IT professionals need to become leaders in their companies to promote change through the use of cloud and mobility technologies, according to Microsoft corporate vice-president for enterprise mobility Brad Anderson. He was the keynote speaker at Microsoft Ignite 2015 in the Gold Coast.
Image: Brad Anderson at Ignite 2015
At the event, he spoke about how the adoption of cloud computing and mobile devices in organisations are working together to drive innovation at an unprecedented rate. Old ways of doing business and running IT systems are being transformed to bring about better efficiency and productivity as new technologies emerge.
“There’s never been a better time in history to be in IT because IT is at the centre of all of this.” Anderson said. Organisations on the cusp of changing the way they work through the use of technology look for internal staff that can stand up and lead them through the process. Companies that embrace the change are the ones that come out as disruptors and gains a leg up against competitions in the industries they operate in, he said.
“So my advice to you is to stand up and be that leader in your organisation,” Anderson said to the IT professional audience at Ignite 2015. “The first great principle of leadership is to be bold and be able to stand up and say ‘Hey, I have an idea, I have a vision. Come follow me’.
“That’s what I think we are able to do together.”
To become a driver of change, IT professionals need to ensure the IT environments they manage are trustworthy, flexible and integrated.
“Everything you do has to be secure, has to have flexibility to adjust to the business needs on-demand and it needs to be integrated because you can’t have islands that are living out there by themselves,” Anderson said. All of this can be achieved through tools available in the cloud that are easily accessed on mobile devices.
Microsoft also took the opportunity to talk about what’s new with its Azure public cloud platform, announcing new partners that will resell Azure offerings. This is all part of vendor’s vision for an “intelligent cloud” that will tie in with mobility to facilitate innovation and productivity in the enterprise space.
Nearly 50 per cent of Australian enterprise organisations are already on Azure and 40 per cent of revenue from the public cloud service comes from start-ups, small to medium businesses and independent software vendors, according to Anderson.
Spandas Lui travelled to Ignite 2015 as a guest of Microsoft
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