AITP Chicago Virtual Meeting on Critical IT Trends and Their Impact on the Future

You’re Invited to an Informative Virtual Meeting.  (See Registration Link Below)

Topic:   A Perfect IT Storm:  And what it means for IT Professionals

A perfect storm is an event in which a rare combination of circumstances drastically aggravates the event.  2020-21 was a Perfect Storm for IT.

In addition to making many millions of Americans sick and over 500,000 deaths, Covid-19 also caused a massive movement to Cloud solutions.  WE began working from home; education went remote; on-line shopping and video streaming services increased; and we began going to Zoom meetings for work and with our friends and families.

At the same time, new technologies such as Blockchain, Machine Learning and IoT solutions entered mainstream and were rolled out in record numbers.

And if that were not enough, there were numerous large scale IT security incidents, such as the Solarwinds hack of U.S. government systems and ID Theft of legacy State Unemployment Systems.

Yes 2020-21 was not your typical year for IT. And yet we survived!  We Survived!

In tonight’s talk, Dr. Larry Dribin will explore the following areas that we as IT Professionals need to better understand so that we can better manage our future:

Security – with the increased system hacking and Identity Theft, IT will need to change its focus from one of “trust but verify” to one of “zero trust security”.  Fake News and Deep Fakes are becoming more prevalent and IT will need to develop solutions to combat these issues.

Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence – with the availability of large-scale Cloud based Machine Learning capabilities such as Google TensorFlow, new ML solutions being developed at a record pace, and IT will need to learn how to operationalize these solutions in a way that is repeatable as well as socially and legally acceptable.

Blockchain – is often discussed as a solution for many IT problems, but it is a complex technology that needs to be better understood by IT professionals before it can be successfully and economically deployed.

Cloud Solutions – as more IT solutions move to the Cloud and 5G rollouts, bandwidth, latency, and mobility will become more important and IT professionals will need to learn how to better manage Cloud Edge computing.

Hybrid Work – remote work will not be going away in the near future, and IT will need to develop new solutions to integrating in-person workers with remote distance workers.

Speaker:  Larry Dribin, Ph.D.

Larry is an independent consultant and educator who focuses on assisting clients maximize their business value through process improvement and measurement. He provides clients with thought leadership, solution design, technical expertise as well as executive coaching, and project/program management expertise. Larry enjoys applying his creativity and energy along with agile processes to help clients solve their toughest business problems.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Larry worked at Cap Gemini’s Sogeti Division where he led its IT Excellence Practice. Prior to Cap Gemini, Larry worked for Digital Equipment Corporation supporting Motorola, when Motorola was developing Six Sigma.  This experience taught him the value of metrics-based process improvement.

Larry is an adjunct instructor at DePaul University in Chicago, where he has taught Software Engineering, Agile Methods, Software Measurement, Project Management, and Quality Assurance classes.  Larry co-created the Cloud Computing program for DePaul’s Institute for Professional Development and has taught in this program since its inception in 2010.

Larry has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), an MBA in Marketing from Loyola University of Chicago and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from IIT.