TECHNOLOGY

On cloud modernisation and women in leadership

Published

6 months ago

September 29, 2022

On cloud modernisation and women in leadership

As far as tech is concerned, the workplace continues to be male-dominated. According to 2015 data from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), women make up 47% of all employed adults in the US, but hold only a quarter of computing roles.

Yet the benefits of greater diversity are manifold. McKinsey noted in a 2020 report, ‘Diversity Wins’, that more diverse companies have better performance, more engaged workers, and better rates of retention.

Female CEOs generally, but in tech specifically, remain thin on the ground, but not at Growth Acceleration Partners (GAP), an Americas-based strategic technology solutions provider focused on both digital transformation advisory services and software and data engineering services. Joyce Durst, CEO, began her career in an engineering role at IBM, before co-founding GAP in 2007 and focuses a lot of spare time on empowering women leaders, from Hipower, to the Women Presidents’ Organization.

CloudTech spoke with Durst about leadership, human-centric software engineering, and cloud and data modernisation:

CloudTech: Hi, Joyce. You started off as an engineer before progressing to sales roles and then eventually to forming your own company. Tell us about the potential dichotomy there – between the need to progress up the corporate ladder and the entrepreneurial mindset while maintaining that technical interest?

Joyce Durst: For me, I love the problem-solving aspect of being an engineer. More than I love just sitting in coding every day, I really love the idea of ‘Hey, we built this thing together as a team, and we got this to work.’ I get that same energy from working with the executive team to solve either people-related problems, or deciding what services we’re going to provide. So it still feels a lot like engineering.

It’s funny – people ask me all the time whether I had a lemonade stand, or always wanted to run something growing up. No, I never had any idea I actually would be a CEO of anything. I minored in management for the engineering degree. For me, the people side, of how people work together, and how you as a team can figure out how to motivate and inspire and energise others to accomplish something bigger than themselves – that was the part that really drew me to management. Because as an engineer, it can be a big problem, but I can only fix one kind of problem. In management, I can help a whole bunch of people realise their dreams, and advance themselves.

CT: Your leadership style has been described as a ‘natural servant-leader.’ Can you tell us a bit more about your leadership ethos?

JD: I think as human beings, it really is true that we get wiser as we age, and we collect all of these experiences and relationships – and you look across that and really reflect, and say, ‘How can I be the best that I can be?’ I think as a leader over the years, I certainly still have a true engineering kind of mindset and approach, but my empathetic skills, and my focus on values really takes the lead.

I think that’s what really makes the difference with GAP. We don’t have any outside investors, we don’t have a board of directors, other than me, so I can say, ‘I’m okay about putting people before profits.’ Through the whole Covid pandemic, we promised people on day one we would never lay anyone off – and if that meant we were going to take a financial hit, we were prepared to take that.

Fortunately we didn’t – the business actually grew by leaps and bounds. But when you look at it, we’re responsible for 550+ people working at Growth Acceleration Partners. Every day, I wake up and say I’m responsible for creating a great place for them to come to work, for them to share their best selves, and for them to do great things for our clients.

When I first became a CEO, I was much more concerned about ‘the numbers have to be exactly this’, or the strategy. Now I’m much more concerned about ‘are we really delighting customers every day? And are we doing the same for our employees?’ If we do those two things, everything else magically seems to work out.

CT: This is a good place to move onto GAP itself. What does GAP do, in terms of services the company provides?

JD: Growth Acceleration Partners is in the business of partnering with companies on their digital transformation journey. We do that in two different service areas. One is pure technology consulting and advisory services. Some of our clients come to us and say, ‘We don’t have any idea how to take all of our old legacy applications and get them to the cloud.’ So they’ll ask us to build that strategy and a modernisation plan, tell them how they take advantage of data, and data insights, and begin to monetise the value that they know they have in data.

The other side of our business, which is long-standing and the majority of what we do really, is on engineering services. We are experts in both software and data engineering. So people will come to us and say, ‘OK, you’ve helped us and we built this great strategy on how to modernise our applications, but we don’t have the resources of the expertise to do that. Help us build a team and work in a hybrid fashion with our existing technology organisation.’ We have teams of one to 70 or 80 people working for large U.S. companies.

Our clients primarily tend to be in one of three areas: financial services, healthcare-related technology companies, and large enterprise data analytics, technology services companies. For those companies, we really become a key part of their innovation engine, with development and testing and operations. We help companies figure out how to leverage technology to improve their business outcomes, which means better customer experiences, faster revenue, better margins and better profits.

CT: Tell us how the company is run, in terms of its core values, and the concept of ‘human-centric engineering’?

