higher EXA’s value
are data centre and networkis as a partner to our customers
Route kilometres
fibre network
dense and where supply often
and the industry as a whole.”
exceeds the demand, challenging
Quite a few of these projects
returns. The solution for us at EXA
and diversified routes are still in
Infrastructure lies in creating extra
the planning or building stage, but
diversity when it comes to routes,
when they will be ready for service,
introducing the latest network
they will attract considerably
Edge and network
technologies, and building greater
more sub-sea cables and require
colocation sites
resilience overall” Lesov states.
solid and redundant connectivity
In the case of more emerging markets
solutions. This is what makes EXA’s growth and
– such as Southeast Europe and the
investment in its network so important and
Mediterranean – though, the situation is
forward looking.
dramatically different. “It’s more about who
EXA is uniquely positioned to capture
takes the risk and aspires to be the first
emerging connectivity demand waves due
mover, taking ownership in building routing
to its network presence in both the mature,
diversity. It sounds like a cliché, but at EXA,
growing and early-stage markets. This is
we don’t just think about the future – we
a key strategic strength in the data centre
invest and work to create it” Lesov adds.
interconnectivity play.
Dobrev provides another example of the
EXA is proud to be the industry challenger,
diversification taking place in the industry:
a flexible and solid organisation willing to
“let’s think about the success story of
meet its customers’ bespoke connectivity
Marseille that over the years has become the
requirements.
world’s ninth largest internet hub, with links
Lesov adds: “Customers can rely on
us to continue to expand into new hubs
to 15 international subsea cables.”
“Enterprises across the continent continue
and geographies as they emerge.”
to leverage Marseille as a low latency
“We always strive to be our customers’
gateway to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
growth enabler. It can be either technically
But recently they started looking to diversify
or commercially, but we help our customers
win in the market.”
away from Marseille and invest in places like
Barcelona, Athens and other location points
along the coast of the Mediterranean, such
as Southern Italy. Diversification increases
security and creates more competition in
attracting the future big projects.”
114,000
270+
technologymagazine.com
197
HOW RETAILER
MASTERED ITS M
TO THE CLOUD
198
April 2023
R
MIGRATION
WRITTEN BY:
TOM CHAPMAN
PICK N PAY
PRODUCED BY:
LEWIS VAUGHAN
technologymagazine.com
199
PICK N PAY
Robert Heneke, Head of Cloud,
SAP Technology and Development
at Pick n Pay, details the largest
cloud migration ever carried out
on the African continent
F
or countless companies, the
process of moving their entire IT
infrastructure to the cloud has
the potential to be laborious,
complex, and long-winded.
When it came to the Pick n Pay Group
– one of South Africa’s biggest retailers –
there was also the added pressure of the
transition being the largest of its kind ever
carried out in Africa. Nevertheless, having
enlisted the services of Lemongrass based
on its proven track record, Pick n Pay’s
SAP systems have now been successfully
migrated using AWS as its cloud provider.
Responsible for overseeing the
architecture of this crucial project was
Robert Heneke, Head of Cloud, SAP
Technology and Development at Pick n
Pay. Heneke, who has experience in various
industries – including wool spinning, oil,
and mining – joined the company back in
2007 when it had around 750 stores. Today,
that figure stands at more than 2000.
Detailing the reasons for Pick n Pay’s
migration and its decision to use AWS requires
“a step back”, says Heneke, keen to show his
technical working. Cutting costs was, as one
might expect, a significant factor, but the firm
had also reached an important crossroads
where a big call needed to be made.
“About four years ago, we migrated our
BW (SAP Business Warehouse) system to the
cloud and, at that point, there weren’t a lot
of hyperscalers around,” Heneke explains.
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April 2023
technologymagazine.com
201
SAP on Cloud
Hyperscale. Hyperspeed. Hypercare.
Lemongrass, a software-enabled services provider
synonymous with SAP on Cloud, consistently delivers
positive business outcomes for its Enterprise customers
running SAP on hyperscale Cloud through a digitally
enabled, highly automated service delivery model that
empowers the greatest levels of agility and innovation.
GET MORE INFO
Lemongrass was perfect fit for Pick n Pay Cloud migration
Pick n Pay’s cloud migration had the potential to be complicated and intense
but, thanks to the expertise of Lemongrass, the project ran “like clockwork”
When executives at
Pick n Pay were planning
the retailer’s cloud migration,
they knew it was imperative
to bring on board a partner
with indisputable expertise.
In Lemongrass, they found
a specialist in putting SAP
on the native hyperscale cloud.
The firm counts companies
including Fender and
Transport for London as some
of its standout clients, and
came recommended by AWS
as a go-to partner thanks to
its longevity in the market.
been further from the truth.
Mark Hirst, Managing Director
for EMEA at Lemongrass,
explains: “You’ve got these
big, expensive, businesscritical SAP systems and,
actually, it all went like
clockwork. This project
went to plan, to budget,
and the reason is that this
is the only thing we do.”
Pick n Pay cloud migration
‘like clockwork’
Hirst picks out a few
challenges his team
encountered, but
successfully mitigated.
Lemongrass migrated
Pick n Pay’s IT infrastructure
with very little downtime,
allowing the company
to maintain its operations.
One might imagine that a
cloud migration as complex
as Pick n Pay’s would present
all manner of obstacles.
The reality could not have
Automation was utilised to
ward off system integration
headaches, while cloud
latency issues – common
to this region – meant
systems had to be hosted
by data centres in both
Africa and Europe.
A fruitful partnership
Lemongrass and Pick n Pay’s
partnership will continue for
several years and is effectively
split into two halves. The first
covers the migration itself,
while the latter concerns
“operation and innovation”.
Hirst adds: “Our first set
of objectives have been
achieved. The systems
are ultra-reliable and secure,
and massive cost reduction
has been delivered.
“We’re now starting the
journey towards a second
set of aims. How do we get
native analytics? How do
we make SAP more scalable?
How do we automate it more?
That’s the journey we’re on.”
“When we started to
crunch the numbers,
it seemed like we
could reduce our
costs quite drastically.
