Ella Tenant
AWS Alliances Manager
Ella Tenant Linked In
On Tuesday 27 February, Softcat hosted an exclusive customer event at the OXO2 in London. This event was supported by our partners CrowdStrike, Zscaler and VMware, and covered key topics from AWS' re:Invent in Las Vegas. We hosted three different sessions themed around GenAI, Cloud and Marketplace and delved into how Softcat can support customers in these areas.
Key takeaways from the sessions
AI session - Andrew Hermsen (Chief Strategist, AI and Cloud) & Arran Speding (AI Specialist Lead at Softcat)
- Education: this was echoed throughout the day about how we need to educate everyone around AI, from the boardroom to the office floor.
- COE (Centre of Excellence): organisations should consider having a designated and structured approach with a COE function. This function is then responsible for considering all elements of AI adoption including use cases, policies, trends and updates.
- Awareness: awareness about GenAI is highly important including the plethora of services, tools and providers in this space and how they need to fit your business plans.
Technical session - Gary Hawkins (Chief Technologist, Cloud and Datacentre at Softcat)
Having a solid Data Governance Strategy:
- Lays the foundation for responsible, trustworthy data, the critical pre-cursor to successful AI integration.
- Ensures data quality and accuracy, leading to inferencing into better AI models with reliable, ethical, and unbiased outputs.
- Enhances security and regulatory compliance.
- Paves the way for successful and impactful AI integration by mitigating risks and maximising benefits.
- Creates a solid foundation for future advancements where organisations can unlock the full potential of AI, while maintaining trust and responsible practices.
- Data is central to AI, and with Observability from AWS CloudWatch correlating Logos, Traces & Metrics accross their entire AWS estate, it becomes the perfect storm.
Marketplace panel session - Kieron Newsham (Chief Technologist, Cyber Security at Softcat), Amber King (Cloud Marketplace Lead at Softcat), Oli Moss (Senior Marketplace Development Manager - Channel at AWS), Zeki Turedi (Field Chief Technology Officer, Europe at Crowdstike) and Sid Vajpayee (Sr. Director, Technology & Cloud Alliances, EMEA at Zscaler)
- Changing technology landscape - make sure you are prepared and open to change for digital transformation, including GenAI coming down the line, as this will have numerous knock-on effects to how we defend and protect out people, platforms, networks and data.
- Adversaries continually advance - let's not rest on our laurels. Cyber needs continued investment and advancement so we can close the gap on adversaries. Review people, processes and technology and continually improve.
- Regulatory is numerous and critical - our biggest asset is getting senior-level buy-in and improving the value of our other invesments in cyber. It's becoming a large cost to maintain, so let's find innovative ways of attaining and maintaining it.
- Let's make it better for our people - improving and maintaining our cyber security posture is built on our people, so we must listen and innovate using technology advancements so we can be more proactive and give time back.
Get in Touch
We're keen to discuss how Softcat can support you with getting time back, reducing technical debt and reducing cloud waste during your cloud journey. And if you're new to AWs, we've recently launched a new initiative where Softcat will contribute $5000 worth of Softcat innovation points to new, qualifying AWS customers. You can find more details on this here.
Why not also explore Softcat's AWS Marketplace Strategy Workshop, focusing on steamlining procurement processes and optimising AWS strategies? Participants can learn about cost savings, discounts, and personalised guidance tailored to their organisation's needs. The workshop addresses any concerns about using AWS Marketplace or a CPPO partner, ensuring confidence in Softcat's offerings.
Please reach out to the Softcat AWS specialist team directly on aws@softcat.com or your aligned Softcat Account Manager if you'd like to find out more about the workshop, to have a call or meeting, or if you have any questions - we're happy to help.