JD: If you dig into the name Growth Acceleration Partners, every word was intentionally chosen 15 years ago. We really are focused on growth: the growth of human beings, the growth of companies, and the growth of our communities.

And our values spell out ‘gap’. The first value is ‘G’ for greatness: striving for greatness in everything you do, and everywhere you do it. The ‘A’ stands for agile; be agile in your mindset, not just in terms of software development. Be open and collaborative, and be willing to have retrospectives, and change and share leadership. And then finally, the ‘P’ is because GAP invests in people. If we’re not doing all three of those things, we’re failing. I think that culture is really evident, not only to the people who work inside of GAP, but the people that work with GAP and our clients.

CT: What sort of roadblocks do your customers face, and how is GAP able to resolve them?

JD: For the customers, there’s such a limited supply of technologists around the world. And even if you can find really talented engineers, keeping really talented engineers is very, very difficult. The ‘great resignation’ has highly impacted technologists. An engineer can, in the U.S., have three or four job offers a week if they so desire.

Then, just keeping up with the skills needed to be in this fast-paced world is very difficult too. If you’re a financial services company, you may not have the budget required to retrain all of your engineers with expertise in the latest tools for cloud, or the latest frameworks and libraries. So that’s where GAP can really step in, because we have the benefit of not just working with one company, but working across 50 or 60 large companies – so we get to have our eyes on all kinds of different best practices that we can employ on every single individual customer we’re working with.

CT: You mentioned the U.S. there specifically – and this ties into another core value, that of focusing on the Americas. Can you elaborate on the rationale in that?

JD: We’re now in 18 different countries. When we started the company, someone I knew that I had worked with in a previous big company said, ‘You just have to come to Costa Rica.’ I was very busy starting a new company, but this gentleman called me literally every week for two months. And I finally said, ‘OK, I’m going to come down there and then you’ve got to stop calling me.’ And I immediately went down there, and I interviewed four people. As soon as I met these technologists, some women and some men, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is where we’re supposed to be.’ Literally that day, we hired four people and started the company in Costa Rica.

GAP was way ahead of the curve on nearshoring to Latin America. They have great English skills, amazing talent, in the same time zone. All of the reports say that over the next five to 10 years, there is a significant wave of companies coming to Latin America, and that U.S. companies will want to have their development teams there. We’ll continue to expand there as quickly as we can, with our number one goal of only hiring people that match our values; hiring people that are experts in their technology field and want to grow.

CT: Going back to leadership, you are very active in supporting and mentoring women both in technology and business. Tell us about some of the things you do, and how the space has evolved in your career?

JD: We have a lot of work to do still as an industry, sadly. The number of women running tech companies has not changed dramatically. I think that’s on the industry — that’s on us, to make sure we’re doing everything to make the environment safer and more comfortable and more appealing for women. At GAP, 60% of our executive team is female, 60% of my engineering leadership team is female, and no-one questions whether or not a woman should be leading engineering.

So that’s part of what more companies need to do. On the mentoring side, we are also very passionate and involved. We have a number of charitable initiatives that are focused on getting girls in junior high and high school involved in STEM activities. We sponsor boot camps and have hackathons. You’ve got to start early.

Also, in my role as CEO, I mentor a number of women CEOs, in tech companies and non-tech companies. I’m also on the board of directors for the Austin Chamber of Commerce, and I’m the chair of the global tech and innovation committee. All of these initiatives are aligned with the idea of ‘hey, we’ve got to get more women into leadership positions in all kinds of companies’, because every company is a technology company. They just may not know it yet.

CT: If you were to give one piece of advice to a young woman reading this article who wants to get into STEM, what would it be?

JD: I would say really open your mind to the possibilities of how you can use these skills to change the world. The fashion industry, for example, is now run by technology. The food industry is now run by technology… the travel industry. Any industry you’re interested in, behind the scenes, it is run by technology.

And if you have a technology background, I promise that you will have a very rewarding career for your entire life. You will never have to worry about there not being a job for you – there always will be an opportunity for you to work and make an impact.

For more information about Joyce and Growth Acceleration Partners, please visit www.wearegap.com.

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Related Topics:Cloud Leadership modernisation women

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TECHNOLOGY

BT brings 5G and the cloud to businesses on the move with AWS Wavelength

Published

2 days ago

March 23, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

BT has confirmed it is making a multi-million-pound investment to bring 5G and 4G mobile edge computing services to its UK business customers in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The work combines AWS’s cloud expertise with BT’s market-leading 5G and 4G infrastructure. EE’s national mobile network with AWS Wavelength will bring the power of AWS to the network edge for more business and public sector customers across the UK – opening up faster, secure and high-bandwidth connectivity on the move for use cases like policing, crowd management, healthcare and security.