That was very
appealing to us”
ROBERT HENEKE
HEAD OF CLOUD, SAP TECHNOLOGY
AND DEVELOPMENT,
PICK N PAY
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April 2023
“We chose AWS at that point in time, so we
had some sort of a relationship with them.
“We went to the cloud for the whole of
our environment because we used to have
an on-premise data centre with a hardware
supplier that would stock it with infrastructure
such as servers and storage. They would
always try to be one step ahead of the
requirement curve so, when we required a
machine, we would only pay for what we used.
“The problem was, that contract was
nearing its end and we had to make
a decision: whether we were going to
extend the contract and be tied down
for another seven years, or whether
we would go for something else.
ROBERT HENEKE
TITLE: HEAD OF CLOUD, SAP
TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
COMPANY: PICK N PAY
INDUSTRY: RETAIL
LOCATION: SOUTH AFRICA
“We decided – as we already had a system
in the cloud, had paid our school fees and
understood how it worked – that it was
a good option at that point in time. Then,
when we started to crunch the numbers,
it seemed like we could reduce our costs
quite drastically. It was very appealing to
us to try and get that as an outcome.”
Choosing a partner
Recognising the sheer magnitude of the
task at hand, Pick n Pay’s tech specialists
entered into a rigorous selection process
– assessing eight companies across five
months – in an effort to find the perfect
partner to deliver the migration.
EXECUTIVE BIO
Robert Heneke is the Head
of Cloud, SAP Technology and
Development at Pick n Pay in Cape
Town, South Africa. He has 25 years
of IT experience, 16 of which have been
at Pick n Pay. Robert holds a master's
degree in Business Administration
from the University of Stellenbosch’s
Business School and was awarded top
student in 2019.
He is passionate
about growing as
a leader, positively
impacting his
team, and enjoys
running and
reading in his
spare time.
PICK N PAY
How retailer Pick n Pay mastered
its migration to the cloud
WATCH NOW
“Much of our
success around
our cloud journey
can be attributed
to Lemongrass’
skills and
can-do attitude”
ROBERT HENEKE
HEAD OF CLOUD, SAP TECHNOLOGY
AND DEVELOPMENT,
PICK N PAY
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April 2023
In the end, UK-based Lemongrass
was the standout candidate and got
the nod. “They were one of the few
contenders that had real experience
migrating SAP systems to the cloud,
especially on AWS,” continues Heneke.
“They didn’t only do the migration
for us, but eventually became our
cloud operators as well. Much of our
success around our cloud journey can
be attributed to their skills and can-do
attitude. I always find them willing to assist
and be part of a solution, even when the
responsibility is not within their area.”
A challenging first trimester
With a partner chosen in the form of
Lemongrass, the project took around
nine months for Pick n Pay. “It was fairly
lengthy,” adds Heneke. “I was joking we
all could have had babies in that time.”
The first job? List all the company’s
individual systems and rank them
according to requirements including
CPU speed, memory, disc volume, disc
I/O, and operating system type, before
mapping them to the AWS environment.
All in all, the total number of systems
to consider reached around 500.
“It sounds like something you can do
over a cup of tea, but let me reiterate
– it takes months to get right,” says
Heneke, who sounds almost haunted
by this stage of the process. “There's
always something that creeps out of the
woodwork. It’s a moving target because
continuously new systems are created
and other systems are decommissioned.”
Migration headaches
The migration itself was also far
from straightforward.
While a number of Pick n Pay’s Microsoft
systems could effectively be lifted and
shifted across to the cloud, the retailer's
SAP systems running on IBM AIX caused
headaches. Legacy systems on AIX’s big
endian couldn’t be backed up and restored
to the little endian in the cloud, meaning
the only option was to undertake an exportimport exercise.
“When you have to do that for a 20-oddterabyte database, it becomes quite a
difficult challenge,” laments Heneke –
though he also reveals that the hardest part
was managing the integration, bearing in
mind the hundreds of partners and suppliers
within Pick n Pay’s working ecosystem.
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PICK N PAY
“You have to imagine that all of
your integration points now change to
somewhere in the cloud. Partners and
suppliers all want to communicate with
your systems, so you have to coordinate
your efforts with them in cutting over.
“We had an integration catalogue
that we lived and died by, and
it worked very well for us.”
Cloud latency largely a ‘non-event’
Cloud latency was, quite rightly, a big cause for
concern prior to the migration. When Pick n
Pay wanted to move over to cloud computing,
the nearest hyperscale data centres were
more than 7,000 miles away in Europe.
However, for developers and users it
was – as Heneke puts it – a “non-event”.
Some disruption, for example, was only
experienced in customer-facing and realtime applications, especially scanners.
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April 2023
“At a SAP conference,
I said we intended
to go to the cloud
with our whole
environment – and
I was made out to
be mad”
ROBERT HENEKE
HEAD OF CLOUD, SAP TECHNOLOGY
AND DEVELOPMENT,
PICK N PAY
“Our distribution centres typically
work with a lot of hand-held scanners
and they can’t wait for those additional
PICK N PAY
milliseconds,” adds Heneke. “Especially
if the device is very chatty; multiple
roundtrips between the server and scanner
can add up to seconds in wait time.”
Ultimately, the solution was for AWS to
create a data centre in Cape Town, allowing
the smooth running of those crucial systems.
Heneke continues: “The question
would be, ‘why don't you just do
everything in Cape Town?’.
“It’s quite interesting that South Africanhosted data centres are about 15% more
expensive than the European ones.
There’s probably a myriad of reasons for
it, but I believe it’s because electricity
is more expensive down here.”
A move worth making
Asked about the benefits of moving Pick
n Pay’s IT infrastructure across to the
cloud, Heneke can’t help but bring up
an anecdote from a SAP conference
he attended a couple of years ago.
“We were standing around and
I said to this group of people, ‘Hey,
we actually intend to go to the cloud
with our whole environment’ – and
I was made out to be mad,” he recalls.
While this story is told in modest
fashion, there must surely be a hint
of ‘I told you so’ in Heneke’s mind?
In practice, the move has been a “real
success story”, allowing Pick n Pay to
reduce its infrastructure, operating,
and support costs by an enormous 40%.
Another huge bonus provided by
the cloud is the ability to easily scale
up and scale down its systems. For
years, the company’s main system
was a non-Unicode SAP database –
and, to progress to newer versions,
Unicode encoding was required.
