The Join team had the opportunity to exhibit at and attend the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations and Cloud Strategies Conference in early December in Las Vegas. Overall, we came away from the conference energized and grateful for time well-spent.
We wanted to share our key insights into what made the conference valuable, particularly for the I&O leaders that the conference was designed to serve.
1. The broad conference theme - “Next-Generation I&O: Available, Intelligent & Resilient”
This year’s forward-looking theme included an array of practical and innovative tracks that were insightful across the latest technologies and trends in multiple categories. Leaders looking to brush up their knowledge on security, Cloud and operational transformation had plenty of sessions to choose from. Some of the most compelling keynotes, however, were focused on leadership skills, rather than technical content. Overall, this created a balanced and meaningful agenda for attendees.
2. AI is everywhere, and can still be confusing
The “intelligence” piece of the theme was on display everywhere in the form of AI. Generative AI and AI agents were the subject of many talks and were showcased as key features in many of the solutions presented by vendors in their talks and exhibit booths. Several presentations were very insightful, clearly explaining AI’s ability to automate cumbersome operational procedures; to provide fast, essential analysis for troubleshooting and problem prevention; and to work in tandem with teams to simplify operations, particularly in new, conversational interfaces.
At the same time, there was an over-abundant use of AI buzzwords that had the potential to leave some attendees with a fuzzy understanding of AI’s opportunities. In particular, sorting through the various vendor claims and trying to understand where AI delivers real benefits could be challenging.
3. Security continues to be a critical topic
There were multiple strong, well-attended sessions on various aspects of security including concepts like Zero Trust Networking, ransomware prevention and response, and SASE. There were also several peer networking sessions devoted to addressing security topics and practices. As security threats continue to evolve, this topic area is poised to continue to present important and urgent themes for learning and discussion.
4. New approaches are recommended, but change is difficult
Just prior to the start of the conference, Gartner released its new Market Guide for Platform-Native Consumption Services (PNCS). This new market guide evolved from the prior focus on infrastructure consumption services to explicitly include Compute as a Service (CaaS), Storage as a Service (STaaS), and our category, Network as a Service (NaaS), where we’re included as a representative vendor. This was one of several trends covered at the conference including automation and orchestration, platform approaches to I&O, as well as many sessions on leading agile organizations and managing transformation.
At our exhibit booth, we heard a lot of recognition by the I&O leaders we spoke with that many of these options do represent a compelling vision for moving I&O forward. Yet breaking the traditional thinking around buying the “safe technology from the safe vendors,” as they’ve always done, or solving issues using their existing playbooks will be a challenging mindset to shift in their IT organizations.
5. Peer-to-peer conversations were helpful and abundant
The show attendance was dominated by the I&O leaders it’s designed for, so it made the opportunity to interact with peers and exchange ideas a regular occurrence – and, quite frankly, a breath of fresh air compared with many conferences that are dominated by the vendor sponsors and feel like a constant sales presentation. There were learnings to be gained and great discussions to be had.
Overall, we found the conference benefits to be high, and if you attended, hopefully you did too. If not, perhaps you can add this to your conference calendar for next year.