Cloud is very often understood as a set of mysterious technical capabilities. All the presentations at the event proved how important it is to change the perspective of existing views that comes to digital transformation. Our socioeconomic situation has changed dramatically, and in a similar way, we need to change our perspectives when solving business challenges. Marco Mäkinen, Chief Strategy Officer at TBWA, shared the trends for 2023. He reminded us that our business challenges are outcomes of the existing socio-economic context. To predict markets and make the right decisions – to stay ahead – we need to understand the latest shifts in culture. And the cultural complexity is growing rapidly. For example, cities around the world are being reimagined for an uncertain future.

At the same time, some structure to the uncertainty is coming through digital sovereignty. Wenche Karlstad, Head of Digital Sovereignty at Tietoevry, gave a presentation on the latest news from the EU (European Union) on digital sovereignty and the regulatory environment. Several proposals and regulations are pending regarding the handling of data between countries and within the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence). Tietoevry is actively taking part in the discussion in Brussels. "We are the voice of our Nordic customers in the EU," said Wenche Karlstad on the stage.

While cloud capabilities are only a set of tools, it is also bringing a lot of new possibilities to a faster and more innovative business and empowering cultural shifts. Markus Hongisto, Head of Google Cloud Finland, and Alberto Valero, Head of Technology and Growth, encouraged the audience to map the cloud capabilities to the right business requirements. They use the analogy of a traditional Finnish bun “korvapuusti”: Innovation supported by cloud is a little bit like Korvapuusti. We need not only to put ingredients together but also to match everything with the business requirements, and the cloud brings us ready “half-baked" solutions ready to accelerate consumption.

Markus Hongisto also reminded the audience to be bold: adapting to the cloud also means the ability to overcome challenges, allowing new ways of working and coping with uncertainty. Alberto Valero concurred and emphasized how through data and AI we can tackle rapid innovation needs.

As the cherry on top, we had an interactive panel discussion with the audience. Together with the audience, our panelists were discussing when cloud transformation is successful. When can we say that? Heli Segercrantz, Country Cloud Provider Manager, Finland & Baltics, at VMWare, reminded us that while cloud is only a vehicle to boost business in a similar manner digital transformation is successful only if the end users are satisfied. When the experience is good, the transformation has also been successful. Petteri Miinalainen, CIO (Chief Information Officer) at Fennia, shared his learnings from Fennia’s extensive cloud transformation in a very regulated environment and reminded the audience to make sure that the organization is ready for the change. Leading the change is as important as the transformation process itself. 

Alberto Valero’s visionary statement that we really don’t know yet what’s to come with the cloud – opportunities are limitless – concluded the fruitful discussion. He reminded us that we have started to use only part of the opportunities AI and machine learning bring for future-oriented business.

This is what we take with us from Tietoevry Tech Talks:

• We live in a constantly changing world that is shaped by trends and socio-economic changes. We can tackle rapid innovation needs with data and AI.
• Cooperation in ecosystems and strong trust between customers, partners, and suppliers are essential for success.
• Cloud strategies must be more than choosing a cloud platform - you must look up and focus on the needs and requirements of the business and make sure that the developers can turn those into action.
• Innovation occurs in hyper-scaler cloud services, but not all data can be placed in the core public cloud data centers. It, therefore, requires bringing the cloud where the data is created and stored, driven by the right choice of partners who can deliver national solutions with global capabilities.
• Digital sovereignty is not only about protecting data but also about having transparency about where and how the data is stored and under which legal control it is handled. This is important to balance security with innovation enabled by public cloud solutions.