The effort is part of BT’s investment in its existing mobile networks, to enable 5G-connected infrastructure as a service via AWS Wavelength. This includes switching on a new AWS Wavelength Zone in Manchester, which will service trials for eligible businesses and public sector organisations within a 100-kilometre radius (including cities such as Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Blackpool). BT’s ambition is to roll out AWS Wavelength to business customers across the UK more broadly in the coming years.

AWS Wavelength embeds AWS compute and storage services within 5G and 4G networks, providing mobile edge computing infrastructure for ultra-low-latency applications. Hosting services directly at the edge of EE’s UK network reduces lag, as application traffic can reach application servers running in the AWS Wavelength Zone without leaving BT’s network. This opens up mobile edge computing infrastructure for businesses to develop, deploy, and scale mobile Internet of Things (IoT) applications over BT’s existing 5G network securely.

The collaboration aims to enable high-speed, latency-sensitive and intensive 5G connectivity for BT customers looking to benefit from high-bandwidth IoT use cases in the field. This includes autonomous vehicles, cameras for policing and other public services to help protect communities, live media production for outside broadcast, smart industrial robots, and use in community healthcare (such as in care homes to monitor for falls and accidents).

BT’s Wholesale unit has worked with AWS on the initial trials in Manchester. After the planned national rollout, the service will be available to all BT business customers in the UK – from small businesses to large enterprise and public sector organisations.

Alex Tempest, MD for BT Wholesale, said: “As we continue to build best-in-class 5G infrastructure for the UK, launching the AWS Wavelength service for our business and wholesale customers is a hugely important step on our journey – bringing the power of the cloud to the UK’s best network*. It’s set to unlock use cases like IoT cameras to help first responders keep communities safe: a real-life example of using tech to connect for good.

“By building cloud edge services into our 5G and 4G EE network, we can accelerate innovation across industries, and bring fast, secure data processing closer to where our customers need it most. Ultimately, we want to give businesses and public sector organisations all the power of edge computing, wherever they are.”

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: 5G, AWS, BT

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TECHNOLOGY

How Artificial Intelligence Can Bring People Together

Published

2 days ago

March 23, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

How Artificial Intelligence Can Bring People Together

Artificial intelligence (AI) enables people to spend more time with those that matter the most.

AI is bringing people together, whether it’s assisting in the planning of a family vacation, getting to a place securely, allowing everyone to see each other on a video call, or making gift shopping a little easier.

The continuous evolution of AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we live, work, and interact with each other.

While AI is often portrayed as a divisive force that could lead to job losses and social inequality, it also has the power to bring people together and create new opportunities for collaboration and cooperation. In this article, we will explore some of the ways in which AI can be used to bridge social, cultural, and linguistic barriers and foster greater understanding and empathy among diverse communities.

1. Breaking Down Language Barriers

Source: Nature Magazine

One of the most significant benefits of AI is its ability to facilitate communication across different languages. Machine learning algorithms can now accurately translate spoken or written language in real-time, allowing people who speak different languages to communicate with each other more easily. This technology has been particularly valuable for businesses operating in global markets, enabling them to connect with customers and partners from different regions and cultures.

The benefits of AI-powered translation extend beyond the business world. For example, the United Nations has been using AI-powered translation to help bring together representatives from different countries and facilitate discussions on important global issues. By breaking down language barriers, AI is helping to promote greater collaboration and understanding among people from diverse backgrounds.

2. Enhancing Cross-Cultural Empathy

Another way in which AI can bring people together is by enhancing cross-cultural empathy. Artificial intelligence can be combined with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to enable people to experience different cultures and perspectives in a more immersive and engaging way. By simulating real-world scenarios and environments, AI can help people to better understand and appreciate different cultures, religions, and ways of life.

Source: Science Direct

AI-powered chatbots are also being used to promote cross-cultural empathy. These chatbots are programmed to engage in conversations with users from different cultures and backgrounds, using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to understand and respond to different communication styles and cultural norms. By promoting greater empathy and understanding, AI-powered chatbots can help to break down social and cultural barriers and foster greater social cohesion.

3. Improving Access to Healthcare

AI is also being used to improve access to healthcare, particularly in underserved and marginalized communities. For example, AI-powered diagnostic tools can help to identify diseases and conditions more accurately and quickly than traditional diagnostic methods. This technology is particularly valuable in developing countries, where access to healthcare is often limited, and where the burden of disease is highest.

