Celebrating Women in Cloud: Charting the Route for Fellow Female Leaders By Kelly Browning

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The cloud has officially touched almost every aspect of the business: from infrastructure and AI to mobile workforces and social impact. We hear about major industry trends, technologies, and M&As, but what we don’t often hear about are the women in the workforce that are powering these technologies and organizations.

I’ve been working in the Cloud Computing community for the past 2.5 years and while the technology advancements and latest startups are constantly changing, one thing has remained the same: the amount of women in the industry who are highlighted is nowhere near their male counterparts who are touted as industry experts, thought leaders, and keynote speakers. Attend any tech conference or industry trade show and guaranteed it’ll be the one place you’ll ever go where the line for the women’s restroom is shorter than the men’s. Great for us at the time, but not as great for the overall industry in the long run.

So how do we address this ongoing issue? By coming together and sharing our stories, experiences, insights, expertise, and advice to lift each other up and give voice to those who wouldn’t otherwise be heard.

BrightTALK has done this by launching an online Women in Tech community where we’ve partnered with the Women in Cloud initiative to help provide a platform for these conversations. Since it’s inception in November 2016, we’ve grown the community to over 18,000 subscribers.

Check out some of the sessions hosted on BrightTALK here:

The Women in Cloud Summit is another fantastic way of addressing and closing the gap between female and male leaders in the industry. It’s a once-a-year opportunity to come together and hear from the top women in Cloud Computing on how they’ve gotten to where they are today and what both men and women can do for future generations of women in technology.

Whether you’re looking for a mentor/mentee relationship, how to stay ahead of the technology curve in this fourth industrial revolution, network with like-minded professionals or learn a new skillset, there’s something at the Women in Cloud Summit for everyone.

Register here to join us in January and play a key role in supporting the Women in Cloud community.

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Please connect with Kelly Browing to explore mutual opportunities!

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Women In Cloud Summit 2019: Save the date & call for speakers

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Welcome to the “Women In Cloud Annual Summit: Now we Accelerate!”
Women key drivers of economic growth. However, we continue to face substantial hurdles in accessing the resources needed to launch and grow businesses and careers. From addressing the financial inclusion gender gap in funding to providing women the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to reach their full potential, Women in Cloud in 2019 declares this is the year to ACCELERATE.

We are pleased to announce the Second Annual Summit, a one-day immersive experience on Jan26th, 2019 at the Microsoft Conference Center, Redmond Washington. This event is open to everyone.

This year’s summit is designed to connect you to cloud industry leaders, women-led cloud companies, intrapreneurs and allies of all types.

The 2019 Summit will explore:

  • Enabling New Innovations: Provide ways to leverage and adopt cloud technologies to innovate
  • Personal & Skill Growth: Give women access to personal and cloud-related skills development
  • Networking: Accelerate ideas and access to resources including strategic partnerships
  • Customer Connections: Identify new ways to acquire customers, understand the customer experience & drive customer obsession

As a past supporter of Women In Cloud experience and events, we wanted you to be the first to know! Please save the date and we look forward to seeing you there!

Step 1. ARE YOU READY TO ATTEND

  • Registrations are now open.
  • Grab your tickets and secure your 30% discount by Nov10th. Use Discount Code (WICEarly)
  • Secure your spot today and also consider sponsor D&I ticket.

Step 2. CALL FOR SPEAKERS

We are building a full day agenda of keynotes, breakouts, lightning talks and workshops in the areas of personal and business acceleration. Ready to submit a session? Apply to speak

Step3: DIVERSITY & INCLUSION SCHOLARSHIP TICKET 

Would your company like to provide an event ticket for one or more aspiring entrepreneurs or diverse young women growing their career? Are you a diverse emerging technical or entrepreneurial talent who’d like to apply for a D&I scholarship ticket?

Reach out here!

