‘Digital transformation is a journey that has no end’

Richard Tworek, CTO of Riverbed, discusses the challenge of applying AI to solve IT problems and the importance of protecting customer data.

Richard Tworek is the chief technology officer (CTO) at US IT company Riverbed, where he leads the product management, engineering and data science teams in building and enhancing the company’s AI-powered observability platform.

Recently, the company announced a series of updates to its platform, including an enhancement of its AIOps solution Riverbed IQ, and various automation capabilities.

Tworek has an extensive and varied career, spending five years in the US Navy followed by a number of executive roles including CTO positions at Infodata and Mitel.

Here, he talks to us about some of the top trends in his sector.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’re facing in the current IT landscape?

One of the biggest challenges in the industry is applying artificial intelligence (AI) as a co-pilot to help solve IT problems. People think that AI is the magic bullet, but it takes years of experience in machine learning and algorithms to identify what actually works.

Another challenge is that in the complex IT world a deluge of information exists, and managers are dealing with a multitude of networks and capabilities as more people work from anywhere. Alongside this, there are new security paradigms like zero trust and a range of hyperscalers to choose from which makes troubleshooting and having visibility over data more difficult.

Our approach offers unified observability for end-user experiences, infrastructure, networks, cloud, edge computing and applications. With the ability to integrate data sources into a single view, our platform makes it easy to deliver the actionable insights that keep IT running.

What are your thoughts on digital transformation in a broad sense within your industry?

‘Digital transformation’ has been a buzzword for over a decade, but the pandemic accelerated it dramatically. I expect the term to be used for years because it’s hard for a business to truly know when it’s digitally transformed and when to stop. But really, digital transformation is a journey that has no end so, instead, we need to focus on continuous improvements providing better digital experiences.

For example, we developed NPM+ that is deployed with our Riverbed Unified Agent to address a blind spot by getting information from the desktop that we could no longer receive from the data centre. We knew that we needed to adapt and have different selectable modules to help IT staff improve user experience at the endpoint and streamline management.

What big tech trends do you believe are changing the world and your industry specifically? Which of these trends are you most excited about and why?

One of the most exciting trends is the application of AI and how it can be used to help customers solve problems. It’s like having someone sitting on your shoulder as a co-pilot and saying “here is where you need to look”. The possibilities are endless.

What’s more, the sheer volume of data that is being produced and how we consume it in a way that makes sense will be one to watch. We’re no longer talking about terabytes but exabytes of data, and processing is challenging and takes lots of experience. It’s not a trivial topic but one we all need to take very seriously.

What are your thoughts on how we can address the security challenges currently facing your industry?

Ultimately, it’s all about protecting customer data. A lot of information is not being used properly in generative AI which is a huge security risk.

For instance, unfiltered access to personal data in training datasets can lead to the leakage of sensitive information through generated content, jeopardising privacy and confidentiality. That’s why information must be segmented and protected by technology, and not be used in the public domain unless clearly stated.

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