This meant exporting the 20TB database,
a sizeable and expensive task given the
need to double up on hardware. “With the
cloud,” says Heneke, “we could just ramp
up during the project, do the Unicode
conversion, then scale down and all is well.
“For us, the flexibility that the cloud
has given us has been phenomenal.”
What next for Pick n Pay?
The global retail market, in Heneke’s
words, is in “quite a difficult place”.
From an IT point-of-view, however,
the goal for Pick n Pay is to automate
old support office processes through
RPA and further invest in singular
access across all of its platforms.
A digitalisation of the commercial
function within the clothing business –
to be led by American firm Blue Yonder
– is also on the horizon, while SAP has
requested that its clients move to the
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PICK N PAY
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April 2023
PICK N PAY
“The flexibility
the cloud has
given us has been
phenomenal”
ROBERT HENEKE
HEAD OF CLOUD, SAP TECHNOLOGY
AND DEVELOPMENT,
PICK N PAY
S/4HANA software over the next few
years. Clearly, a big part of Heneke’s job
is to pre-empt future trends, thus he
highlights the imminent need to invest
in on-demand delivery,
as opposed to the scheduled service.
He also points to industry cloud
platforms and their ability to incorporate
cloud services into a pre-integrated but
customisable, industry-relevant solution.
Heneke says: “SAP has got offerings
in that space, but we will still need to
review whether it's going to be costeffective and whether they can deal
with our business processes.
“The company is over 50 years
old, so it’s always difficult to change
the business processes.”
It would almost be remiss of
Heneke, a senior figure in the field
of technological development,
to not give ChatGPT a mention.
“It's on everybody's tongue at the
moment and I'm sure it will be used
within retail platforms in the future,” he
concludes. “Open AI has done a great job
in making AI accessible to the average
Joe and creating a vibe around it.”
technologymagazine.com
211
Flexible, scalable, and
supportive edtech
solutions
WRITTEN BY:
JOSEPHINE WALBANK
PRODUCED BY:
TOM VENTURO
212
April 2023
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
technologymagazine.com
213
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Tom Weeks, Chief Technology Officer
of Hillsborough County Public Schools,
outlines the district’s pioneering
approach to technological transformation
L
ocated in Florida’s Tampa Bay area,
Hillsborough County Public Schools
is the seventh-largest public school
system in the United States.
The district is tasked with providing
quality education for students ranging from
pre-kindergarten through to their senior
year, alongside supporting adult learners
across the region. As a result, its educational
services and support system covers
a diverse student population of over
220,000 individuals.
This district is known for being a
regular first-mover in the edtech sphere.
Hillsborough Schools is one of the leading
advocates of the power of technology in the
classroom, and it is at the forefront of digital
initiatives spanning everything from remote
connectivity to audio-visual programmes.
To find out more about how the district
is deploying technology across its platform
and utilising the latest solutions to support
students and staff alike, we spoke to Tom
Weeks, the Chief Technology Officer of
Hillsborough County Public Schools.
Tech’s role in achieving
Hillsborough Schools’ core mission
Tom Weeks is responsible for overseeing
and setting the strategy for all the digital
systems and infrastructure within the school
district, meaning his role is expansive.
“The mission for the district is to provide
an education and the support that enables
214
April 2023
Tom Weeks,
Chief Technology Officer
of Hillsborough County
Public Schools
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“We are always looking
for ways to support the
classroom environment to
enhance the curriculum and
make sure that our teachers
have the opportunity to
use the technology in
newer, exciting, and more
innovative ways”
TOM WEEKS
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
216
April 2023
each student to excel as a successful,
responsible citizen. Basically, we are here
to provide a quality education for all the
students in our county,” Weeks explains.
Since joining Hillsborough Schools in
2016, Weeks explains that the district has
undergone a significant evolution in its
approach to technology, particularly after
the global pandemic.
“Looking back, the pandemic
demonstrated the overall importance
and reliance on technology, not just in
the educational space, but in nearly every
industry. For us, we need to continue to be
prepared for our students to be able to learn
from anywhere or for our employees to
work from anywhere as the need arises. Plus,
it also gives us the added benefit of more
flexibility across the board.”
Hillsborough Schools – and the entire
education sector at large – are rapidly
working towards a deeper integration of
technology into the curriculum.
“We're there to support the curriculum, not
there to replace sound curriculum decisions.
As teachers become more familiar with the
technology, I think they'll use it in newer and
more exciting ways,” Weeks asserts.
“They'll use the newer communications
tools that we provide, the newer software
packages, and the newer hardware, continuing
to push that technology in the classroom to,
hopefully, have a positive impact on their
students. And we'll continue to do that for
our administrative staff.”
Weeks explains that technological solutions
have formed a core focus of Hillsborough
Schools’ transformation over the last few years.
EXECUTIVE BIO
TOM WEEKS
TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
INDUSTRY: EDUCATION
LOCATION: UNITED STATES
Thomas Weeks, Ed. D. serves
as the Chief Technology Officer
(CTO) for Hillsborough County Public
Schools. In his position, he provides
leadership for the information
technology services (ITS) organisation
supporting the students and
employees of the nation’s seventh
largest school district.
Thomas has worked in the field
of information technology for more
than 30 years, and has held numerous
leadership roles as the technology
executive for organisations in higher
education and healthcare sectors.
Thomas earned his Doctor of
Education degree in Leadership
Studies with a focus on Educational
Technology from Wilkes University. He
currently holds industry certification
as a Project Management Professional.
Create the Classroom
of the Future
Customised technology, tailored procurement, and ease
of use are three top must-haves for equipping today’s
educators and students with modern technology.
Support their future with the right laptops, tablets,
smart devices, accessories, services, and more
through the Lenovo and Connection partnership.
Discover Connection
Lenovo, Connection, and HCPS partner for education success
Discussing the partnership that’s transforming HCPS, Christian Rivera (Lenovo)
and Larry Kirsch (Connection) praise their technology and services delivery.
Hillsborough County Public
Schools, HCPS, located
in Florida, is the seventh
largest school district in the
United States. With outdated
systems and hardware, the
technology team at HCPS
recognised a need to update
legacy solutions to support
the work of its teachers and
the education of its students.
