Connections 2022 – It is all about the customers 

It’s hard to innovate with confidence while contending with the aftereffects of a global pandemic, increasingly challenging geo-political environments, and worldwide economic pressures. Yet, as CIOs and IT professionals, you can never rest and you can never stop being responsible for ensuring ongoing business continuity and growth. Which is why – at Connections on November 2^nd and 3^rd – we are celebrating YOU – the unsung heroes.

Firstly, I am excited to host leaders from Oral Roberts University and Commvault – for what is sure to be a fascinating customer panel. I can’t wait for them to share how they are driving innovation while managing their teams, modernizing their environments, and the challenges – and opportunities – they see that come from utilizing our intelligent data services to protect and secure their data.

Additionally, I had the pleasure of speaking with Michele Buschman, Chief Information Officer at American Pacific Mortgage, who shared her journey to the cloud. You will have to tune into the event for the full, candid, and insightful details of the conversation, but I think she best summarized the opportunity ahead when she said: 

“Every business strategy has an underlying technology need,” said Michele Buschman, Chief Information Officer at American Pacific Mortgage. “The role of the CIO, CTO, and CISO is not just to serve it up, but to enable the business to leverage that technology to improve the experience for the customer; revenue for the company; and identify future areas of business using the data.”

And finally, after reviewing more than 100 incredible nominations from our customers across the world, we’ve chosen nine finalists who have embraced cutting-edge approaches to cloud data management to modernize their businesses.  We will be announcing three winners for our inaugural Customer Innovation Awards at Connections.

The finalists representing seven different countries are: Arvest Bank (US), Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (Malaysia), Baptist Medical Center (US), Diagnostyka S.A (Poland), Penn State Health (US), RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Tata Consultancy Services (India), University of Melbourne (Australia), and Yoox-Net-a-Porter Group (Italy).

We’ve designed Connections with your experience in mind, but I believe it’s best summarized by Prof Sally Eaves, Chair of Global Cyber Trust, GFCYBER, who said, “As businesses of all sizes navigate today’s fast paced and challenging world, sharing experiences, successes, and key learnings, especially around transformation, is so important to help innovate with confidence, and to do so securely, sustainably, and at scale.”