A select group of industry executives has gathered in Iceland to discuss the future of networks, services, skills, strategies and the role of service provider IT.

December 8, 2014

2 Min Read
Who Has 2020 Vision?

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- What do the next five or six years hold for the communications networking and services sector?

Certainly plenty of disruption as trends such as cloud, virtualization, distributed data centers, 5G, IoT (Internet of Things), Gigabit broadband, telco analytics and the convergence of telecom and IT capabilities influence strategic thinking and investment/workforce decisions.

That's why Light Reading has gathered about 100 industry executives, Heavy Reading analysts and Light Reading editors in Reykjavík, the (snowy) capital of Iceland, to debate the near future at the 2020 Vision Executive Summit. (See Photos: Velkomin til Íslands!.)

Among those engaging in the debate are Joe Weinman, cloud evangelist and an experienced industry campaigner who has worked at service providers, such as AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Telx Group Inc. , and a major vendor, HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ). (See SPIT Watch: HP's Cloud Hire.)

Weinman will deliver his views on the changing role of IT within large enterprises, including communications service providers. "Companies need to realize that the cloud is not just for their back office and to cut operating costs -- it is strategic, a source of wealth creation, and enables business strategies," he notes in a pre-event chat with Light Reading. That's not something that every company has grasped and that's because the role of IT has changed: "It wasn't always strategic in the way it is now."

Importantly, IT can "help accelerate innovation and change the economics of a business," notes Weinman, who adds that telcos "as much as any company need to embrace this concept, as it's going to help them avoid becoming dumb pipes… [that] is a significant threat now that the walled gardens no longer exist and the web services firms are growing in influence," he adds.

We'll bring you more on what Weinman has to say post-event -- if we're not snowed in…

Find out more about business transformation on Light Reading's business transformation channel.

— Ray Le Maistre, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

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