The evolving education
digital landscape means more
than simply supplying new
computers. Devices need to
be staged, serviced, bundled,
and deployed to ensure a
secure and positive experience
for students, educators,
and staff. The key outcome
realised in Lenovo’s and
Connection’s partnership is
the sustainable support for
HCPS and an outlook that
leverages suppliers more as
partners than as vendors. With
its commitment to supporting
HCPS, Lenovo has come to
understand the county’s needs.
Its strategic partnership with
Connection brought together
a trio of teams to optimise
supply chain, leverage funding
opportunities, and deliver
ongoing device support for
both students and staff.
One of the key factors that
contributed to the successful
deployment of devices to
HCPS was formulating a solid
logistical plan. The TIDC team
ensured the devices were
queued to ship full truckloads
at a time, which streamlined
the shipping process.
“Whether it’s a one-to-one
initiative or supporting the
staff, which is obviously
critical, it seems they went
a very long time without
technology equity,” says Larry
Kirsch, President, Connection
Public Sector Solutions.
“At Lenovo and Connection,
we have the end-user top of
mind. And, in education, the
end-user is the student and
teacher, both of whom now
have the modern technology
needed to maximise the
educational experience
and inspire the future of
learning,” says Christian
Rivera, K12 Account Executive,
South Florida, at Lenovo.
By the end of the 2023
schoolyear, Lenovo and
Connection will have
supported HCPS with
125,000 endpoint devices
in a no-touch environment
through Connection’s
Technology Integration and
Distribution Center (TIDC).
Discover Connection
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“From a technology
perspective, we've undergone
a massive transformation to
ensure that our digital assets,
both hardware and software,
provide students and our
employees with the means
to fulfil their educational
requirements and the means
to perform their jobs”
TOM WEEKS
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
220
April 2023
“From a technology perspective, we've
undergone a massive transformation
to ensure that our digital assets – both
hardware and software – provide students
and our employees with the means to fulfil
their educational requirements and the
means to perform their jobs. In these ways,
we give them the opportunity to make smart
and timely decisions.”
Enhancing teachers’
capabilities through technology
Through education technologies, schools
can not only offer a better experience for
students, but they can expand teachers’
individual capabilities, which can, in turn,
more effectively support staff across
Use more image
captions as often
as possible
multiple sites. All of this, via structured,
standardised, and seamless solutions.
“We’ve been modernising our laptops
for our students, staff members, teachers,
and our administrative staff. In the
classroom, we've also been standardising
the technology that we put in place,”
Weeks explains.
“We are adding audio enhancements –
including microphones, speakers, and audio
amplification – to ensure that students can
hear no matter where they're positioned
within the classroom. We're also adding
interactive flat panels to all of our core
classrooms so that we can ensure that
students are able to see clearly what the
teacher is trying to present.”
Hillsborough Schools is known in the
sector for being one of the first pioneers
in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), as
well as one of the earliest advocates of
technology’s role in the provision of better
student experiences.
“For us, VDI was implemented as a
stopgap measure of sorts,” Weeks outlines.
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221
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“In terms of the number of devices
that we had in place, we were woefully
unprepared for the pandemic. So, for us,
we relied on utilising VDI to serve as a bridge
between us purchasing newer technology
while still getting usefulness out of the
existing technology that we had.”
“By implementing VDI, we were afforded
the capability to still use the older laptops or
desktops that teachers or students may have
had in front of them, but to connect those to
higher horsepower devices on the backend.
This way, they could actually perform tasks
that they normally wouldn't be able to do on
those lower horsepower units.”
Critically, high levels of standardisation
across classrooms has ensured that
technology can be implemented, without
presenting a further hurdle for teachers.
“We have provided all of our teachers
with the same laptop. As we standardise our
audio devices and our visual display devices,
we're going to establish familiarity in all the
classrooms. So a teacher can go from one
classroom to the next, and not worry about
any differences in the technology that's in
place,” Weeks explains.
“With our students now approaching that
magic one-to-one ratio, and all of them
having a device available in front of them,
and giving teachers the opportunity to
learn how to effectively use the technology,
we're giving them the flexibility to leverage
technology as they see fit to support the
curriculum and help their students learn.”
Enhanced audio visual programmes
Weeks and his team are consistently on the
lookout for ways to support the classroom
environment, enhance the curriculum, and
give its teachers the opportunity to use the
technology in newer, exciting, and more
innovative ways.
222
April 2023
“We’re there to support the
curriculum, not there to
replace sound curriculum
decisions. As teachers
become more familiar with
the technology, I think they’ll
use it in newer and more
exciting ways”
TOM WEEKS
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
To this end, Hillsborough Schools is at the
forefront of edtech, adding newer devices
and technologies to the classrooms, while
giving its teachers all of the support that they
need to fully utilise them.
“So, we're working on a programme where
we are providing training and professional
development for our teachers, ensuring that
they understand how to use the technology
and obtain ideas on how to incorporate that
technology into their lesson plans as part of
the overall curriculum.”
Taking Hillsborough Schools’ audiovisual
programmes as an example, the value of
technology in terms of engagement, support
and interactivity is immediately clear.
“We're going from ageing projectors to
more modern interactive display devices.
And again, we're also looking at utilising
various software applications to not only
stream the content up on these new display
devices, but also to stream those to student
laptops, and/or, teacher laptops,”
Weeks outlines.
“So, we're working on how to truly develop
a more interactive experience, focus on
those capabilities to allow teachers and
technologymagazine.com
223
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
students to learn at their own pace, while still
being supported by the existing curriculum.”
The role of partnerships in
implementing new solutions, faster
For Weeks, the district’s partner ecosystem –
particularly its partnerships with Connection
and with Lenovo – has proved critical in
helping Hillsborough Schools to achieve its
pioneering approach.
“Lenovo and Connection have both been
wonderful partners for the district,” Weeks
asserts.
“We have worked with Lenovo to
standardise our students’ digital devices,
particularly our laptops. Working with the
Connection and Lenovo teams, we were
able to determine what met the needs of our
students in terms of a compute device; then
we worked with Connection to drive the best
price in securing those items from Lenovo.
