ON

AN IT REVOLUTION IS BREWING

AlwaysOn Technology Symposium

Move Your

IT Talent into

the Future

JANUARY 2017

a Carousel Industries publication

5 A Little Bit About Carousel

7 Whatrsquos On Your Mind

9 COVER STORY An IT Revolution is Brewing

13 FEATURE STORY Move Your IT Talent Into the Future

17 ALWAYSON SYMPOSIUM Resilience and Brilliance Shine Through at Carouselrsquos AlwaysOn Technology Symposium 2017

C O N T E N T S9COVER STORY

An IT Revolution is Brewing

FEATURE STORY Move Your IT Talent Into the Future

13

Founder amp Publisher Tim Hebert

Designer Don Manley

Contributors Mark ldquoDiggerrdquo Damphousse Tim Hebert Kelly Santos Neelima Mathew Kirsten Weschler-DeSousa Adam Andrusia Viken Jawharjian Marianne Kelly Erik Weissenberger

All rights reserved No portion may be reproduced in part or in full by any means without the express written consent of the publisher

ON is a quarterly publication by Carousel Industries For information on advertising editorial or general information email marketingcarouselindustriescom

Carousel Industries 659 South County Trail I Exeter RI 02822

VIDEOS AlwaysOn Technology Symposium (2017 Recap)

Move to the Cloud with Avaya and Carousel

Carousel + Fortinet Securely Conduct Business in the Modern World

WHATrsquoS ONLINE Resources at crouselindustriescom

CAROUSEL BLOG

SOCIAL

Carousel on LinkedIn

Carousel on Twitter

Carousel on YouTube

Carousel on Facebook

5 A Little Bit About Carousel

7 Whatrsquos On Your Mind

9 COVER STORY An IT Revolution is Brewing

13 FEATURE STORY Move Your IT Talent Into the Future

17 ALWAYSON SYMPOSIUM Resilience and Brilliance Shine Through at Carouselrsquos AlwaysOn Technology Symposium 2017

C O N T E N T S9COVER STORY

An IT Revolution is Brewing

FEATURE STORY Move Your IT Talent Into the Future

13

Founder amp Publisher Tim Hebert

Designer Don Manley

Contributors Mark ldquoDiggerrdquo Damphousse Tim Hebert Kelly Santos Neelima Mathew Kirsten Weschler-DeSousa Adam Andrusia Viken Jawharjian Marianne Kelly Erik Weissenberger

All rights reserved No portion may be reproduced in part or in full by any means without the express written consent of the publisher

ON is a quarterly publication by Carousel Industries For information on advertising editorial or general information email marketingcarouselindustriescom

Carousel Industries 659 South County Trail I Exeter RI 02822

VIDEOS AlwaysOn Technology Symposium (2017 Recap)

Move to the Cloud with Avaya and Carousel

Carousel + Fortinet Securely Conduct Business in the Modern World

WHATrsquoS ONLINE Resources at crouselindustriescom

CAROUSEL BLOG

SOCIAL

Carousel on LinkedIn

Carousel on Twitter

Carousel on YouTube

Carousel on Facebook

Founder amp Publisher Tim Hebert

Designer Don Manley

Contributors Mark ldquoDiggerrdquo Damphousse Tim Hebert Kelly Santos Neelima Mathew Kirsten Weschler-DeSousa Adam Andrusia Viken Jawharjian Marianne Kelly Erik Weissenberger

All rights reserved No portion may be reproduced in part or in full by any means without the express written consent of the publisher

ON is a quarterly publication by Carousel Industries For information on advertising editorial or general information email marketingcarouselindustriescom

Carousel Industries 659 South County Trail I Exeter RI 02822

VIDEOS AlwaysOn Technology Symposium (2017 Recap)