Source: Deloitte

In addition, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are being used to provide healthcare information and support to patients in remote or underserved areas. These chatbots can answer common medical questions, provide basic health advice, and even monitor patients’ symptoms and suggest appropriate treatments. By improving access to healthcare, AI is helping to promote better health outcomes and reduce healthcare disparities, bringing people together by improving the quality of life for everyone.

4. Promoting Social Inclusion

Artificial intelligence can help to promote social inclusion by creating new opportunities for people with disabilities and other marginalized groups. For example, AI-powered assistive technologies can help people with visual or hearing impairments to navigate their environment more easily, communicate with others, and access information more effectively. These technologies can also help to break down barriers to education and employment, providing new opportunities for people who might otherwise be excluded from these areas.

Source: McKinsey

AI-powered social networks and online communities can also help to bring people with similar interests and experiences together, regardless of their physical location or social background. These communities can provide a sense of belonging and support, and can help to break down social barriers by connecting people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to interact with each other.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence has the potential to bring people together in a variety of ways, from breaking down language barriers to promoting social inclusion and empathy. By harnessing the power of AI, we can create a more connected and inclusive society, where people from diverse backgrounds can come together to collaborate, learn from each other, and share their experiences.

It is important to state that AI is not a panacea for social problems. Like any technology, AI can be used for both good and bad purposes, and its impact depends largely on how it is developed and deployed. It is therefore essential to ensure that AI is developed in a responsible and ethical manner, taking into account the potential risks and unintended consequences of its use.

Moreover, it is important to recognize that AI is not a substitute for human interaction and connection. While AI can help to facilitate communication and understanding across different cultures and languages, it cannot replace the depth and richness of face-to-face interaction and human connection.

Artificial intelligence has the potential to bring people together and create a more connected and inclusive society. By breaking down barriers to communication, promoting cross-cultural empathy, improving access to healthcare, and promoting social inclusion, AI can help to foster greater understanding, collaboration, and social cohesion. However, it is important to ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a responsible and ethical manner, and to recognize that it is not a substitute for human interaction and connection.

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TECHNOLOGY

How to Reverse Video with 5 Free Video Editing Software

Published

3 days ago

March 22, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

How to Reverse Video with 5 Free Video Editing Software

With so many professional video makers available on the market, it becomes a daunting task to select suitable software for creating a reversed video.

We have rounded up the most popular video editors suitable for professionals with different levels of experience. You can leverage them to produce top-level content without wasting much time.

You_can_leverage_them_to_produce_top-level_content_without_wasting_much_time.png

#1 Movavi

Regardless of the operating system you prefer, this free video reverser is exactly what you need if you prioritize quality and a streamlined interface. After downloading and installing it on your device, you just need to add a video clip that you want to edit by dragging and dropping it onto the timeline. Then, click on the Properties icon and tick the Reverse box. Once you have previewed the result, save it in any supported format that you need to use. The program supports MP4, WMV, MKV, and 3GP formats, among many more.

#2 iMovie

This widely-used video editor stands out for its high-fidelity filters. Using it, you can produce professional-looking reverse clips for improving the online presence of your brand and developing your business. It supports quick file sharing to social media networks and comes with handy file management tools. To reverse your clip, you just need to go to the Project browser, select a video, and double-click on it to open the Clip inspector. Then, you need to select the Reverse checkbox and confirm your choice.

#3 Kinovea

You can use this reverse video editor without paying a dime to perform basic video enhancement tasks. As 97.8% of internet users in the U.S. aged between 18 and 24 years enjoy watching videos online, it becomes crucial to use video editing tools to reach out to a younger audience. Kinovea has a special feature in the Motion menu for creating a reverse effect. You can preview the changes on the main screen. Once you are satisfied with the result, go to the File menu and click Save.

#4 Adobe Premiere Pro

Being one of the most advanced programs for editing videos, Adobe Premiere Pro is included in the Creative Cloud package, which makes it quite affordable. It integrates with other Adobe products, which makes it perfect for professionals and beginners alike. Besides enhancing your videos by adding to them transitions, you can use this software to achieve a reverse video effect.

#5 Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio 18

While you can access this powerful video editor for free, it also has a paid version. It allows you to perform color-grading like a pro, reverse your clips, and edit 8K footage. You just need to right-click on your video, select the option Change Clip Speed, and tick the Reverse Speed checkbox to achieve the desired effect.

Summing Up

Using these free tools, you can quickly reverse your videos to create attention-grabbing content for your followers and subscribers. This effect is easy to emulate even if you don’t have extensive experience in video editing. Using this technique, you can bring your point across more efficiently and create viral videos for your target audience.

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