224
April 2023
For us, it started off as a transactional
relationship, but it really grew above and
beyond that.”
Not only does Connection ensure
that Hillsborough Schools has selected
the right product at the right price, but
this partnership also brings extensive
additional value to the wider purchasing
process.
“The Connection team worked with
district staff to come up with a solution to
track the assets as we ordered them, so
that we had a digital copy of where those
assets were going,” Weeks explains.
“Connection places a physical asset tag
on the device. Then, they provide us with
the documentation as to where the asset
belongs. Additionally, they also ensure that
the devices are ready to go, as we go to
deploy them at the school sites. And that's
really saved us critical deployment time.”
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
With a limited number of staff at its
disposal, this extra degree of support has
proved pivotal for Hillsborough Schools and
its technological transformation strategy.
“We couldn't have dealt with this type of
volume without a partner like Connection
being intimately involved in the process.
Those efforts were, and they continue to
be, critical to our overall modernisation and
standardisation efforts in the classroom,”
Weeks adds.
“For us, I want to make sure that a
partner brings value by taking time to really
understand what it is that we need as a
district and that works with district staff to
come up with a solution. Sometimes, the
solution isn't even something that they as
a vendor can sell you. But, you know that
they're looking out for your overall
success, and that's truly what makes
them a valuable partner.”
For Weeks, Hillsborough Schools’ best
partners add value every step of the way,
whether it's coming up with a collaborative
solution, finding the product that best fits
the needs, or making sure that the district
gets a good price point on those products.
“My value as CTO depends on the strategy
that I can set for the district, the skills that
my staff bring – in terms of implementing
that strategy – and the effort that my vendor
partners bring and put forth to help fill in the
gaps where we, internally, can't meet those
needs. So it's really a cohesive ecosystem
that our partners fulfil.”
enables care
at home
for everyone
WRITTEN BY:
HELEN
ADAMS
PRODUCED BY:
TOM
VENTURO
226
April 2023
BEST BUY HEALTH
technologymagazine.com
227
BEST BUY HEALTH
Best Buy Health engaged PwC
Strategy& to help drive a broad
technology transformation designed
to enable wellness, aging and care
at home for everyone
T
here are two truths in modern
healthcare: patients want to
recover at home, and healthcare
professionals need a way to
easier utilise the technology
available to provide care at home and
improve patient outcomes. That is where
Best Buy Health comes in.
Best Buy Health enables care at home for
everyone, and to do this, focuses on three
strategic areas: wellness at home, ageing at
home, and care at home.
Best Buy Health built its strategy on the
strengths of the Best Buy brand, including
its holistic retail channels that offer the
health technology customers need, its
expansive distribution channels that help
get customers technology quickly and their
ability to help customers with their tech
products right inside their homes through
Geek Squad. No one has the combination
of these abilities at scale like Best Buy does.
“Technology is at the centre of everything
Best Buy Health does and more than ever, the
role of technology in healthcare is becoming
a crucial component of delivering care to
patients and improving their experiences
and outcomes,” explains Jean Olive, Chief
Technology Officer at Best Buy Health.
Olive is responsible for all information and
technology systems, product research, design
and development for Best Buy Health.
“Technology is already in our homes and
we know that healthcare is coming into our
228
April 2023
technologymagazine.com
229
BEST BUY HEALTH
“Caregivers are
willing to invest in
these technologies to
help their loves ones
feel safe and to give
themselves peace of
mind knowing there
are others out there
helping provide care
to their loved one”
JEAN OLIVE
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,
BEST BUY HEALTH
homes but requires complex technology to
make it successful – that’s why we focus on
what we do best. We’re not looking to actually
provide the care for patients, we’re enabling
the care by building an ecosystem that
supports the entire care-at-home process.”
230
April 2023
Throughout her career, Olive has
worked for companies where she
personally connected with their purpose.
She previously worked in aerospace and
defence, and then Philips Healthcare.
In 2021, she jumped at the opportunity to
get back into healthcare after experiencing
the need for transformative technology.
“My dad had congestive heart failure
and the last four months of his life were
extremely difficult,” Olive explains. “It was
during the height of COVID-19 and he ended
up in the hospital for monitoring three times,
unable to have anyone visit him.
The whole time I was thinking that his quality
of life would have been better if he could
JEAN OLIVE
TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
COMPANY: BEST BUY HEALTH
INDUSTRY: HEALTH CARE
EXECUTIVE BIO
LOCATION: GREATER BOSTON, US
Jean Olive is the Chief Technology
Officer of Best Buy Health for Best
Buy Co. Inc., responsible for technology
strategy and architecture, product design
and delivery, digital transformation, and
operational excellence. Jean’s career
has been centred on global companies
with a mission to improve and save lives
where she progressed through a variety
of engineering, supply chain, programme
management and leadership positions
at Raytheon Technologies, Royal Philips,
and Schneider Electric.
Jean is passionate about the
impact that delivering care in the
home using technology-enabled
solutions can have on the quality of
care for everyone. Jean is a champion
for advancing women in technology
and leadership, seeing inclusion and
diversity as a competitive advantage.
Jean and her husband, Stephen, have
five grown children, enjoy lake life,
entertaining and travelling.
Jean received her BS in Chemical
Engineering at the University of
Connecticut, is a member of the
UConn Academy of Distinguished
Engineers and serves on the School of
Engineering advisory committee. She
is the executive sponsor of the Best
Buy Health Inclusion and Diversity and
Learning Councils and serves on the
advisory board for Women in Tech.
technologymagazine.com
231
BEST BUY HEALTH
Best Buy Health support the elderly
with at home technology
WATCH NOW
“Best Buy Health
is a really unique
and important
contributor
to solving and
supporting this
trend of healthcare
consumerisation”
KEVIN MCLELLAN
SENIOR PARTNER,
PWC STRATEGY&
232
April 2023
have been monitored at home – and life
would have been less stressful for my Mom
and our family caring for him if they were
able to do so at home.
The day of his funeral, Olive got a message
from Deborah Di Sanzo, President of Best
Buy Health.
“I knew it was time for me to get back into
health and focus on delivering technologies
solutions in the home to improve patients’
and caregivers’ lives as well as the quality
of care for patients,” Olive says.