Move to the Cloud with Avaya and Carousel

Carousel + Fortinet Securely Conduct Business in the Modern World

WHATrsquoS ONLINE Resources at crouselindustriescom

CAROUSEL BLOG

SOCIAL

Carousel on LinkedIn

Carousel on Twitter

Carousel on YouTube

Carousel on Facebook

For more than 25 years Carousel Industries

has been helping IT and business leaders

bring more confidence and clarity to their

IT decisions We help our clients drive inno-

vation in their business through integrated

solutions across a wide range of technologies

and services Herersquos a little bit more about

our IT services firm

Integrity

We do the right thing even when

no one is watching

Client Focus

We consistently provide the ultimate

client experience to internal and

external clients

Teamwork

We care intensely about our teamrsquos

success making it our mission to aid

in our colleaguesrsquo successes

People

We celebrate the individual diversity

of our team members and treat

all with respect

Adventure

We find the adventure excitement

and unique experience in the work

we perform

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT CAROUSEL

6

Our VisionTo be great by choice To constantly reach for excellence and never settle for ldquogood enoughrdquo

Our PurposeTo have a positive impact on the lives of our employees clients and community

Core Values

Carousel is governed by the following values

THE BACKDROP

As an IT leader you are likely challenged with maintaining and

growing influence within your organization From advising on

IT consumption models to crafting unified communications and

collaboration roadmaps yoursquore fueled by a desire to remain at the

forefront of driving the innovation that happens in your business

Whether we are helping a hospital bring remote patient monitoring

to their facility or teaming with a financial services institution

to migrate to the cloud Carousel helps clients not only address

todayrsquos needs but also set them up for success for future growth

Today more than 6000 businesses across the globemdashfrom

midmarket businesses to Fortune 500 companiesmdashtrust us

to help them drive towards IT transformation and deliver

better business outcomes

Marianne Kelly Senior Director Avaya UC Collaboration

ldquoIn the land of the blind the one-eyed

man is kingrdquo

Kirsten Weschler-DeSousa

Executive Assistant

ldquoKnow your limitations but donrsquot

underestimate your potential abilitiesrdquo

Adam Andrusia Convergence Supervisor

ldquoDo what is right not what is easyrdquo

Neelima Mathew Associate Network Engineer

ldquoTake criticism constructively not

personally and see it as an opportunity

to improve yourselfrdquo

Viken Jawharjian

Director Managed Services

Henry Fordrsquos famous quote ldquoWhether

you think you can or you think you canrsquot

yoursquore rightrdquo

Erik Weissenberger

Product Operations Manager

ldquoDonrsquot let the perfect be the enemy of the

good bring the initiative to a working level

get your hands dirty with experience and

improve the solution over timerdquo

8

We asked Carousel team members What is the best advice you ever received

WHATrsquoS ON YOUR MIND

LETrsquoS EXAMINE FIVE CORE FACTORS

COMPLICATING THE JOB OF TODAYrsquoS

IT PROFESSIONAL

1 Technology Consumerization

The modern IT world is incredibly different

than it was 20 years ago even five years ago

Today the power of technology is in the hand

of the consumer thanks to the rise of smart-

phones ubiquitous Wi-Fi access mobile

applications and cloud-based solu-

tions The consumerization of IT

has made the end-user more

tech savvy and consequently

we have greater demands of

the technology we use and the

expectations of our IT depart-

ments For instance you may

think building an enterprise ERP

system is as simple as flipping the

switch and moving to the cloud Or

you may hear IT say a rollout could

take a year and wonder why it canrsquot

be done in two months These con-

tradicting beliefs and expectations can

erode ITrsquos value to the organization

over time

2 Digitization of the Enterprise

Companies like Amazon Uber and Airbnb

have demonstrated firsthand the power of

transformation They are innovating on a dime

keeping the customer front and center and

driving towards evolution daily The new digi-

tal era has disrupted entire industries almost

overnight and its creating awareness that

things donrsquot need to be done as they always

have been Pressure is on todayrsquos IT leaders to

harness technology and talent to advance the

organizationrsquos digital ambitions

But the availability of talent to understand

and manage technology is reducing making

it harder to find and retain the people needed

to drive digital innovation in the enterprise

You May Also Like 3 Ways IT Leaders

Can Drive Transformation

3 Managing Modern IT

Initially in IT businesses solely invested in

on-premise equipment that would be

stored securely in the data center

Over the years however we saw

