Insight Enterprises, the global integrator of Insight Intelligent Technology Solutions™ for organizations of all sizes, united 1,000 of its technical consultants, architects and engineers from across the globe for its fourth-annual Mastery conference. Held virtually Aug. 10-13, Mastery 2020 provided Insight and partner technical experts an open forum to discuss new and emerging technologies, strategies and best practices.
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With 79% of IT leaders saying IT is taking on a greater role within their organization due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event’s “Together” theme also broached how industry thought leaders can help them navigate uncertain times. The event addressed a new way forward as organizations balance the ongoing need to innovate and modernize IT even as they now manage large remote workforces and adapt day-to-day operations to a more digital environment.
Keynote speakers were VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and Catherine Courage, Google’s vice president of ads and commerce user experience who is also a member of Insight’s board of directors. Gelsinger and Courage joined Insight CEO Ken Lamneck in separate fireside chats to discuss technology’s evolving role in business as organizations seek ways to enable a hybrid workforce, protect increasingly distributed operations, optimize IT resources and safely return people to their places of business.
“We’ve seen revolutionary changes in 2020, and it’s creating unique opportunities as every business faces similar challenges,” said Lamneck. “Companies realize they need to accelerate their move to the cloud, harness the power of their data, and be available in ways they haven’t in the past to fully empower employees and engage customers in new ways. But they can’t afford huge IT operating costs; they want solutions that can be implemented with ease and scaled up or down depending on what’s going on with their business at any point in time. Mastery gave our brightest minds a stage to discuss how to help clients lean into that and run smarter and stronger than ever before.”
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As data and workforces become more dispersed, Insight simplifies the complexities of digital transformation to get the best out of both through its four solution areas: Digital Innovation, Cloud + Data Center Transformation and Connected Workforce, supported by the company’s foundational Supply Chain Optimization services. The company now relies on more than 8,000 client-facing sales and service delivery professionals worldwide, including 4,500 technical teammates.
During the four-day Mastery event, Insight technical experts conducted peer-led discussions covering contemporary IT challenges, including: cloud cost optimization, demystifying data protection in the cloud, application modernization, hybrid cloud management, hybrid cloud design best practices, DevOps scaling, maintaining business continuity with a hybrid workforce, supporting remote workers and scaling with virtual desktop infrastructure, delivering secure collaboration workspaces, building the right infrastructure for the Internet of Things, accelerating artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and the future of wireless.
“Digital transformation is driving the need to modernize IT in all industries,” said Shawn O’Grady, senior vice president and general manager, Cloud + Data Center Transformation at Insight. “This requires new and innovative skills, processes and technologies. Mastery is just one example of Insight’s focus on offering continuous learning and development opportunities to our technical community that can be transferred to our clients. Insight peer-led training is highly regarded by our teammates, and exemplifies the openness that our technical community has for sharing expertise with peers and our clients.”
As an extension of Insight’s Reach charitable mission to support children through technology, Insight also is donating up to $20,000 to support three causes of Mastery participants’ choice that promote COVID-19 relief or diversity and inclusion, including the “I Have a Dream” Foundation, Girls Who Code, and the Boys & Girls Club of America’s response to COVID-19.