One year and seven months into this role,
Olive was recognised as a leader in wellness
at home.
“It's wonderful that we're really getting
recognition,” she says. “Nobody wants to
be in the hospital, but when people are at
home, we know that they eat better, they
sleep better, they move more, and they're
with their family and pets!”
“We do know, however, that in some
circumstances where patients are receiving
care at home, they can experience
loneliness. That’s why we work so hard to
provide care with our suite of products and
services through the Lively brand as well as
our Caring Centres, staffed by real people
who can help with a variety of health-related
needs including everything from medical
emergencies, scheduling appointments or
just providing comfort to those who need it.”
Kevin McLellan is a principal at PwC
Strategy& as well as one of the leaders in
its MedTech strategy and growth practice,
with his work focused on helping MedTech
companies grow and expand their impact
with patients and health systems.
Unlike Olive, McLellan landed in
healthcare quite accidentally.
“Both of my parents were speech
pathologists, and I grew up in their speech
and hearing clinic, which, for a young kid,
was not very exciting,” he says. “I said I would
never work in healthcare. Interestingly, I also
said I'd never be a consultant!”
But what led McLellan to healthcare is not
dissimilar from Olive’s story.
“My kid sister got breast cancer and we
lost her too early, in her mid-thirties. About
the same time, I had been working in high
tech for 15 years and had the opportunity
to serve a big healthcare client, quite
unexpectedly. As I got into it, I very quickly
realised that I was enjoying doing work in
the healthcare space far more than I was in
the high-tech space. I feel passionate about
technologymagazine.com
233
234
April 2023
BEST BUY HEALTH
finding ways to improve healthcare delivery
and continuing to drive change in an industry
that really needs to change rapidly to meet
the needs of patients in a digital age.”
PwC and Best Buy Health have
worked together to drive a technology
transformation that enables continued
growth and that expands the reach of the
Best Buy Health services that help so many
patients and caregivers improve healthcare.
How Best Buy Health supports
the ageing community
For those ageing at home…
People are living longer and the population is
increasing, but studies show once someone
has to leave their home for an assisted living
centre or a nursing home, their quality of
life can significantly decline. Best Buy Health
helps improve that experience for everyone
– even those living in rural areas who may not
have previously had access to the healthcare
they need to live longer and live safely.
“Our Lively brand offers everything from
flip phones to pendant alarms,” explains
Olive. “Our products are best-in-class. They
have fall detection, as well as emergency
response buttons connected to our Caring
Centres for human interaction, and help with
a variety of needs.”
Lively’s health and safety services can
also be accessed through smart devices like
Amazon’s Alexa.
“Patients can just say ‘I need help’ and they
will be connected our care centre,” says Olive.
“Imagine if you’re a caregiver for your ageing
parent and they live alone in their home.
Something comes up unexpectedly and
you’re unable to visit them that day and, as a
result, your parent experiences a deep feeling
of loneliness. Using one of our Lively devices,
your parent contacts our Caring Centre and
is connected with an empathetic employee
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235
BEST BUY HEALTH
who provides them with a sense of comfort.
In addition to this example of loneliness,
our Caring Centre employees can help with
a variety of other needs, including helping
to provide emergency medical assistance,
scheduling appointments and more.
“The caregivers really need this peace
of mind. So, we connect back to them to
ensure they understand what is happening
with their loved ones with the help of our
Lively app,” says Olive. “As the caregiver, if
your loved one presses the HELP button,
you’re alerted. Caregivers are willing to invest
in these technologies to help their loves
ones feel safe and to give themselves peace
of mind knowing there are others out there
helping provide care to their loved one.”
For those receiving care at home…
Through Current Health, a recent acquisition
made by Best Buy Health, the platform
collects patient data from across various
health technology devices recommended by
providers for their care-at-home programme
and then ensures the data is shared with
the patient’s care team. This data helps
monitor a patient’s progress and can allow
providers to adjust a care plan in real-time if
needed. Current Health also offers a Clinical
Command Centre managed by nurses who
monitor systems and check vital signs as a
first line of defence to any triage that needs to
occur during the care at home experience.
“For example, if your blood pressure goes
up, a nurse from the Clinical Command
Centre will call the patient to
discuss the change. Sometimes
the reasoning can be easily
explained by a patient: ‘I know.
Yesterday, I went out to eat and
had bunch of salty appetisers’, and
other times it might be something
we need to further investigate. This
is how we can monitor patients
so that they can stay at home and
stay healthy.”
Olive envisions a tipping
point for at-home care.
“We know people want to receive
care at home rather than stay in a
hospital, and our goal is for them
to be able to do that as well as
to advocate for themselves by
understanding what is possible
with the help of technology,” says
Olive. “That's what we’re after –
consumerisation of healthcare and
enabling people to make better,
more informed decisions about
their own care.”
236
April 2023
“Our health systems
are under such
tremendous
financial pressure
at the moment”
KEVIN MCLELLAN
TITLE: SENIOR PARTNER
COMPANY: PWC STRATEGY&
INDUSTRY: BUSINESS CONSULTING
LOCATION: MASSACHUSETTS, US
Kevin is a Senior Partner in PwC’s
Healthcare Advisory Practice in
Boston. He leads the Medtech growth
practice, helping healthcare technology
companies transform and grow. Kevin
has over 30 years of experience in
management consulting, healthcare and
high tech. He was a Partner at McKinsey
& Company and has held line roles at
IBM, Cognos and startup companies.
Kevin and his wife, Kristine, have
3 children (Alexandra, Liam, and
Charlie) and live in North Andover,
where they are busily restoring a 1790s'
farmhouse. When they are not toiling
to preserve history, they love to ski and
travel together as a family. Kevin also
volunteers on the Lawrence General
Hospital Finance Committee and at
Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School
in Methuen.
KEVIN MCLELLAN
Technology transformations in healthcare
Best Buy Health is working with PwC to help
build the technology and service delivery
capabilities that will enable Best Buy Health
to deliver a higher-quality patient and
caregiver experience while lowering health
care delivery costs and improving the
quality of care.
“We have good customer master data
that helps us promote our campaigns and
gather knowledge about our customers, so
we can support them in their needs,” said
Olive. “We're building a new ERP platform.