Step 4. PROMOTE & ENTER TO WIN $50 AMAZON GIFT CARD

Calling all social media champions!  We’d love your help to get the word out and invite your network of amazing women leaders and entrepreneurs.  By doing so you will be entered into a drawing to win a $50 Amazon e-gift card. No cost to enter and you can participate till Jan04th, 2019. You can enter either via an email address or facebook account.  Promote, Participate & Win!

Step 5. SPONSOR THE SUMMIT

Sponsors get amazing access to leaders, entrepreneurs, a potential job candidate, investors, community leaders and many more during the summit to connect. Learn more by downloading the sponsorship kit.

WHO IS WOMEN IN CLOUD

Women in Cloud is a community-led initiative supporting technology entrepreneurs who identify as women! Via private-public partnerships with innovative companies and leaders in tech, Women in Cloud creates access to partnership opportunities, programs that accelerate business growth in the cloud and strategic alliances that advance the success of women in tech. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter and our website at https://www.womenincloud.com/summit2019
Media Contact: Jacqueline Touma, [email protected]
Sponsorship Contact: Raisa Noelle; [email protected]
Speaker Contact: Chaitra Vedullapalli, [email protected]
##Press passes available, Press announcement

 

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Women in Cloud (WIC): Out and About, Driving Impact: September Roundup

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Image may contain: 5 people, including Chaitra Vedullapalli, people dancing, people on stage and text

September has been busy and amazing times for Women in Cloud community. As a board, we are driving forward on several fronts to continue outreach to develop on-going partnerships and driving access for Women leaders, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs.

On the heels of UN IdeaGen, Women in Cloud communicated participated as the delegation in some amazing Industry Events to help share learnings, drive awareness and action on developing business in the Cloud.

WIC at NewTech Northwest https://www.newtechnorthwest.com/

See the source image

Jacqueline Touma, a co-founder of Women in Cloud and CEO of her own start-up Curious Enterprises, spoke at the NewTech Eastside, Women in Tech Night at eBay in Bellevue Washington. She spoke about the WIC mission, the success of the initial WIC Accelerator companies and upcoming ways for women and male allies to get involved to support entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in businesses of all sizes.

A call for sponsors, speakers, and volunteers is going out for the upcoming Summit on January 26th in Redmond Washington. She spent time on the need for organizations like Women in Cloud, citing the disappointing statistics and trends lines that continue to persist and a call to action.

A key message she focused on was that “Working together, women with male allies are taking deliberate micro and macro steps to drive momentum and lasting change towards diversity, inclusion and economic growth, not only for Women themselves as individuals but for their communities locally and globally. We can enact real change and have seen it in less than a year when Women in Cloud was formed, with $50M in opportunities on the horizon coming from our WIC accelerator.”

WIC at Amazon-AWS, Women@Compute https://aws.amazon.com/

Image may contain: 7 people, including Yardley Ip Pohl, Sandy Carter and Chaitra Vedullapalli, people smiling, people standing

Sandy Carter, Corporate VP at Amazon hosted their quarterly Women @Compute, an internal event to help Amazonians to learn and explore new ways to engage in the community focused on digital transformation. Product management, Entreprenuership, Girls In Tech, Intrapreneurship and Customer Obsession was part of the conversation.

Chaitra Vedullapalli and Jacqueline Touma were invited to participate in Women@Compute at Amazon HQ in Seattle to help inform on what Women in Cloud were all about. Chaitra presented on the WIC mission of helping more female #entrepreneurs and women leaders’ access and gain more from Cloud business and technology opportunities.  She emphasized created right access to women entrepreneurs to build their business will have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.

In addition, Yardley Ip Pohl, the founder of Women in Product and Chief Product Officer at Thrive Global, presented a talk on Product Management Excellence and hosted a roundtable with AWS product managers.

We are committed to an industry-wide initiative to drive awareness and adoption leading Cloud-based technologies, programs, and resources for Women. AWS is a leader and critical influencer in the Cloud, dedicated to enabling Women entrepreneurs, technologists and leaders to drive business success.

