Infrastructure and Cloud Services at Northwestern Mutual

What are some of the major challenges and trends that have been impacting the IT industry lately?

The biggest challenge is finding qualified applicants that are a good fit for the position of IT professional. Finding a good talent who can jump in and fulfill the demands right away is more difficult than training someone. Infrastructure modernization today is another challenge. You must deal with legacy or old infrastructure but also modernize, stay updated, and keep things going at the same time. I frequently experience this; you don't get the help required to update promptly and take the necessary action to maintain things in good shape.

What keeps you up at night when it comes to some of the major developments in the industry today?

The main issue that keeps me up at night is cyber security and prevention. Fortunately, I haven't encountered one of those yet, but I make sure I'm ready to react if it comes. I oversee teams primarily responsible for disaster recovery, backups, and storage. I have to take a lot of action in order to somewhat relax. However, I believe you'll be in good shape if you're prepared and aware of what's going on in the world and the various ways that these attackers might infiltrate your surroundings.

What are some of your most recent projects, and what technological and procedural features did you use to make your project successful?

I've been working on various infrastructure modernization and consolidation projects for the past two or three years while making sure that I can provide a significant ROI for our company on whatever expenditures I make. While also making sure that my actions have the least possible influence on our business users' involvement. For that, I leverage our partners and vendors to assist us in handling that in a more seamless manner. Before we can decommission the old systems, we come up with innovative ideas and how to set up new solutions or modernize existing solutions by utilizing tactics like standardizing duplicate functionalities and ensuring they have all the features. These are some of the methods I employ in my current endeavors, which are primarily motivated by infrastructure modernization.

  Finding a good talent who can jump in and fulfill the demands right away is more difficult than training someone  

What are some of the technological trends which excite you for the future of the IT industry?

The two that immediately spring to mind are the significant expansion of artificial intelligence and machine learning. It's become so accurate that it's startling to an extent. The development and significant progress in edge computing and quantum computing are another. However, in the last three years, edge computing has seen significant growth. Next is cyber security. The cool strategies and original concepts that have lately hit the market can assist consumers in preventing these attacks and responding to them successfully without being forced to pay for ransomware. Intelligent bots and robotic process automation are not the least. There have been many advances in space, which is both frightful and exciting. The last thing I built with it when I worked for manufacturing firms was around the internet of things and the evolution of that, along with the 5G technology. But it's quite nice, and it can solve a lot of neat problems these days. All of those fascinating trends and technologies will alter how we conduct business in the future.

What would be your single piece of advice that you want to impart to your fellow peers?

Continue to learn and stay up to date in all technological sectors to keep up with hip trends and market developments. It is essential for our business and space to advance. If not, you'll fall behind and be forgotten, and you won't be able to catch up. The main piece of advice is to constantly learn about new technologies and advance those fields.