a natural shift to colocation

and then hybrid environments

and now the cloud This

complicated environment has

created the modern IT world

one in which data tools soft-

ware and hardware are distrib-

uted anywhere in the world One

of the chief complications caused

by this new paradigm shift however

is that there is not a great way to

manage this environment with a single

pane of glassmdashor a single set of tools

Instead each environment comes with

its own need for management Todayrsquos

IT leaders grapple with how to man-

age this distributed IT environment that is no

longer under lock and key or under the four

walls of the building

4 Cost of Running IT is Rising

We all know that running IT is more complex

than ever before but itrsquos also more expensivemdash

just consider the cost of operating IT Opera-

tions Management (ITOM) or IT Service Man-

agement (ITSM) systems required to support

this new ldquoAlwaysOnrdquo imperative

AN IT REVOLUTION IS BREWING

As IT leaders and professionals we are waging

an important battle every day We are expected

to be at the forefront of innovationmdashinfluenc-

ing and compelling the organization to move

towards revolution while also keeping the lights

on But innovation and growth responsibilities

are inherently competitive with run operations

and unfortunately run seems to win every

time Consequently we are losing the war

Think of your own IT department for a moment

Quick gut check what percentage of your

departmentrsquos time is spent innovating versus

completing chore tasks Many organizations

spend as much as 90 or more of their time on

run tasks Even the best struggle to bring their

run below 65 We continue to lose ground as

we increase our effort and expenses around

supporting the run of our IT systems

READY TO TRANSFORM IT HARNESS THE POWER OF AN AWARD-WINNING SERVICES PROVIDER

Though your department may be bogged

down by day-to-day tasks the reality is that IT

departments need to be at the center of in-

novation In fact according to the Society for

Information Management (SIM)rsquos 2017 report

which surveyed CIOs other than the CEO the

CIO has the most complex broad and diverse

set of responsibilities

In many ways IT professionals are on a never-

ending journeyhellip searching for validation seek-

ing respect and longing to be relevant within

organizations They are on the path we refer to

as ldquoThe Road to IT Relevancerdquo only maintaining

relevance if they can stay abreast of and drive

market trends

10

Marianne Kelly Senior Director Avaya UC Collaboration

ldquoIn the land of the blind the one-eyed

man is kingrdquo

Kirsten Weschler-DeSousa

Executive Assistant

ldquoKnow your limitations but donrsquot

underestimate your potential abilitiesrdquo

Adam Andrusia Convergence Supervisor

ldquoDo what is right not what is easyrdquo

Neelima Mathew Associate Network Engineer

ldquoTake criticism constructively not

personally and see it as an opportunity

to improve yourselfrdquo

Viken Jawharjian

Director Managed Services

Henry Fordrsquos famous quote ldquoWhether

you think you can or you think you canrsquot

yoursquore rightrdquo

Erik Weissenberger

Product Operations Manager

ldquoDonrsquot let the perfect be the enemy of the

good bring the initiative to a working level

get your hands dirty with experience and

improve the solution over timerdquo

8

We asked Carousel team members What is the best advice you ever received

WHATrsquoS ON YOUR MIND

LETrsquoS EXAMINE FIVE CORE FACTORS

COMPLICATING THE JOB OF TODAYrsquoS

IT PROFESSIONAL

1 Technology Consumerization

The modern IT world is incredibly different

than it was 20 years ago even five years ago

Today the power of technology is in the hand

of the consumer thanks to the rise of smart-

phones ubiquitous Wi-Fi access mobile

applications and cloud-based solu-

tions The consumerization of IT

has made the end-user more

tech savvy and consequently

we have greater demands of

the technology we use and the

expectations of our IT depart-

ments For instance you may

think building an enterprise ERP

system is as simple as flipping the

switch and moving to the cloud Or

you may hear IT say a rollout could

take a year and wonder why it canrsquot

be done in two months These con-

tradicting beliefs and expectations can

erode ITrsquos value to the organization

over time

2 Digitization of the Enterprise

Companies like Amazon Uber and Airbnb

have demonstrated firsthand the power of

transformation They are innovating on a dime

keeping the customer front and center and

driving towards evolution daily The new digi-

tal era has disrupted entire industries almost

overnight and its creating awareness that

things donrsquot need to be done as they always

have been Pressure is on todayrsquos IT leaders to

harness technology and talent to advance the

organizationrsquos digital ambitions

But the availability of talent to understand

and manage technology is reducing making

