The CTO Advisor Takes Hybrid Cloud on the Road

One entrepreneur and hybrid cloud advisor has missed in-person business conferences and meet-and-greets so much during the pandemic, that he has created an innovative alternative. He purchased a 27-foot Airstream trailer and Ford F250 truck, and he will embark on a three-month road trip across the U.S. and back. He will stop in over a dozen major cities to talk to clients, partners and smart start-ups about everything from hybrid cloud innovations to making edge computing a reality.

In a continuing discussion on cloud innovation with leading thinkers, we invited Keith Townsend, hybrid cloud architect and principal of The CTO Advisor, to chat with Jeff DeVerter, host of Cloud Talk. Keith shared insights on his hybrid cloud work with leading technology companies and the inspiration for his latest adventure.  

Tune in to hear about Keith’s unique hybrid cloud road show, called The CTO Advisor Flying Cloud, and his perspectives on where hybrid cloud is headed next, including:

• What he’s learned through in-depth evaluations of hybrid cloud marketing
• The current state of the on-premises-to-cloud experience
• Using public cloud to scale on-premises infrastructure to remote locations
• How the promise of edge computing is already being delivered in real-world applications
• How the pandemic impacted the next phase of workforce expectations

While many large enterprises still have the majority of their IT on-premises, the pandemic forced most organizations to reconsider the cloud options and speed-to-cloud journey. “It changed the way we work and how we interface with people. When employees started taking their computers home to work remotely, it forced companies to consider questions like how do we scale remote access? How do we change the way we work and scale via the cloud? And not just from a tech perspective, but also from people and process perspectives.” 

On the topic of edge computing, Keith said, “It’s really easy to connect the dots from the edge to the enterprise IT in general. While some people working in IT may dismiss edge computing, I’m super excited to see practical, real-world examples that are making a difference right now. For example, there are farmers on their John Deere tractors using the internet and an iPad out in the field to determine where to plant seeds that will grow the food we’ll all consume.”

While traversing the U.S. from June 1 to September 3, 2021, Keith plans to talk to businesspeople face-to-face about how their businesses have survived the pandemic and more. And, of course, the Airstream mobile office will have all the gear needed to operate its own mobile edge computing machine. Check out the schedule to see when the Flying Cloud is coming to a location near you.