Local CIO Priorities for 2022 – Reflections from ADAPT Cloud & DC Edge conference

I recently attended the ADAPT Connected Cloud & Data Centre conference in Sydney where Telstra Purple was sponsoring and enjoyed the many in-depth and insightful conversations I had with a range of cloud leaders in various stages of their digital transformation journey.

The conference kicked off with all delegates and guests gathered in the keynote room for a “State of cloud” report by ADAPT’S director of strategic research – Matt Boon. It’s no surprise he confirmed Telstra Purple’s own research, and more importantly on the ground experience with our customers, that cloud migration and cost control, closely followed by cloud security are executives’ top business priorities in 2022. ^[1]

Cloud is revolutionising the way businesses integrate and interact with technology, and with great power comes great responsibility, as more companies often struggle to develop and deploy critical frameworks before beginning their transformation projects – I was able to validate this from many conversations I had with Cloud leaders.

• At the event, I learned from one customer in the agricultural industry how their company’s migration efforts are being hampered by lack of governance, as well as inexperience with infrastructure as code delivery principals, both internally and with their long-term strategic partner.
• Another described how their network of tomorrow aspirations involve transitioning away from the constrains of their legacy network by implementing an SD-WAN intelligent networking overlay, however they are unsure how to best integrate modern cloud works with their legacy MPLS.
• I spoke at length with a technology lead in the education industry whose institutions are having a particular challenge around the sheer volume of connected devices, leading to poor wi-fi performance and signal dropouts. Teachers often resort to using their personal phones for internet access.
  

Whilst it was insightful to understand their challenges, it was only exciting to share with them our breadth of capability we have to help with their challenges at Telstra Purple. We’re passionate about digital transformation, and it is heartening to realise that as an organisation we have the ability to help so many companies adapt to the challenges through our deep domain knowledge and experience in these important areas.

I have recently completed a project which fully automates the deployment of cloud networks using infrastructure and policy as code principals integrated into Azure DevOps. This allows customers to deploy connected cloud networks and next gen firewalls managed entirely using continuous integration principals. It also helps them lay best practice and solid foundation for their future cloud projects. Likewise, Telstra Purple Cloud Migration Factory is designed to dramatically lower the price and complexity of managing cloud migrations. It’s an online portal and cloud agnostic approach to automating the process of migrating servers and applications into public cloud.

It’s satisfying knowing how our customers are benefiting from the time Telstra Purple has invested in automating complex configurations. ADAPT also highlighted that another important topic front of mind for decision makers is how to take advantage of innovative new technologies. ^[1] Their research highlights that organisation are most excited and inspired by the potential in 5G, Edge computing and intelligent networking, as well as Digital Twins and AR & VR. It's no coincidence that both Telstra and Telstra Purple are on the forefront of this emergence and have been investing heavily in this space for years through various internal and collaborative partnerships, and as a result have developed some impressive capabilities. Our edge products are helping customers in remote sites apply massive real-time computing power to solve complex challenges:

• We work closely with defence and federal government using Microsoft HoloLens to facilitate immersive training and tactical response. 
• Our IoT teams regularly help customers deploy and manage thousands of smart sensors and turn data into valuable information.

Underpinning all our projects is Telstra Purple’s ethos to automation and code first delivery principals and the flexibility, adaptability, and scalability this type of delivery provides.

All in all, ADAPT was a very positive experience for me and I had a great time learning about where cloud leaders are at on their cloud migration journey, whilst also raising awareness about Telstra Purple.
It reaffirms that nothing is as effective for understanding people and their business challenges as connecting face to face and brainstorming solutions collaboratively.

[1]. Source: ADAPT Cloud and DC Edge March 2022, 133 Heads of Cloud, Infrastructure and Technology