it harder to find and retain the people needed

to drive digital innovation in the enterprise

You May Also Like 3 Ways IT Leaders

Can Drive Transformation

3 Managing Modern IT

Initially in IT businesses solely invested in

on-premise equipment that would be

stored securely in the data center

Over the years however we saw

a natural shift to colocation

and then hybrid environments

and now the cloud This

complicated environment has

created the modern IT world

one in which data tools soft-

ware and hardware are distrib-

uted anywhere in the world One

of the chief complications caused

by this new paradigm shift however

is that there is not a great way to

manage this environment with a single

pane of glassmdashor a single set of tools

Instead each environment comes with

its own need for management Todayrsquos

IT leaders grapple with how to man-

age this distributed IT environment that is no

longer under lock and key or under the four

walls of the building

4 Cost of Running IT is Rising

We all know that running IT is more complex

than ever before but itrsquos also more expensivemdash

just consider the cost of operating IT Opera-

tions Management (ITOM) or IT Service Man-

agement (ITSM) systems required to support

this new ldquoAlwaysOnrdquo imperative

AN IT REVOLUTION IS BREWING

As IT leaders and professionals we are waging

an important battle every day We are expected

to be at the forefront of innovationmdashinfluenc-

ing and compelling the organization to move

towards revolution while also keeping the lights

on But innovation and growth responsibilities

are inherently competitive with run operations

and unfortunately run seems to win every

time Consequently we are losing the war

Think of your own IT department for a moment

Quick gut check what percentage of your

departmentrsquos time is spent innovating versus

completing chore tasks Many organizations

spend as much as 90 or more of their time on

run tasks Even the best struggle to bring their

run below 65 We continue to lose ground as

we increase our effort and expenses around

supporting the run of our IT systems

READY TO TRANSFORM IT HARNESS THE POWER OF AN AWARD-WINNING SERVICES PROVIDER

Though your department may be bogged

down by day-to-day tasks the reality is that IT

departments need to be at the center of in-

novation In fact according to the Society for

Information Management (SIM)rsquos 2017 report

which surveyed CIOs other than the CEO the

CIO has the most complex broad and diverse

set of responsibilities

In many ways IT professionals are on a never-

ending journeyhellip searching for validation seek-

ing respect and longing to be relevant within

organizations They are on the path we refer to

as ldquoThe Road to IT Relevancerdquo only maintaining

relevance if they can stay abreast of and drive

market trends

10

LETrsquoS EXAMINE FIVE CORE FACTORS

COMPLICATING THE JOB OF TODAYrsquoS

IT PROFESSIONAL

1 Technology Consumerization

The modern IT world is incredibly different

than it was 20 years ago even five years ago

Today the power of technology is in the hand

of the consumer thanks to the rise of smart-

phones ubiquitous Wi-Fi access mobile

applications and cloud-based solu-

tions The consumerization of IT

has made the end-user more

tech savvy and consequently

we have greater demands of

the technology we use and the

expectations of our IT depart-

ments For instance you may

think building an enterprise ERP

system is as simple as flipping the

switch and moving to the cloud Or

you may hear IT say a rollout could

take a year and wonder why it canrsquot

be done in two months These con-

tradicting beliefs and expectations can

erode ITrsquos value to the organization

over time

2 Digitization of the Enterprise

Companies like Amazon Uber and Airbnb

have demonstrated firsthand the power of

transformation They are innovating on a dime

keeping the customer front and center and

driving towards evolution daily The new digi-

tal era has disrupted entire industries almost

overnight and its creating awareness that

things donrsquot need to be done as they always

have been Pressure is on todayrsquos IT leaders to

harness technology and talent to advance the

organizationrsquos digital ambitions

But the availability of talent to understand

and manage technology is reducing making

it harder to find and retain the people needed

to drive digital innovation in the enterprise

You May Also Like 3 Ways IT Leaders

Can Drive Transformation

3 Managing Modern IT

Initially in IT businesses solely invested in

on-premise equipment that would be

stored securely in the data center

Over the years however we saw

a natural shift to colocation

and then hybrid environments

and now the cloud This

complicated environment has

created the modern IT world

one in which data tools soft-

ware and hardware are distrib-

uted anywhere in the world One

of the chief complications caused

