“IT Modernization Is Driven by a Critical Need or by Routine Upgrade and Replacement Plans.”
Hi Michael, please tell us about your role and the team/technology you handle at ARRAY?
I am the Vice President of Solutions and Engineering at ARRAY Information Technology where I lead an elite team that provides innovative, modern, affordable IT solutions to our customers that materially improve their missions.
We provide industry-leading Modernization, Cybersecurity, Cloud, Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Application Development, Mobile Development, Application Services, and Sustainment Solutions. A large part of our customer base is the Department of Defense (DoD), and being a former Marine, I am passionate about providing our brave men and women in uniform the best possible solutions.
What is the most exciting part about working in the IT Services Management industry? What do you like the most about the technologies used to create and deliver best CX in IT?
Technology is evolving at a breakneck pace. What I like most is working with our customers to apply the modern technologies that digitize and improve their mission performance. These technologies allow users to be more productive than ever and provide intuitive ways of interacting with the data they need to accomplish their missions. The most exciting part is seeing our users and mission owners delighted and highly productive using the transformed IT capabilities we deliver.
Also Read: ITechnology Interview with John Stamer, Vice President & GM of Americas Services at Lenovo
What is ARRAY Information Technology and what are your top offerings / solutions?
At ARRAY, we believe mission needs drive everything. We never lose sight of this as we work with our clients to improve their mission. ARRAY applies innovation to help our clients digitize their mission, efficiently and affordably. We gain a deep understanding their mission needs, and only then we apply technology to realize their vision. ARRAY provides application development, sustainment, and evolution services to a wide variety of customers including Federal, DoD, and State and Local.
ARRAY has expertise providing Automated Application Modernization (AAM) solutions to transform legacy systems and applications into modern cloud-ready applications that use the latest technologies. In fact, we wrote a playbook that describes how to predictably perform Automated Application Modernization. ARRAY’s Cloud Center of Excellence efficiently migrates applications to commercial clouds and applies cloud-native technologies to drive further business value. Our cybersecurity solutions help our customers achieve their certification and accreditation (C&A) and Authority to Operate (ATO) authorization faster than ever. We also provide data, analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence solutions.
How do you compare IT Ops trends in pre-covid days with what’s happening now?
The pandemic clearly accelerated IT Ops trends that were already taking place, including working from home which drove the need for an even faster IT-release tempo. The move to Agile product development and DevSecOps powered by automated continuous integration, security, testing, and delivery pipelines and SysOps practices for streamlining and automating operations has accelerated in the past year. This trend will continue even after the pandemic is over as organizations have realized the value and mission agility gained.
Which industries have been leading versus lagging in IT Modernization and Security platform adoption?
IT modernization is driven by a critical need or by routine upgrade and replacement plans. Critical needs include situations where the legacy system can no longer be enhanced to meet mission needs.
The DoD generally lags other Federal and commercial systems because the DoD’s military-grade cybersecurity requirements and stringent acquisition regulations make modernizing a larger undertaking. During the pandemic, the DoD needed personnel to work from home, but legacy systems were not suited for remote access which could increase the urgency to modernize faster than planned.
State and local systems also lag in IT modernization due to budget limitations and the pandemic exposed issues in outdated state and local systems. For example, state unemployment benefits systems could not meet demand and needed tactical interventions.
Hear it from the pro: Who / which team owns the success and failure of digital transformation operations?
The responsibility to prioritize digital transformation is owned by the mission owner since they set the program’s priorities in terms of the functionality and technology that they will deliver to their users.
ARRAY partners with mission owners to ensure they understand how to deliver new functionality while executing their digital transformation and modernization plans. At the end of the day, the success of digital transformation is a shared responsibility that starts with the mission owner, but includes executive leadership, and technology experts.
How does ARRAY Information Technology help customers plan digital transformation journeys? How long does it take to complete the whole process?
ARRAY uses our proven digital transformation approaches to help customers plan their digital transformation journey.
Our planning process takes 90 days and requires interaction with our customers to experience innovative technologies and define 1, 2, and 5-year mission-focused digital transformation visions that get organized on a roadmap. We then assess the customers current IT capabilities so we can “meet them where they are at” to start the journey.
We refine the mission-focused roadmap into functional and technical blueprints showing the capabilities, activities, technology standards, and dependencies. Finally, we implement the plan using ARRAY’s Agile product transformation approach.
Your prediction on the “future of digital transformation strategies” – how are you planning for the future at ARRAY Information Technology?
Information technologies are evolving at an accelerating pace.
The confluence of cloud (including SaaS), microservices, containers, system integration, mobile computing, automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence create an environment ready for an explosion of IT-fueled technology advancement and productivity. If business owners fail to understand how fast technology and business digitization are advancing, and how it impacts competitive advantage, they will certainly fall behind their competitors, perhaps disruptively so.
The call to action could not be more urgent.
Mission owners need to lay the foundations of maximum digitization immediately. This means that they need digitize elements of their business that are still manual, improve the quality of their data, transform their processes to Agile and DevSecOps, strengthen cybersecurity, modernize their legacy systems into cloud-native microservices, and keep abreast of promising technology trends. To keep up with technology advances my team spends up to a quarter of their time learning and sharing new technologies that show promise for our customers.
An advice to every CIO / CISO in 2021:
I cannot stress strongly enough how significant creative destruction forces will be on businesses. Deliberately identify your mission competitive advantages for the next 5 years and take action to digitize this.
Start now, gain executive buy-in, develop and execute a digital transformation plan to aggressively transform your current IT capabilities into what you will need in 5 years. Your plan must be agile, so it flexes with changing business needs and embraces technology evolution. We will see an acceleration in the advances of IT technology, most significantly in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence, these must be accounted for in your plan.
Also Read: ITechnology Interview with Don Schuerman, CTO and Vice President of Product Marketing at Pegasystems
Tag a person from the industry whose answers you would like to read here:
Dr. Joe Besselman from the US Air Force Program Executive Office (PEO) Business and Enterprise Systems (BES). He has been a visionary and driving force to transform The US Air Force’s IT capabilities.
Thank you, Michael! That was fun and we hope to see you back on itechnologyseries.com soon.
[To participate in our interview series, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com]
Senior Executive and CTO proven highly-effective in the design and delivery of innovative, enterprise-class, ROI-driven technology solutions within an extensive, ~$300M annual, multiple program portfolio including a mission-critical $2+ billion program. Skilled in all phases of the project life cycle, from concept, initial feasibility analysis, estimation, trade analysis, through predictable implementation, measurable sustainment and on-going enhancement. Experienced in building highly-effective, team-centered operating units, with excellent communication, business, process and strategy skills. Customer-centric, disciplined and passionate with the ability to create, innovate, drive and achieve outstanding results.
ARRAY is an application service provider committed to optimizing mission performance. Founded on the principles of ethics, transparency and collaboration, we maintain our mission-focused principles while continuing to innovate and evolve our technical capabilities to solve challenges of increasing size and complexity. While our focus and application-centric capabilities are necessary building blocks for our success, our greatest asset is our people. Our team is made up of talented and enthusiastic professionals who are passionate about the mission they serve and have been frequently recognized for their achievements.