We'll have much better order management
and supply chain processes enabling
technologies to support the demand while
delivering customer success.”
Although Best Buy Health has a lot of data,
it can be a complex process to leverage it all.
“One of the most interesting areas
mentioned is that you have both the realtime data coming from the devices that are
touching the patient, and then you have a
bunch of longitudinal information that you
build over time,” says McLellan.
“One of the big challenges in healthcare
data is that everybody says ‘AI is our saviour’,
EXECUTIVE BIO
SENIOR PARTNER,
PWC STRATEGY&
238
April 2023
BEST BUY HEALTH
but the challenge is that the data's very
fragmented. So, constructing a data set
that allows you to train new AI algorithms
is actually very challenging. If you look at
what Best Buy Health is building, it's an
important example of how longitudinal data
– structured the right way – can actually
unlock a lot of insights.”
Being able to respond more predictably
and accurately has the potential to
lower the burden on health systems and
healthcare professionals.
“Our health systems are under such
tremendous financial pressure at the
moment,” says McLellan. “Driving this
transformation in care at home, well, it's hard
to understate the importance of it.”
Best Buy Health’s transformation is
an investment that delivers significant
business value and speeds up the business
building process.
“PwC can provide us with a deep
knowledge across the industry that enables
us to move faster,” says Olive. “When we
have issues, we can team up together to
solve the problem.”
PwC has been thrilled with the chance to
help Best Buy Health accelerate towards their
future goals and the world they’re building.
“They're helping to build the future of
healthcare – that's really true,” says McLellan.
“What we strive to do is to bring our
experience to help them achieve their goals.”
PwC works with many companies on
technology transformations, helping them to
avoid pitfalls while also offering the breadth
and depth of their experience.
“We wake up every day and work to
enable transformative change for our clients
and the patients they serve,” says McLellan.
technologymagazine.com
239
WRITTEN BY:
ILKHAN OZSEVIM
PRODUCED BY:
HARRY PALMER
240
April 2023
ELANCO
g
n
i
l
a
c
S
y
l
e
r
u
Sec
e
r
a
C
l
a
m
i
n
d
A
u
o
l
C
h
g
u
thro
technologymagazine.com
241
ELANCO
After its split from Eli Lilly
& Company, Elanco set
its eyes on rebooting and
rebuilding its entire IT
ecosystem. Matthew Bull,
CTO and CISO, tells us how
E
lanco is a global leader in animal
health dedicated to innovating and
delivering products and services
to prevent and treat disease in
farm animals and pets, creating
value for farmers, pet owners, veterinarians,
stakeholders, and society.
Elanco products and services provide
veterinarians, farmers, and pet owners in
over 90 countries around the world with a
complete approach to animal health. For
more than 65 years, Elanco operated as a
subsidiary of a US-based pharmaceutical
company. In 2018, Elanco announced a
corporate separation as part of an IPO.
This was a major event for Elanco, certainly
the most significant event in their nearly
70-year history, which enabled them to
rebuild the IT ecosystem from the ground up.
“Very rarely does an enterprise organisation
get the opportunity to reboot and rebuild IT
from the ground up,” says Matthew Bull, Chief
Technology and Information Security Officer
at Elanco.
“Over the last few years, Elanco IT has
been working to unlock the value of modern
architecture and technologies, which we
believe will act as a differentiator, enabling
us to deliver new innovative products and
services to our customers around the world.”
242
April 2023
technologymagazine.com
243
ELANCO
“Cloud can only
be cost-effective
when the principles
of a cloud-native
architecture are
embedded in
everything you
design, implement,
and support”
MATTHEW BULL
CTO AND CISO, ELANCO
244
April 2023
Scaling-up Elanco with automation
Bull says scaling at speed has been a critical
part of the process.
“We recognised very early on that
our ability to deliver at scale couldn't
be accomplished if we were to follow
traditional, manual processes. For this
reason, we placed a heavy emphasis on
automation.”
At Elanco, prioritising automation meant
a shift in our focus towards a cloud native
architecture following software-defined
techniques.
“First, we defined our desired IT
engagement model and developer
experience. We then built a cloud-agnostic
automation stack using technologies from
companies such as HashiCorp and Red Hat.
MATTHEW BULL
TITLE: CTO AND CISO
COMPANY: ELANCO
LOCATION: HOOK, UK
EXECUTIVE BIO
“The objective was to deliver a
programmatically defined IT ecosystem
where services are provisioned, supported
and secured as code. This paradigm unlocks
speed to value, agility and flexibility when
scaling and securing the IT ecosystem for
internal and external users.
“We embraced the core principles and
techniques of cloud across the value chain,
covering research and development,
manufacturing, and commercial,” he says.
“The intent was to deliver a standardised,
highly repeatable experience facilitated
through automation. This approach unlocks
autonomy for our product and project
teams, whilst enforcing proactive controls to
ensure we meet our quality, privacy, security
and compliance obligations.”
Matthew Bull is the Chief
Technology Officer (CTO) and
Chief Information Security Officer
(CISO) at Elanco.
Educated at Bournemouth
University (UK) and Stanford University
Graduate School of Business (US).
Accountable for the IT Strategy,
Strategic Investments, Architecture,
Engineering and Cybersecurity.
technologymagazine.com
245
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First
Technology
Leadership
Execution
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ELANCO
Elanco’s approach to effective
cloud utilisation
Bull reiterates that automation is the key to
enabling Elanco to use the cloud effectively.
He says if you are trying to operate workloads
in the cloud - which by their very nature can
be highly dynamic (ephemeral) - you need to
have a mechanism that can keep pace, not
reliant on traditional service requests.
This is especially true when looking to
maximise the strengths of cloud, including
continued innovation, cost optimisation
and security.
“The automation layer gives us end-to-end
visibility, as well as the ability to proactively
and reactively manage our workloads,
covering spend and our security posture.”
Cloud automation, Bull says, also enables
dynamic scaling (up and down).