by this new paradigm shift however

is that there is not a great way to

manage this environment with a single

pane of glassmdashor a single set of tools

Instead each environment comes with

its own need for management Todayrsquos

IT leaders grapple with how to man-

age this distributed IT environment that is no

longer under lock and key or under the four

walls of the building

4 Cost of Running IT is Rising

We all know that running IT is more complex

than ever before but itrsquos also more expensivemdash

just consider the cost of operating IT Opera-

tions Management (ITOM) or IT Service Man-

agement (ITSM) systems required to support

this new ldquoAlwaysOnrdquo imperative

AN IT REVOLUTION IS BREWING

As IT leaders and professionals we are waging

an important battle every day We are expected

to be at the forefront of innovationmdashinfluenc-

ing and compelling the organization to move

towards revolution while also keeping the lights

on But innovation and growth responsibilities

are inherently competitive with run operations

and unfortunately run seems to win every

time Consequently we are losing the war

Think of your own IT department for a moment

Quick gut check what percentage of your

departmentrsquos time is spent innovating versus

completing chore tasks Many organizations

spend as much as 90 or more of their time on

run tasks Even the best struggle to bring their

run below 65 We continue to lose ground as

we increase our effort and expenses around

supporting the run of our IT systems

READY TO TRANSFORM IT HARNESS THE POWER OF AN AWARD-WINNING SERVICES PROVIDER

Though your department may be bogged

down by day-to-day tasks the reality is that IT

departments need to be at the center of in-

novation In fact according to the Society for

Information Management (SIM)rsquos 2017 report

which surveyed CIOs other than the CEO the

CIO has the most complex broad and diverse

set of responsibilities

In many ways IT professionals are on a never-

ending journeyhellip searching for validation seek-

ing respect and longing to be relevant within

organizations They are on the path we refer to

as ldquoThe Road to IT Relevancerdquo only maintaining

relevance if they can stay abreast of and drive

market trends

10

They need to set aggressive growth goals and

make sure the organization is assembled in a

way that allows the department to take a step

closer each day to revolution And they need

to figure out how to run IT cheaper faster

and more efficiently than ever before

For many companies the revolution starts

by teaming with the right partner to offset

the chore tasks so they can reposition their

talent to focus on strategic growth impera-

tive In fact MarketsandMarkets predicts

that by 2019 managed services spend could

represent nearly 20 of all IT services

spending around the world The notion

of out-taskingmdashor outsourcing specific

functions of ITmdashis growing in popularity so

that a businessrsquo in-house talent can get back

to driving transformation and innovation

Tim is responsible for creating and delivering the

Carousel managed Services offering to best help

IT leaders achieve business transformation Through

a factory service delivery approach Tim is helping

revolutionize Managed Services by delivering high-

quality hyper-specialized solutions so IT leaders

can instead focus on digital transformation

ABOUT THE

AUTHOR

Tim Hebert

Chief Managed

Services Officer

Carousel

In addition the expense of these comprehen-

sive toolsmdashcoupled with the cost of imple-

mentation integration and maintenancemdashwill

break the bank

In addition the cost of building and support-

ing an ldquoAlwaysOnrdquo environment is increasing

In the past an organization may have had

a few mission critical applications requiring

AlwaysOn support Today it seems like all ap-

plications and systems require 247365 sup-

port IT operations are no longer confined to a

9-to-5 M-F workweek meaning the amount

of manpower required to run

IT is increasing

5 Talent Deficit

Itrsquos well understood that the talent deficit is

alive and well In fact the crisis is so prevalent

that we are witnessing a dramatic increase in

salaries (even having to pay premium sala-

ries for mediocre talent) an extended tal-

ent search process and greater challenge in

retaining talent And when we find top talent

instead of enabling them to spend time set-

ting the strategic vision they become glorified

firefightersmdashextinguishing fires all day Our IT

teams are drowning in a sea of alerts alarms

events complaints and requests for help all of

which drowns out the important tasks Instead

of your IT team being proactive they are stuck

in reaction

ITrsquoS TIME FOR A REVOLUTION

With these mega trends complicating the

success and relevance of IT professionals and

their organizations isnrsquot it time to stop the

insanity Isnrsquot time for a revolution

IT leaders need to transform the way in which

