GET TO KNOW...
On the lighter side of things, we ask the
industry experts what makes them tick. . . .
Jeff Ready,
CEO of Scale Computing
What first made you think of a
career in technology?
I’ve been in and around IT technology my
entire life. My father ran information systems
for an industrial construction company and
as a kid, I’d go in with him on the weekend;
while he was fixing whatever had broken,
I’d play with the punch card machine and
admire how the giant line printers shook
the floor. I built my first 8086 computer
out of parts when I was young and haven’t
stopped since then.
What style of management
philosophy do you employ with your
current position?
I think people are most motivated by
aligning with a vision and then feeling
like they are having an impact in pursuing
that vision. So, to that end, my approach
is to make sure everyone knows where we
are heading from a high level and to give
everyone the freedom to work within their
area to succeed. Then, I function as a coach
and I’m happy to help any team member
work through a problem, answer their
questions, or offer suggestions and the like,
whether it’s for a key part of a major project,
or something small that they just need some
help with. This starts with understanding the
vision and then having mutual trust that we
are all working towards the same goal.
I also try to emphasise an entrepreneurial
approach across the whole company.
www.intelligentcio.com
Sometimes this encourages employees to go
on to start their own company and I’m okay
with that. If someone tells me later down
the line I helped inspire them to become an
entrepreneur, I take a lot of pride in that.
What do you think will emerge as the
technology trend of 2018 and why?
Edge computing – it’s already
trending and it’s rapidly
becoming more topical. There
are many things happening.
First, there are applications
which never moved to the
cloud, often for very practical reasons
– things that make more sense to run
locally to where the apps themselves are
used. Now, as areas like the Internet of
Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence
(AI) continue to grow, we are seeing even
more reasons to run workloads at the
edge. IT infrastructure needs to adapt to
meet today’s modern needs and edge
computing provides
“
IF SOMEONE
TELLS ME LATER
DOWN THE
LINE I HELPED
INSPIRE THEM
TO BECOME AN
ENTREPRENEUR,
I TAKE A LOT OF
PRIDE IN THAT.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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