As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Nucleus, Karl Fulljames is in charge of all of the short and long term technology needs of our organization. One of his key responsibilities is accelerating innovation within our company. Last week, Karl travelled to IT Nation in Orlando for one of the industry’s largest conferences hosted by ConnectWise to learn, meet our IT partners and mingle with peers and industry leaders. We sat down with Karl to find out what he found most inspiring and learn more about his key technology takeaways.
What was the Most Inspiring Keynote?
James Clear’s keynote on continuous improvement stood out among this year’s discussions. He talked about how to get one percent better every day. If you actually get one percent better every day, then you are almost 38 times better after one full year! The concept is simple: instead of setting large goals, try to make small improvements every day and these changes will add up to a significant improvement in the long run.
Security Challenges of a Remote Workforce
The COVID pandemic and the resulting health restrictions accelerated a technology journey many businesses were already on: embracing the work from anywhere, anytime model. In remote environments, the security of our computer networks is no longer confined to the physical space of the office creating a wider attack surface that encompasses more areas resulting in a new set of security challenges.
These challenges were front and centre at IT Nation this year and are being tackled with what is being called Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) - pronounced 'sassy.' This solution combines numerous products into a package that allows employees to work from anywhere but reduces the surface attack area by ensuring only legitimate users are able to connect to any company resource whether they are located in the office on your servers, or on hosted apps in the cloud, like BambooHR, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, etc.
Epic Client Experiences
Serving our clients has always been top priority for Nucleus. One of our core values is providing our clients with an amazing experience when interacting with us; we take a personalized approach to everything we do. What was notable at IT Nation was the sheer number of new partners working on unique ways to improve client service; whether it's through new automation technology that reduces effort and mistakes, or through improvements to how end users seamlessly connect with Managed Service Provider’s (MSPs) technical support teams. There's a lot going on in this space and it's very exciting to see the innovation new vendors are developing.
The event finished off with a fantastic 80s themed 40th birthday celebration for ConnectWise. The 80s (and they snuck in some early 90s) cover band was incredibly entertaining and the surprise performance by The Sugarhill Gang was great!
All in all, it was great to catch up in-person with peers, leaders and partners and as always, it was insightful to hear about the industry’s greatest opportunities and challenges.