they run IT They need to reposition their top

talent so they are focused on driving the busi-

ness forward rather than putting out fires

are sure to have different requirements from

the same technologymdashit could be the voice

system or storage or different application

requirements If the majority of your staff is

putting out fires theyrsquore never going to have

the time to focus on delivering real value

back to those business units and the invest-

ments yoursquove already made will show mea-

ger returns and lackluster performance

You May Also Like Seven Steps You Can

Take Today to Transform IT

For IT business leaders looking at the needs

of the company into the future will likely

take a bit of soul searching Is your existing

workforce capable of having those types of

conversations and understanding what those

business needs are to drive value Does their

expertise and experience give them the tools

to spot opportunities and align ITrsquos efforts

with the organizationrsquos strategic goals

But what if they are ready to tackle higher-

value work How can you facilitate that

What can you do to shift daily tasks out

of their way

Managed services is one solution organiza-

tions are increasingly adopting to transi-

tion their internal teams toward a more

efficient more effective working strategy

By partnering with an experienced man-

aged services provider IT leaders can take

advantage of resources that help to free

up internal talent to focus on more fruitful

activities If your existing workforce could

be doing more itrsquos time to consider where

managed services can give you the support

you need to move your business forward

Mark leads a results-driven managed services

practice and plays a pivotal role in shaping

Carouselrsquos corporate strategy Since joining

Carousel in 2009 Mark has focused on devel-

oping a robust portfolio of services offerings

and oversees their application within large

complex client environments

Running IT shouldnrsquot be complicated

Eliminate the noise and instead drive

transformation with Carouselrsquos award-

winning managed services

Your team has probably done things the same

way for years It makes envisioning a new

approach difficult Knowing that many work-

flows are entrenched what would it take to

shift your thinking on where your talent can

deliver better value A look at the current

environment might be a good motivator

Todayrsquos marketplace is more competitive

than ever To keep pacemdashand to get aheadmdash

forward-looking companies are starting to

think differently about their existing skill base

If employeesrsquo time is constantly consumed

doing run tasks or fighting fires they may

intend to be proactive in their efforts but in

reality it means they are not doing one

of two things

bull Theyrsquore not working on new projects

the kind that grow and transform the

organization

bull Theyrsquore not spending time with the

business to really understand what

the needs are

Either way IT ends up in a bubble focused

on their own issues and missing the really

important work Instead your team needs

to be having conversations with different

business leaders to identify inefficiencies

risks and opportunities Regardless of the

vertical different parts of the organization

How does your IT team deliver services

today You wouldnrsquot be alone if you said

your employees are occupied with the chore

equivalent of IT workmdashtheyrsquore focused on

run tasks or other activities that are crucial

to maintaining workforce productivity and

network availability but donrsquot really move the

organization forward Though the day-to-day

needs of the company are satisfied itrsquos prob-

ably not the most efficient way to use your

team membersrsquo time Itrsquos also not how new

innovations are developed and deployed

If yoursquore one of the many companies whose

IT groups are bogged down with chores and

falling behind on strategic efforts itrsquos time

to look at your talent with fresh eyes

MOVE YOUR IT TALENT INTO THE FUTURE

ABOUT THE

AUTHOR

Mark Damphousse

Director

Managed Services

Carousel

are sure to have different requirements from

the same technologymdashit could be the voice

system or storage or different application

requirements If the majority of your staff is

putting out fires theyrsquore never going to have

the time to focus on delivering real value

back to those business units and the invest-

ments yoursquove already made will show mea-

ger returns and lackluster performance

You May Also Like Seven Steps You Can

Take Today to Transform IT

For IT business leaders looking at the needs

of the company into the future will likely

take a bit of soul searching Is your existing

workforce capable of having those types of

conversations and understanding what those

business needs are to drive value Does their

expertise and experience give them the tools

to spot opportunities and align ITrsquos efforts

with the organizationrsquos strategic goals

