Welcome to Day 7 of our Ten Days of Holiday Cheer series! Working from the incredible content that the dozens of speakers and hundreds of participants created in GCDCS20, we are opening up our event archives to give everyone in the data centre/IT service delivery community a chance to end 2020 on a high note.
On the seventh day of holiday cheer, we share a tremendous exploration of the issues shaping IT strategy for the 2020s, through the eyes of Eugene Roman. For those who don’t know him/know of him (and would that describe anybody who visits InsightaaS?), Eugene is an IT visionary who has served as an advisor to boards and senior executives, as Executive in Residence for AI and Applied Analytics at the Schulich School of Business, and as the IT leader for three iconic Canadian businesses: Bell Canada, Open Text and Canadian Tire.
In his “Gap Analysis: Current shortfalls and breakthrough opportunities in IT service delivery” plenary address, Eugene – speaking directly to the audience, without slides – provides a compelling view of a technology-dependent future, and the actions that executives inside and outside of IT need to take to ensure relevance in that future. As has been the case throughout 2020, some of the commentary that Eugene offered (including “IT is the lifeboat for the organization”) focused on the challenges posed by the pandemic, and the effectiveness of different responses to these challenges. At other points, he challenged listeners to expand their perception of how IT can be applied to business and social requirements, as in his explanation that “AI” has several different meanings – “algorithmic intelligence,” “autonomic intelligence,” “adaptive intelligence” that can and should be applied in different ways. In the far-reaching discussion, Eugene also highlighted technologies, skills and management styles that are aligned with the emerging needs of an increasingly-digital world.
So…just at the time that we are ready to turn the page on 2020, we present insight that will help you to navigate 2021! Our thanks to Eugene for his willingness to share his thoughts with GCDCS20 and the broader Canadian IT community.
[for navigation purposes: 0:00 introduction; Eugene begins at 1:59]
- Day 1: Community Wisdom – Quantum, DevOps and transformative technology procurement and deployment
- Day 2: The Best in Sustainability Insight
- Day 3: Why Canada? Andrew Eppich on Equinix’s $1B investment in Canadian data centres
- Day 4: The software-defined future
- Day 5: Optimizing the foundations of IT service delivery
- Day 6: Alex Benay’s Extraordinary Plenary Keynote
- Day 7: Insight for the new year – a Q&A with IT visionary Eugene Roman
All ’10 Days of Holiday Cheer!’ sessions are available to GCDCS20 subscribers. If you are one of the 600 members of this group, simply log into the virtual event portal and select the “Spotlight” tab to gain access to these and other resources, If you didn’t register before the live event, please follow this link and click on “Register” – you’ll get access to video interviews, the new “Data Centre Management in the 2020s” ebook, new sessions and opportunities for interaction in January/February/March – and, of course, access to all of the footage from GCDCS20.