“We recognised very early
on that our ability to
deliver at scale couldn't
be accomplished if we
were to follow traditional,
manual processes”
MATTHEW BULL
CTO AND CISO, ELANCO
“Seen from the other side of the coin, if
we were attempting to do this manually, not
only would we need a lot of human capacity,
but realistically we wouldn't have the speed
and agility that is being demanded by our
business and customers.”
technologymagazine.com
247
ELANCO
Elanco: Securely Scaling
Animal Care through Cloud
WATCH NOW
“We’re keepers of our own destiny”
MATTHEW BULL
CTO AND CISO, ELANCO
Cloud is not a destination
Bull points out that the cloud is very different
from how Elanco had been operating
historically, which predominantly oriented
around on-premises-based capabilities.
He says: “When operating on-premises,
you are generally managing the end-to-end
technology stack. The cloud is very different,
including the financial model associated
with it.
“I think one of the traps with cloud is to
consider it a destination. Instead, it must be
248
April 2023
positioned as a shift in philosophy regarding
how work gets done, with a focus on the
business processes.”
“Cloud can only be cost-effective when
the principles of a cloud-native architecture
are embedded in everything you design,
implement, and support. If you fail to adjust, you
are likely to experience spiralling costs, which
will quickly erode the wider value proposition
and any anticipated return on investment.”
Bull points out that it's a continuous activity
embedded with their product and project
teams to ensure they’re managing
opportunity it presents to deliver
their cloud workloads effectively
new value to customers through
- and scaling them appropriately
digital and data business models.
Elanco’s most
significant event in
to take advantage of cost-control
“Initially, as part of the
their nearly
mechanisms.
corporate separation, the goal
“Due to its complex nature, this
was simply to get to a position
is an area that requires a lot of
where Elanco could operate
focus and pre-planning.
effectively and securely as
which enabled them
to rebuild the IT
“Wherever possible, we
a standalone organisation
ecosystem from the
have built these foundational
whilst continuing to meet our
ground up
processes and standards into our
customers’ expectations.
automation because ultimately
“Things are not perfect, with
that's the best (maybe only) way to drive
processes that must continue to mature,
adherence at scale.”
but I feel we achieved the desired outcome
and we're very proud of the achievement.
From challenges to opportunities
The are I get most excited about is the next
Bull says that for him, the most exciting
wave of innovation that these capabilities
aspect of this transformation is the
can now unlock.
70-year
history
technologymagazine.com
249
ELANCO
“The next exciting
phase for Elanco is
to unlock innovation
for our customers
around the world”
MATTHEW BULL
CTO AND CISO, ELANCO
“I absolutely think the modern
foundations we have established are a
market differentiator that presents us with
an ability to go after emerging digital and
data business models.
250
April 2023
“We are now able to move with speed,
bringing new capabilities to our customers.
It all comes back to the customer and the
innovation we can unlock.”
Elanco’s partner ecosystem
Elanco, like many large enterprises, has a
broad partner ecosystem.
“Our goal is to try to find partners with
complimentary purpose and values,” Bull
says. “There are some I would call out that
have really helped us on this journey.”
WinWire’s Cloud-expertise
“First and foremost, I would recognise
WinWire, an organisation that brings a
wealth of application and data expertise
ELANCO
to the table. The sheer scale of the work
over the past few years is beyond anything
I have experienced in my career. There was
a huge amount we needed to learn, and
frankly, it would've been unrealistic for our
teams to succeed within the aggressively
defined timelines.
“We brought in WinWire, and they
came with the cloud, application and data
expertise we needed.
“The uniqueness of that relationship was
WinWire engaged as a partner, focused on
the Elanco business outcome, which goes
above and beyond a traditional clientvendor relationship.
“WinWire's team operated on the ground,
as an embedded part of our product and
project teams. They brought specific
expertise, right-sized for the job - expertise
that Elanco simply didn't have access to at
the time.
“They also brought horsepower and an
ability to scale up where needed, to drive
towards our outcomes and deadlines.”
He says the other piece WinWire brought
was helping Elanco implement and buildout the automation stack.
“A big part of our automation stack
was the creation of predefined patterns
that align with the workloads that we
most commonly use across Elanco,” he
says. “WinWire completed an application
and data dependency exercise to ensure
the goal was clearly defined. They then
supported the design and delivery of the
patterns, treating them as products of their
own. Our product and project teams use
these patterns as the consistent starting
point for all digital/data workloads.”
HashiCorp Terraform
Another of Elanco’s key partners was
HashiCorp, who, Bull says, brought a host of
forward-looking, open-source technologies
to the table.
“We have positioned HashiCorp Terraform
as our infrastructure-as-code software tool,
standardising how we design and deliver
solutions,” Bull says.
“The advantage of Terraform is that it
directly enables our Hybrid Multi-Cloud
strategy.
“We believe the future is Hybrid MultiCloud, providing a flexible foundation
to meet our regulatory and compliance
requirements alongside our innovation
expectations.
“The challenge, of course, is how do
you support and scale Hybrid Multi-Cloud
effectively?
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251
“I see tremendous
opportunity in our future
with a focus on digital
and data capabilities”
MATTHEW BULL
CTO AND CISO, ELANCO
252
April 2023
ELANCO
“That is where Terraform and the
associated HashiCorp technologies, which
are predominantly cloud-agnostic, have
made a big difference.
“Terraform enables us to
programmatically define a set of controls
built from our policies, directives and
standards. These controls can then be
provisioned across different hosting
environments as needed.”
“Additionally, we're managing a single
codebase for each of the automation patterns.
“It brings the ability to support at scale
and the obvious benefit of cost optimisation
by only building things once and having a
consistent skillset.”
“Last but not least,” says Bull, “by
ensuring key quality, privacy and security
controls are programmatically defined
and proactively enforced, Elanco can
easily verify the architecture meets all
compliance obligations.”
Future opportunity
A standalone Elanco ensures “we are keepers
of our own destiny,” says Bull. “The next exciting
phase for Elanco is to unlock innovation for our
customers around the world.”
“I see tremendous opportunity in our
future with a focus on digital and data
business models.
“Whether we're looking across pet or
farm - both with a unique set of challenges,
I think these markets are primed for a
digital revolution.
“I'm incredibly excited about Elanco's
leadership role within this transformation,
and I believe the foundations we've
established will act as a competitive
advantage for years to come.”
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