But what if they are ready to tackle higher-

value work How can you facilitate that

What can you do to shift daily tasks out

of their way

Managed services is one solution organiza-

tions are increasingly adopting to transi-

tion their internal teams toward a more

efficient more effective working strategy

By partnering with an experienced man-

aged services provider IT leaders can take

advantage of resources that help to free

up internal talent to focus on more fruitful

activities If your existing workforce could

be doing more itrsquos time to consider where

managed services can give you the support

you need to move your business forward

Mark leads a results-driven managed services

practice and plays a pivotal role in shaping

Carouselrsquos corporate strategy Since joining

Carousel in 2009 Mark has focused on devel-

oping a robust portfolio of services offerings

and oversees their application within large

complex client environments

Running IT shouldnrsquot be complicated

Eliminate the noise and instead drive

transformation with Carouselrsquos award-

winning managed services

Your team has probably done things the same

way for years It makes envisioning a new

approach difficult Knowing that many work-

flows are entrenched what would it take to

shift your thinking on where your talent can

deliver better value A look at the current

environment might be a good motivator

Todayrsquos marketplace is more competitive

than ever To keep pacemdashand to get aheadmdash

forward-looking companies are starting to

think differently about their existing skill base

If employeesrsquo time is constantly consumed

doing run tasks or fighting fires they may

intend to be proactive in their efforts but in

reality it means they are not doing one

of two things

bull Theyrsquore not working on new projects

the kind that grow and transform the

organization

bull Theyrsquore not spending time with the

business to really understand what

the needs are

Either way IT ends up in a bubble focused

on their own issues and missing the really

important work Instead your team needs

to be having conversations with different

business leaders to identify inefficiencies

risks and opportunities Regardless of the

vertical different parts of the organization

How does your IT team deliver services

today You wouldnrsquot be alone if you said

your employees are occupied with the chore

equivalent of IT workmdashtheyrsquore focused on

run tasks or other activities that are crucial

to maintaining workforce productivity and

network availability but donrsquot really move the

organization forward Though the day-to-day

needs of the company are satisfied itrsquos prob-

ably not the most efficient way to use your

team membersrsquo time Itrsquos also not how new

innovations are developed and deployed

If yoursquore one of the many companies whose

IT groups are bogged down with chores and

falling behind on strategic efforts itrsquos time

to look at your talent with fresh eyes

MOVE YOUR IT TALENT INTO THE FUTURE

ABOUT THE

AUTHOR

Mark Damphousse

Director

Managed Services

Carousel

22

Resilience and Brilliance Shine Through at Carouselrsquos AlwaysOn

Technology Symposium 2017

On Thursday October 19 Carousel leader-

ship welcomed more than 250 business and

IT leaders from healthcare higher education

financial services manufacturing and

technology to Carouselrsquos third annual 2017

AlwaysOn Technology Symposium (AOTS)

at the Rhode Island Convention Center

The Technology Symposium attracts so many

Carousel clients prospects valued business

partners and our own subject matter experts

from as near as Providence and as far as San

Jose Calif This yearsrsquo AOTS focused on the

powerful concept of ldquoResiliencerdquo and its appli-

cation to business IT and talent challenges in

todayrsquos hyper-connected hyper-competitive

and hyper-fast world

Get a glimpse of the event Check out the Al-

waysOn Technology Symposium recap video

AOTS attendees heard several captivating

keynotes panel discussions and breakout

sessions throughout the day Each session

tackled the most pressing IT and operational

issues facing enterprises of all sizes as they

seek to gain competitive edge by practicing

and maintaining organizational resilience The

tech trends discussed included automation

advanced threat intelligence machine learn-

ing AI intent-based networking and team

collaboration

Carouselrsquos SVP of Technology and Engineer-

ing Chris Poe kicked off the morning with

his keynote presentation and set the stage

by discussing the historical gaps in learning

knowledge and industrial advancement He

also challenged attendees to think throughout

the day about applying business IT and career

resilience to each session they attended

On Thursday October 19 we welcomed more than 250 business and IT leaders from healthcare

higher education financial services manufacturing and technology to our third annual 2017