WIC at 451 Research, Hosting & Cloud Transformation Summit https://451research-hcts.com/

451 Research each September hosts the premier forum for executives in the hosting, cloud, data center and managed services sector in Las Vegas, Nevada. The agenda is carefully crafted by 451 Research analysts and industry experts to provide timely, actionable insight into the competitive dynamics of innovation. The three-day schedule provides a plethora of networking opportunities and fosters industry-changing relationships.

Women in Cloud were invited to take part in the overall conference and a specific panel on Opening the Closed Loop: Increasing Diversity in Cloud.

Panelists included: Kelly Morgan Research Vice President – Infrastructure, 451 Research; Melanie Posey Research Vice President – Voice of the Enterprise, 451 Research; Chaitra Vedullapalli Chief Marketing Officer, Meylah & Co-Founder, Women in Cloud; Karen Fassio, Director of Marketing, Microsoft & Co-Founder Women in Cloud and Meg Ramsey Vice President – Cloud Services Product Management, SunGard AS.

The conversation focused on the immense opportunities of Cloud-based technologies and how unlocking access was critical for Women in technology to fully succeed. As Chaitra discussed ‘There is no opportunity with access to financing, business resources and mentorships to make it real. Citing 451 Research Insights on the status of VC funding, Women in the Corporate Boardrooms and Women Entrepreneurs, she surmised that only by ensuring this equitable access will create the right solutions in the market”

Karen Fassio added that “By connecting women, entrepreneurs with women mentors, with programs like Cloud Accelerators with access to corporations for co-sell and co-build opportunities is the right supportive environment where women in business can flourish’

Our sincere thanks… with more to come

The Women in Cloud community and the team are thankful to these organizations for the opportunity to speak and participate in these events and gatherings to further support Women in technology.

We will keep you in the know about more outreach events and partnership on the horizon. We invite you to learn more about Women in the Cloud and opportunities available to you, by visiting www.womenincloud.com and to connect with any of our board members.

Don’t forget to register for our Annual Summit on Jan. 26th, 2019 in Redmond Washington. More information coming soon!

Join us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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IdeaGen/United Nations Summit: Enabling Women To Access $1 Billion In Cloud Opportunities

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Women in Cloud, Microsoft, and UN through IdeaGen partner to drive economic empowerment for Women and Girls through Cloud-based technologies.
We live in a rapidly changing world. Technology is disrupting almost every aspect of our lives at breathtaking speeds. We are at the onset of a profound period of transformation all centered on the Cloud. Women in Cloud has partnered with IDEAGEN, Microsoft and the UN to advance gender equality and empowerment for Women & Girls by supporting economic empowerment through entrepreneurship and innovation.

UN General Assembly

The Cloud opportunity topples $1B and yet while 40% of all new businesses are started by Women only 5% of Technology Start-Ups are global.

We all the know the statistics far too well – 20% of C-Suite leaders are Women buy fewer than 3% are Women of Color, 2% of Women Tech Entrepreneurs access the Cloud Opportunity and only 1% or less are awarded corporate contracts.

Many studies findings highlight the benefits of diverse organizations in both growth and impact to overall growth and Country GDP. The path to these opportunities is not without challenges, but by working together we can better and more rapidly overcome.

Women in Cloud is wholly aligned to the UN and Microsoft Goals for closing the Gender Gap.

Gretchen O’Hara (Vice President, Go-To-Market Strategy, One Commercial Partner at Microsoft), Karen Fassio (Director of Marketing, World Wide Partner Group at Microsoft) and Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder & CMO, Meylah are part of a larger co-founding team for Women in Cloud (Carrie Francey, Wendy White, Linda Lowry and Jacqueline Touma).

This delegation at UN Idea Gen shared their stories, lessons and the focus of Women in Cloud in supporting diversity to drive innovation and disruption.

