Interop 2021: IT Automation Strategy Takes Center Stage

The past year has been a wild one for IT professionals, many of whom had to pause or speed up digital transformations and do business in entirely new environments. As a return to normalcy looks increasingly likely, these leaders are left wondering what comes next.

On June 15, organizational IT leaders will have the chance to hear from subject matter experts in the field at The Definitive Guide to an Effective IT Automation Strategy. This free, day-long Interop Digital event will focus on the automation options that are currently available to IT professionals, along with forthcoming options to plan for.

The Interop 2021 event’s focus is not just the how of organizational automation, said Lenny Heymann, Interop Content Director. Interop Digital has put together a line-up of speakers that can guide IT leaders in intelligent automation strategy for their enterprises.

“You're going to get a privileged view of the different components of automation, but also a fresh awareness of how they can be brought together in a more efficient, and potentially more powerful, way for companies,” Heymann said.

Though some tech events are moving back to an in-person format, the Interop Digital session on IT automation strategy will be virtual. “People have gotten comfortable with it,” Heymann said of virtual events like this one. The format gives attendees the flexibility to move easily between sessions, he added, and great discussions often happen among participants in the chat alongside the events — something that isn’t possible in the same way in person.

What Is IT Automation?

IT automation is a simple name for a complex topic, one that covers everything from networking and security to cloud computing and software development — and a lot more both in between and beyond. The draw of automation is that it allows enterprises to identify and scale out easily-routinized tasks, freeing up human workers for more complex and context-dependent work.

In the first half of 2020, many organizations had to speed up their automation implementation because of the unexpected challenges presented by the global coronavirus pandemic. Other enterprises had to come up with plans to automate on the fly. In the year since, both the benefits and the challenges of automation — in particular, of ad hoc automation — have revealed themselves.

Moving Forward with Automation

With both 2022 and the end of the pandemic in North America in sight, it’s a good time for IT professionals to evaluate how they’ll strategically deploy automation across the enterprise.

The takeaways from this Interop 2021 event will help IT leaders take their organization’s existing automation plans and initiatives and bring them together in ways that make sense throughout their operations, Heymann said.

“It’s a new attempt to show the connective tissue and how automation is developing in a more holistic fashion,” he said.

Strategic planning for automation is a key part of implementing it successfully in any organization, as it helps avoid budget issues and organizational redundancies.

The event’s keynote speaker, Mark Settle, has advice that will help IT leaders make those plans. Settle, a three-time CIO 100 winner and author of two books, is an expert on IT management who currently serves on several tech advisory boards. Automation is now essential, he says, and his keynote will address how automation should be addressed not as a last resort but as a strategic priority.

‘A Really Fun Conversation’

Other speakers on the schedule for the event cover the wide breadth of considerations necessary for any modern IT professional.

For example, Omdia analyst Eric Parizo will join Netenrich CISO Chris Morales and Montance LLC’s Chris Crowley will take part in a session on IT automation and security operations. In the session, moderated by Joan Goodchild of Dark Reading, the participants will discuss fresh developments in the field and how trends in security and automation impact IT operations.

The following Interop 2021 session with intelligent process automation platform provider Bizagi’s Rachel Brennan, Omdia analyst Cassandra Mooshian, McAfee CIO Scott Howitt, and Avery Dennison CIO Nick Colisto will instruct IT professionals on reimagining their workflow to account for automation. Moderator Brad Shimmin of Omdia will lead a discussion on accounting for the agility automation provides while your organization is undertaking a digital transformation.

“That's going to be a really fun conversation,” Heymann said.

Registration for The Definitive Guide to an Effective IT Automation Strategy is free. The keynote with Mark Settle will begin at 8:30 a.m. PT on June 15.