Tech Journal Letter From the Editor

Welcome to the (Digital) Jungle

By Amy Protexter / 27 Jul 2021

When our editorial team — which spans different cities and countries, the US and Australia — brainstormed this issue of the Tech Journal, we found ourselves musing over the vast complexity and exciting growth of the IT landscape today. The speed, the entanglement, the unseen threats and the help needed sometimes to navigate where you’re going. Given the journey to put this publication together is also an adventure in remote working and collaboration, when someone jokingly sang the lyric, “Welcome to the jungle” we knew we’d found our theme. Plus, songs from the 80s are timeless, right?

Decisions about IT can feel daunting. Risky. Knowing which choices to make and feeling trepidation about starting the journey can leave you standing still and vulnerable. While the heroic solo traveller is the stuff of great movies and novels, travelling together with subject-matter experts can make both the journey and the destination a great one.

In this month’s cover story by our Insight North America President Joyce Mullen, you’ll hear how a journey up Africa’s highest mountain helped her appreciate the power of placing your trust in others to guide you — because what’s unknown to you is someone else’s expertise.

We’ll also travel from the digital jungle to the virtual concrete jungle and share how smart cities are safe cities, and how data and AI are transforming public-safety focused agencies and the cities in which we all live. We also unpack the opportunity presented by immersive technologies, augmented, virtual and mixed reality; IDC projects that by 2024, the top two commercial use cases for immersive technology will be training ($4.1 billion) and industrial maintenance ($4.1 billion), and we also show you the way to operationalising Artificial Intelligence (AI) with MLOps.

There’s more to explore in this issue, including guidance for evading cyber predators with perimeter security and end-point security. We also profile an incredible digital transformation journey told by the team at NSW TAFE. Previously operating as 11 separate education institutions with a myriad of platforms to manage students and their learning journey, this data-rich transformation program was navigated with our team here at Insight. It truly is an inspiring story.

The digital jungle is lush with opportunity — we’re here to help you discover it. Enjoy this issue of the Tech Journal, and best wishes on your next IT adventure.

Read the full issue