Women in Cloud Mission:
1. Provide and supporting access to customers, funding, and resources
2. Accelerate business through policies resources and readiness
3. Drive action to create innovative solutions, partnerships, and communities

Gretchen explains that for her this is about making a lasting impact and having the GRIT to see it through, “We cannot be competitive without Women, and we need diverse perspectives in business which drive innovation and disruption”.

As Chaitra adds, “Without access, you cannot create opportunities. With the help of Microsoft and the UN, we are thrilled to be able to support empowering Women and Girls to reach their goals and dreams for the benefit of themselves, their families, their communities and their countries”

That’s why we are here at United Nations Idea Gen, states Karen Fassio “to inspire Women & Girls to pursue careers in technology and to support them in their careers whether as entrepreneurs or as corporate leaders. This work, for me, is rooted in Microsoft’s broader mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Jill Angelo, a tech exec turned women’s health care advocate and CEO of Genneve recently graduated from the Women in Cloud Co-Sell/Co-Market Accelerator, sponsored by Microsoft. Jill represented the Women in Cloud delegation at UN IdeaGen. She is developing the first Women’s health solutions that use the power of AI and telehealth to empower women to take control of their health and well-being in the latter half of their lives. Plus Jacqueline O’Hara represented the need to bring more girls into the STEM.

Beyond UN Idea Gen, the Women in Cloud team host an Annual Summit (Jan. 26th,2019 Redmond WA) brings together women leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, community groups and public organizations, to provide access and the right environment for opportunities to thrive. A new Accelerator for 2019 will be announced shortly, along with a new event series and speaker participation in several communities leading events.

To learn more about Women in the Cloud and opportunities available to you, visit www.womenincloud.com and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Annual Summit Jan26th, 2019, learn more! Early Bird Discount ($30 off the retail). Use code “WICEarly”

 

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Top 10 Cloud Computing Vendors

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Enterprises, both big and small, are moving to the cloud for several technological and business advantages that it offers. Businesses are looking to move servers, storage, databases, software and more to the cloud to deliver computing services. According to a report, the value of the enterprise-cloud business is estimated to be a $20 trillion opportunity by 2025, and organizations are ready for industrial-strength deployments. It means a huge opportunity is up for the grabs. Capitalizing on this demand, several cloud computing vendors are offering cloud computing services which are easy to subscribe and come with a flexible pay-as-you-go billing options.

Here is a list of top 10 cloud computing vendors in 2018 who are changing the game with their excellent cloud computing platforms and services.

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1.     Microsoft

Microsoft’s top goals is to ensure high customer success rate by deploying technical expertise throughout the early cloud adoption cycle. Microsoft Corporate VP Gavriella Schuster highlights that over the next 5 years the company will create a $20-trillion cloud opportunity by framing new ways to engage with partners and customers and gain potential partners[3]. In 2018, Microsoft’s cloud business will reach more customers with tailored-fit solutions involving AI and IoT.

2.     Amazon

Amazon’s AWS has become a fast-growing cloud business beating IBM’s  $17 billion by revenue[4]. It is important to note that Amazon’s Web Services is undeniably successful, and AWS holds a major share of the company’s profits. Amazon ensures that customers can run their applications without worrying on server maintenance. AWS operates on thin e-commerce margins, and their operational model focuses on high-growth business.

3.     IBM

Under the excellent leadership of Ginni Rometty, IBM has transformed itself into a cloud giant with the state-of-the-art cloud and AI technology. The organization is boosting the 2018 Cloud growth with 1,900 Cloud patents and ultra-fast AI-optimized chip technology[5]. IBM Cloud helps clients apply data and AI to build smart enterprises. With cloud revenue now sharing 21% of IBM’s total revenue of $79.1 billion, the modern technology and market focus have enabled the company to excel in cloud, security and analytics[6].

