Last week we had the pleasure of attending the 11th annual Evolve Leadership and Technology Conference hosted by our partner Trace3. Focused around bringing together IT leads and visionaries, attendees can learn and grow from best practices learned and take advantage of the latest emerging technologies. With new tips and tricks, the conference definitely impacted many organization’s IT landscape, strategy, and successes.
Representing CloudHealth by VMware at Evolve, held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on May 8-10th, we were able to interact with several hundred attendees who were visiting the technology expo. Being able to connect with IT leaders and those looking to grow in their own IT landscape within their company will help us continue to enhance our strategic partnership with Trace3, who delivers value-added cloud management services powered by the CloudHealth platform.
Trace3 hosts an Outlier Awards Dinner & Gala as part of the event, which focuses on highlighting those who consistently deliver dynamic innovation and leadership in the IT field. This award is an exclusive honor given to one individual from a highly competitive group of finalists. This years winner was Morgan Reed, CIO, State of Arizona. The awards dinner wasn’t the only highlight though—the sessions and key speakers also blew us away.
Trace3 CEO, Tyler Beecher, kicked off the general session and drove home the message that all possibilities live in technology, and complemented the main conference themes: Integrate, Automate, Innovate, Elevate. Between personal stories about his life and career, he focused on what it takes to become successful. Magic Johnson also graced the stage at Evolve and was quickly a fan favorite. With his personable and inspiring talk, he told stories from his childhood up until now as a successful business leader. He finds success is driven by hard work, determination, teamwork, and discipline. His charismatic speech truly embraced the tone of Evolve.
We had a chance to listen to another inspiring speaker, Jocko Willink, a decorated US Navy Seal who is known for his book Extreme Ownership. His keynote focused on leading in dynamic situations. He also highlighted his keys to success, while utilizing military terms, including cover and move, keep it simple, prioritize and execute, decentralized command, and humility.
Lastly, we attended a great session led by Mike Aossey, VP of Cloud Solutions, Trace3 on transforming your IT organization into the destination for cloud services. He spoke to how cloud computing delivers speed when properly managed and the capabilities and advantages of a management platform to optimize and automate your multicloud environment. Our key takeaway is that it’s never too early to start planning strategies around a migration assessment, infrastructure rightsizing, RI management and policy setting. In addition, look to form relationships with partners (i.e. MSPs and ISVs) that will be a trusted advisor throughout your cloud adoption journey.
While the main theme of the conference might have been disruption and innovation, one of our huge takeaways from across the entire event was how to become successful. It starts with the right team and ends with the hard work you put in. We cannot wait to continue to grow our partnership with Trace3, as well as attend Evolve again next year.
