Verizon “powering the digital enterprise” at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015

The theme of Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ participation at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015 in Orlando, FL October 4-8 was “powering the digital enterprise.” This was evident not just in the exhibit hall booth but also in the Verizon sponsored presentations, conversations with 20-plus Gartner analysts and meetings with some of the nearly 3,000 CIOs and IT professsionals in attendance. The theme also carried over to the Verizon sponsored “meet and greet” pavilion and lounge area, where Verizon customer (and co-presenter) Dunkin’ Donuts served thousands of cups of coffee to conference attendees looking to “power up” for numerous meetings and activities planned for each day.

Verizon Booth: Helping Our Customers Grow Their Business

The Verizon booth at the Gartner Symposium centered on the concept of illustrating how our dynamic network, cloud and data centers, managed security services and mobility services help our customers achieve their business goals. Each “pod” in the booth demonstrated a different solution for a different major brand including Dunkin’ Donuts, Jet Blue and Lenovo. The goal is to make it easy to see Verizon’s various technology solutions at work and show how we support our clients’ digital transformation and growth.

Speaking Sessions: Powering the Digital Evolution

Jack Clare, CIO from Dunkin’Brands, Darrell Riekena, CIO at National DCP and Tony Recine, CMO for Verizon Enterprise Solutions participated in a fireside chat at 10:30 am on Tuesday, October 6. Verizon’s Helen Donnelly acted as moderator. The subject was how digital transformation at Dunkin’ Brands had helped the company fuel business growth. Since embarking on this journey, supported by Verizon, Dunkin’ Brands has added nearly 2,500 stores globally, grown revenue by more than 25 percent and increased operating income by more than 50 percent.

“From an IT perspective, we’re focused on things that enhance the customer engagement,” Dunkin’ Brands’ Clare said to the session attendees. “We need to make sure we’re providing our franchise owners the tools to provide a dynamic customer experience.”

National DCP, which provides fulfillment services for Dunkin’ Brands, has consolidated their IT operations – moving services to Verizon data centers and migrating new applications to cloud-based infrastructure. Verizon also provides the network connectivity for the 8,000-plus Dunkin’ stores, providing reliable delivery of those new applications and enhanced services, including coupons through the DD Perks mobile app.

“Reliable network connections used to be a nice to have, now it’s a must have,” said Clare. “That’s why we’re working with Verizon.”

Verizon’s Mike Denning and Shawn Hakl discussed “Cyber Defense in the Software-defined Digital Enterprise” on Monday, October 5 at 3:30 pm. This presentation focused on the intersection of digital, network and security.

Shawn Hakl led off the discussion noting that the demands on the network are evolving as the world is going mobile. The role of the CIO now is to prepare for this changing demand, and virtualization and software-defined network provide a viable solution. According to Hakl, “network virtualization helps us segment and manage the priority, security and cost of enterprise networks.”

Building on Hakl’s comments, Mike Denning spoke about the role of security in the enterprise. Citing data from Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report, he urged attendees to take a more aggressive posture with regard to security – “Don’t just monitor for threats waiting for trouble to come to you. Use intelligence to find potential bad actors and mitigate the risks before they have a chance to impact your network.”

Denning also provided guidance for how IT professionals and CIOs can educate senior management about IT security: “The number one question I get from clients is, ‘I’m about to brief my board, what should I tell them?’ I recommend they discuss risk. Boards understand risk and the value in mitigating risk to the company’s reputation and brand.”

Verizon was an undeniable presence at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015. The company is powering the digital enterprise and demonstrated both its industry intelligence and specific solutions built for global brands around dynamic networking, cloud, mobile and security.

Visit Verizon Enterprise Solutions to learn more.