AlwaysOn Technology Symposium (AOTS) at the Rhode Island Convention Center The event

focused on the powerful concept of ldquoResiliencerdquo and its application to business IT and talent

challenges in todayrsquos hyper-connected hyper-competitive and hyper-fast world

Want to attend next year Let Kim Riley our events manager know by sending an email to

krileycarouselindustriescom

Reach out to Carousel and learn more

about integrated solutions to drive your

business forward

Keynote and Ciscorsquos VP of Marketing Strategy

Ehrika Gladden was a phenomenal addition to

the morningrsquos energy Ehrika discussed Ciscorsquos

ongoing reinvention and in so doing provided

a very honest candid view of Ciscorsquos chal-

lenge in maintaining its edge and dominance

in the cloud era She also detailed how Ciscomdash

by focusing on innovationmdashhas regained that

edge Ehrika concluded with a video featuring

Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage dis-

cussing the power of intuition as a lead in to

Ciscorsquos Intuitive Network vision

Next was a timely cybersecurity panel hosted

by Carouselrsquos new Chief Information Secu-

rity Officer Jason Albuquerque Jason led a

lively discussion featuring Congressman Jim

Langevin (D-RI) as well as Rick Basile Senior

Director Systems EngineeringOffice of the

CTO Fortinet Martin Roesch Chief Architect

Security Business Group Cisco Jeff Music

Cylance and David Gibson Chief Marketing

Officer Varonis They discussed the global

risks and threats posed by next-generation

cyber threats as well as the importance of

cooperation and competition among industry

rivals and the federal government to deliver

next-generation threat intelligence to benefit all

Read More Carousel Achieves Cisco

Master Security Specialization

Afternoon breakout sessions were led by Car-

ousel SMEs and practitioners tackling some of

the most pressing issues in IT today including

Ransomware (Josh King Director of Security

Solutions) DRaaS and Business Continuity

Disaster Recovery (Ed Wadbrook VP Cloud

Strategy and Enablement) Unified Commu-

nications (Kevin McCarron VP Collaboration

Solutions) and Next-Generation Network

Architecture (John Elliott Principal Consul-

tant) With many sessions filled to capacity and

standing room-only attendees were able to

get vendor agnostic viewpoints on todayrsquos lat-

est technology opportunities

The ldquoFast Fiverdquo session was a whirlwind pre-

sentation on key topics in technology includ-

ing SD-WAN (Carouselrsquos Solutions Consultant

Bobby DiPetrillo) Intent-based Networking

(Carouselrsquos Sr Director Infrastructure Solutions

Jason Viera) Cybersecurity (Illumiorsquos Principal

Systems Engineering Sumita Gorla) Team Col-

laboration (Carouselrsquos Director UC amp Collabo-

ration Tony McQueen) and Contextual Aware-

ness (Carouselrsquos Mark ldquoDiggerrdquo Damphousse

Director Managed Services) The Bake-Off

Was Won by Illumiorsquos Gorla

The day was concluded by an afternoon key-

note by Gary Barnett Senior Vice President

and General Manager of Engagement Solu-

tions for Avaya who discussed resilience dur-

ing times of business transformation Topping

off the day was a quick capstone by Chris Poe

Partner Zone networking and a celebratory

cocktail reception

A big thank you to all who presented and at-

tended this jam-packed day Including a very

special thank you to our sponsors who made

AOTS a reality They include Gold sponsors

Avaya Cisco and Fortinet Silver sponsors

AVST Cylance inContact Juniper Networks

and Verizon and Bronze sponsors Audio-

Codes Crestron ForeScout Polycom Illumio

Valcom Vidyo and XIMA (bronze)