GET TO KNOW
Datadobi ’ s task is to support our customers on this journey with fit for purpose products and services . My role will be to make sure we do this in a timely and high quality manner .
evolution needs to support and nurture democracy and its people and not poison it . Ethics and technology are for me the important talking point in the coming decade .
How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?
I have been doing walks or recreational cycling with my family on a regular basis , but during the various lockdowns , we tried to make it a daily practice to do a 30 – 60 minute walk . My health app is telling me that for 2020 , we walked more than 850 km .
If you could go back and change one career decision what would it be ?
Looking back , I don ’ t think I would have done anything differently . I was fortunate to start my career in start-ups where there was plenty of opportunity to take ownership , learn a lot and have a positive impact on growing the business and team . Common sense , strong work ethic , perseverance and the commitment to achieve results as a team have been very energizing and fulfilling characteristics that we applied with the Centera start-up within EMC ( Now Dell ) and now with Datadobi .
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?
The pandemic accelerated cloud adoption and the movement towards SaaS offerings . A lot of corporations are looking at offloading the management of their increasingly complex storage and network infrastructures in an attempt to keep costs under control and to deal with limitations and shortage in specialized IT skills . Whether it will save them costs remains to be seen , but it will certainly allow them to focus their attention on the stored data itself and the value it has or brings to their business and customers .
So far , most of these SaaS offerings have been in the structured data space ( think database like offerings like Salesforce , Jira , Zendesk ) but most data growth is and will be in the unstructured data space ( think documents , spreadsheets , images , videos , log files ). This is giving birth to a new emerging market called ( U ) DMaaS (( Unstructured ) Data Management As a Service ) where it ’ s all about retaining the right data and making sure it is at the right place at the right time to maximize its value and / or to minimize its cost .
What are the region-specific challenges when implementing new technologies in North America ?
Our biggest hurdle has always been the West-coast , where with an ongoing abundance of IT startups , you get confronted with a more ‘ not invented here ’ attitude . But in general , our experience has been that it is far easier to get our technology accepted with US customers than European customers .
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months ?
The pandemic accelerated the cloud and SaaS adoption and needs of our customers . Datadobi ’ s task is to support our customers on this journey with fit for purpose products and services . My role will be to make sure we do this in a timely and high quality manner .
What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain a C-level position in your industry ?
Stay true to yourself , be honest , be humble , diplomatic and lead by example . It ’ s about what you can do for your customers and your company , not the other way around . Mature your technical background on an ongoing basis and perfect your listening skills . p
80 INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA www . intelligentcio . com