4.     Salesforce

Customer obsession and customer success is Salesforce’s principle in the Enterprise Cloud business. The company’s CEO Marc Benioff has set a bold vision for the organization centered on digital transformation and customer commitment. The vastness of data about businesses and its customers provide Salesforce the key to extend its strategic relationships in the cloud industry.

5.     SAP

SAP’s cloud management has set customer success as the most important priority within the organization. The company ensures that the customer gets the requested product, and the cloud system would benefit even the customer’s customers.

6.     Oracle

Customer choice is at the forefront for Oracle when it comes to Enterprise Cloud business, and the company offers a wide range of software deployment—on-premises, cloud, and hybrid. Oracle Cloud Machine provides the flexibility for the regulated industries in terms of deployment time and maintenance[7]. Even Amazon runs on the Oracle Database, rather than its own RedShift database, which is a perfect example to why even the competitors run their business on Oracle.

7.     Google

Google has a lot of firepower, but not just clear enough to play in the Enterprise Cloud business level. As per the Q4 2017 earnings report, Google has gone behind by $15B in terms of cloud revenue. Now that Google Cloud Platform has set plans for 2018, it will be most interesting to see how it competes with the other Cloud Computing vendors.

8.     ServiceNow

The cloud computing company has shown incredible performance in terms of revenue over Q2 2017 – an increase of 40.2% to $478.5 million[8]. John Donahoe, CEO of ServiceNow, believes that focusing on the full customer lifecycle, right from post-sale till renewal holds the key to business value. The organization has started to actively leverage the wide and rapidly expanding network of partners.

9.     Workday

Workday has grown at a fast pace—subscription-revenue growth of more than 40% over the last 4 quarters, and is now all set to top $2 billion in cloud revenue[9]. The company offers HCM and Financials cloud services where it remains unexceptionally focused on growth, expansion, and customer success. The enterprise is also eagerly waiting to launch Workday Prism Analytics and Workday Cloud Platform which would set the stage to expand in the cloud market and become a more strategic supplier to businesses.

10. VMware

VMware, a leader in private cloud, has become a smart dealmaker with public-cloud giants like Microsoft, Amazon, IBM and Google. These partnerships have helped VMware to streamline and accelerate its customer’s journey to the cloud. The enterprise has always ensured that customers can easily operate a seamless and customized hybrid cloud.

As we can see, there is a good competition among the top players in the cloud computing space and what distinguishes them from each other is the way they focus on addressing varying customer needs.

The cloud computing vendors have realized that customer success is the key to excellence in enterprise cloud. Operating on the latest cloud technologies to revolutionize the data center and streamline the digital workspace has become necessary to achieve customer satisfaction. Focusing on the complete customer lifecycle is the success mantra for these cloud computing vendors, right from sales to subscription renewal.

 

[1] http://business.financialpost.com/technology/cio/a-1-trillon-opportunity-why-the-computing-cloud-business-will-keep-growing-and-growing

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsoft-sap-oracle-make-new-major-pledges-customer-success-evans/

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/22/microsoft-unleashes-new-cloud-growth-via-go-to-market-program-including-customers-as-partners/#6d5cbe1215c4

[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/26/amazon-to-become-1-in-cloud-computing-revenue-by-beating-ibms-17-billion/#4466795a6b3e

[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/16/ibm-fueling-2018-cloud-growth-with-1900-cloud-patents-plus-blazingly-fast-ai-optimized-chip/#38a8d75c84ac

[6] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/19/ibm-joins-microsoft-amazon-atop-cloud-world-booming-cloud-business-ends-long-revenue-decline/#48f9bb5349c4

[7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2017/12/18/the-top-10-reasons-why-oracle-and-its-cloud-business-are-in-great-shape/#2eaab0f3664d

[8] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2017/08/15/inside-servicenows-surge-how-its-become-the-most-innovative-saas-vendor-on-the-planet/#35566fa95b72

[9]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-workday-take-sap-oracle-its-clients-seem-think-so-bob-evans/

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